The Indian Railway developed the Unreserved Ticket Booking App, but its user-friendliness is lacking, and the UI appears subpar.

Living in an Indian metropolis blessed with a suburban train network, much like Mumbai or Bangalore, often entails enduring the hassle of queuing up to purchase train tickets. Thankfully, the introduction of the UTS (Unreserved Ticketing System) by Indian Railways has offered a convenient solution in the form of a smartphone app, making online ticket booking a breeze.

The Indian Railways has introduced the ‘Unreserved Mobile Ticketing’ facility, also known as UTS on Mobile, making it possible to purchase unreserved train tickets online. This user-friendly app offers access to unreserved tickets across all railway zones and is compatible with Android, Windows, and iOS platforms. With options for both paperless and paper tickets, as well as online payment capabilities, travelers can easily secure their journey tickets through this app.

What sets the UTS app apart is its distinctive features:

Convenient Mobile Ticket Booking,

Online Payment and Wallet Options,

Valid for All Routes,

Accessible Ticket Display Without Internet Connectivity,

Prevention of Ticket Reuse through Screenshot Restrictions.

Sounds impressive, right?

However, my initial experience with the app revealed room for improvement in the user interface. Join me as we explore the journey of redesigning the UTS app to enhance the user experience.

While the app serves its purpose, it is evident that several aspects require improvement. These included, but were not limited to, the ticket booking process, the login and signup procedures, and the payment system. The user experience and visual design fell short of adhering to design principles, making it clear that a more refined design was essential to ensure a seamless and enjoyable user experience.

“How can we make the ticket booking process in the unreserved ticketing system app easy for users?”

The UTS app on the Play Store has been downloaded by more than 10 million people. Even though it has an outdated design, it’s the only authorized option for buying suburban tickets online. People have gotten used to its not-so-great design. However, for a better user experience, we need to refresh the design. Here are the main goals:

Create a user-friendly app that makes ticket booking easier and makes it easy for the user to navigate through the application.

Help increase ticket sales through the UTS app, reaching even more users.

To gather issues faced by users of the app, there’s no better place than Reddit to discover the daily challenges people encounter and their desires for improvement. Here are a few of those issues:

Unreserved tickets are your ticket to ride, available anytime and tailored to your specific journey route. They don’t tie you to a particular train or offer seat confirmations, making them ideal for spontaneous travel, like hopping on a suburban train. The UTS app is the official Indian Railways solution, empowering you to book these unreserved tickets effortlessly via your mobile device.

The UTS app’s primary goal is to revolutionise unreserved ticket booking across the vast Indian Railways network, liberating passengers from the tedium of waiting in long queues.

But that’s not all the UTS app also allows you to access your ticket offline, even without an internet connection, a valuable feature for traveler's on the go.

Digging into the research, consider this: The Mumbai suburban railway, spanning 390 kilometer's, operates a staggering 2,342 trains daily and serves a remarkable 7.5 million passengers. It’s one of the world’s busiest networks, with 80% of commuters using passes on regular days. Even with the remaining 20%, the wait times at ticket windows during peak hours used to hover around 20 minutes.

The UTS app stands alone as the sole authorised solution for booking suburban and unreserved tickets across the Indian Railways network. It covers everything from paperless and paper tickets to season and platform tickets, all accessible offline. Plus, the app’s security measures prevent ticket sharing by disallowing in-app screenshots.

Presently, unreserved tickets can be obtained through various channels:

Traditional ticket windows (offline)

Automated Ticket Vending Machines (ATVMs) or Coin-Operated ATVMs (offline)

Jan Sadharan Ticket Booking Sevaks (JTBS) counters (offline)

The UTS app (online)

Unlocking the convenience of unreserved travel has never been easier, thanks to the UTS app.

Throughout the design process, my focus has always been on putting the user at the center. It has been an enriching journey from beginning to end. I tackled challenges using a heuristic approach, continuously improving the experience.

Design, I’ve learned, is an ongoing refinement; there’s no such thing as a perfect solution. As I revisit my work, I can identify some imperfections, but I cannot deny the immense lessons I’ve gained from this journey. These lessons include:

Learning how to initiate problem-solving and arrive at valuable solutions.

Engaging in thorough exploratory research.

I maintained consistency in my user interfaces.

Mastering the art of decision-making was a pivotal lesson for me.