# Gamified Transit Platform: product design case study Gamifying the Metro Commute to Make Greener Travel Rewarding. A live quiz that makes the metro ride the best part of the commute. By Krishnachandran Ramachandran (Kaezee), end-to-end product designer. Page: https://kaezee.com/work/quizt - **Product:** Quizt - **Role:** Lead UI/UX Designer - **Team:** 6 people - **Focus:** Engagement Design, Gamification - **Timeline:** 6+ months - **Platform:** Mobile app · live quiz - **Status:** Launched - **Domain:** Public transit · gamified commuting **TL;DR.** Cities spend billions on metros, and commuters still pick the cab. Quizt turns the ride into a live trivia game with mystery prizes, played in short rounds that fit any trip. In a three-month beta, cut short when COVID lockdowns stopped the rides, usage grew 64% and four in ten players brought a friend. --- ## Empty seats on a train the city paid billions for Cities spend billions on metro lines to cut emissions and traffic. Then commuters choose the more convenient ride. Each empty seat is lost fare, and one more commuter who stays in the habit of taking a cab. **What everyone else missed.** Transit apps do schedules and routes. Ride-hailing apps do rewards and engagement. Nobody asked the obvious question: what if the ride itself was the reward? *Figure: The commute today: a schedule, a route, and a phone full of scrolling.* **Who did what.** I led the design on a team of six. ### What riders told us My team spent 8 weeks riding the Metro at peak hours. We interviewed 60 riders, regular and occasional. We tried 3 competing apps. We timed every tap in real conditions: standing, seated, crowded, rush hour. The clearest pattern was that commuters wanted something to do. Peak hours were the hardest time to ask. Riders did not want to stop for a survey, so Reddit threads and community forums brought in more of the answers. *Figure: Affinity map: notes from 60 rider interviews and 8 weeks of ride-alongs, clustered into five themes* ### Four kinds of rider - **The Daily Grinder** 5 to 6 rides a week (figure: The Daily Grinder: a tired commuter in a shirt and tie, his ID badge on his chest) Wants the routine to run smoother. - **The Weekend Explorer** Rides for the city (figure: The Weekend Explorer: a smiling rider with a backpack and a camera round her neck) Wants the trip to mean something. - **The Eco-Conscious** Already chose the metro (figure: The Eco-Conscious: a rider in a headband holding a small potted plant in both hands) Wants credit for it. - **The Ride-Share Switcher** Our target (figure: The Ride-Share Switcher: a rider holding her phone in both hands, a cab showing in a callout) Needs a reason to change. #### The journey map, and the empathy map We mapped the trip for the Ride-Share Switcher, the rider we most needed to win over, phase by phase. *Figure: Journey map: the Ride-Share Switcher on a peak-hour ride, from weighing the cab to getting off* *Figure: Empathy map of the Ride-Share Switcher: what they say, think, do and feel on the metro, with their pains and gains* ## Ride smart. Quiz smart. Win smart. In one line, the idea was to turn dead commute time into a live competition. ### From MVP to what shipped Three builds, each tested on real rides. The obvious route was a classic game screen: a big play button with the menu around it. I took the home page the other way, towards an app you check between stops, with the next game on a card. From there the layout moved step by step into the reach of one thumb. *Figure: The layout in three stages, with the thumb zone for a right-handed, one-thumb grip (after Steven Hoober)* #### Decision 1: Trivia, because it fits the length of a ride. *The cost:* Trivia has none of the personal-progress pull of a fitness game. It lives or dies on fresh questions. - Why trivia · 1 **Anyone can play** Unlike fitness or location games, nobody is left out. - Why trivia · 2 **Short rounds** Get on at any stop and play the next round. - Why trivia · 3 **Worth bragging about** Winning is something you share. - Why trivia · 4 **You learn your city** Every question is about the place outside the window. *Figure: The home card before a game and when it is live* *Figure: The stop bar on the game screens* #### The six directions we tried before trivia Every idea had to pass four tests. Each of these stopped at one. *Figure: Six directions against four criteria, and what we did with each* #### Decision 2: Mystery prizes on a scratch card instead of a cash amount. *The cost:* Cash would have drawn prize hunters instead of metro riders. A mystery prize is also a harder thing to advertise than a rupee figure. A scratch card makes you wonder what you won, and the wondering brings people back. A prize code lasts 30 days, then it expires. A high-score game has one winner, so most riders stop trying. Quizt rewards at three levels: every round has a winner, the champion takes the grand prize, and every 10 rides earns a reward, win or not. *Figure: Who can win. Each tier is as wide as the riders it reaches* **Prizes came from partners, and partners wanted numbers first.** The metro company's backing opened the first doors: small vendors, close contacts, and mid-sized brands that wanted the promotion. Sales brought them in. *Figure: The scratch card, the milestone progress and the prize cards* #### Decision 3: Design for the carriage: high contrast, one thumb, one screen at a time. *The cost:* Keeping every main action in the lower third of the screen and every target at 48px leaves less room for the question itself. - Rule 1 **Contrast first** Dark cards with 2px ink frames on a teal field stay readable in harsh window light. One pink button per screen, so the next step cannot be missed. - Rule 2 **One thumb** Every main action sits in the lower third of the screen. Every target is at least 48px, for when the train lurches. - Rule 3 **One thing at a time** A 10-second countdown. The question. Four answers, A to D. The result, straight away. No tutorial, no menu. *Figure: A question with the answer locked in* Every colour has one job, so a glance tells you what a thing is. *Figure: Every colour has one job: the Quizt palette, each job on an ink tile* #### A contrast check How the colours hold up on the ink card. *Figure: Every colour passes AA. The pink button, at 6.9:1, stops just short of AAA* #### Decision 4: Tell players how fast they were, and where that put them. *The cost:* Honest feedback is harsher on slow players. The practice mode is there to soften it. A round ends with "Lightning Fast! You won in 1.8s" or "Close Call". You see your time (2.4s), your rank (32) and the winner's time (1.3s). "Lightning Fast!" beats "Correct!" because it respects skill and gives you something to chase. Early versions said it in plain text, "You won", and a few cheesier lines. Sticker lettering made the moment stand out. *Figure: Round results: won and missed* ### The game, moment by moment *Figure: Get Ready, then the question From the countdown to the last second of a round.* *Figure: A round won The moment itself, with confetti.* *Figure: The avatar maker Skin tone, hair, facial hair, accessories and clothing, one tab at a time.* ## More rides, and friends brought along Quizt ran for three months, until COVID lockdowns stopped the rides. It was a small beta, with a steady 40 to 60 players in the launch month, so read these numbers as an early signal from a small group. - **64%** More usage over the three months it ran - **3.2** Quizzes per journey, on average - **40%** Of players referred a friend Winning is better with witnesses The "Share your win" button turned a personal win into something to show off. I used to dread my commute. Now I actually look forward to the metro ride. Yesterday I beat 47 people and won ₹150 cashback. **A beta tester** Beta programme *Figure: Sharing a win, and the stats on the Results tab* What came back Every report in those three months was a bug, and none was a UX problem. ## Some assumptions had edge cases - Learned **Everyone wins, but not the same prize** A short rider can still win a round, and the scratch card that comes with it. The grand prize goes to the champion after the last round, and only a long ride lasts that long. - Next time **A live QR code on the platform** The code on the ticket was easy: every ticket is printed, so each code is used once. A code on the platform would have to keep changing, so we set it aside. It is still the only idea that ties the game to being at the station. - Next time **A lighter game for everyone else** People off the metro could play for smaller rewards. It brings new players in without taking prizes away from riders.