Whist visiting the stations some time was spent sitting with each member of staff and learning about their different roles and responsibilities, as well as watching what they did on a day to day basis. “Jobs to be done” styled questions were asked to understand the processes they already had in place, from their entrance into the work place to running and managing the trains day-to-day. We also looked and how they used the current software offerings. From this a large amount of knowledge was gained about how a station is run, the pains that the operator face both in the physical running of the platforms and the use of current software, and unmet needs that could be addressed in our product.

One point that was made by all users was the absolute necessity of the map, but delving deeper into why this might be it became obvious that this was more of a habitual need, and as long as signals were represented in some way, to understand how far a train was from a station, a solution might be found without the use of a map. This was the next challenge, and would need to be re-tested.

Using the insight gained from the first round of user testing, a new design was created, which included parts from the original that were universally liked by the users, an a whole new way to look at the way trains were represented, without the use of a map.
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Still designs were put before stake holders and senior station operation staff at a rail conference, for them to comment on, and a prototype and walk through video was created, showcasing all the features of the MVP.