MVGO · Munich public transport

Which zone do I need?

I landed in Munich after a 20-hour flight and nearly bought the wrong train ticket.

Role: Concept · Product design
Timeline: 2026 (Q3)
Platform: iOS, MVGO app
Tools

The moment

I found the right app, picked up my bag and went down to the S-Bahn platform under the terminal. The train into the city was already waiting with its doors open.

The app asked me one thing I couldn’t answer: Area of validity. It showed a row of circles labelled M, then 1 to 12. There was no map and no hint about which zone the airport was in.

Munich prices public transport by zones. Whether you buy a single ticket or a day ticket, you pick the zones first. Locals know theirs. I had just landed.

If you buy too few zones, you’re riding without a valid ticket, and the fine is €60. If you buy too many, you overpay on every trip that day. With the doors open in front of me and 20 hours of travel behind me, I didn’t want to guess.

The app asked for knowledge I didn’t have, at the moment I had the least time to find it.

What went wrong

The MVGO Day Ticket screen with three numbered markers: on the Area of validity label, at the end of the row of numbered zone circles, and outside the screen, where a hand-drawn arrow leads out of the app. Zones M to 4 are selected. — The ticket screen, rebuilt, with the three problems marked.

The question uses the system’s language.

“Area of validity” is fare jargon. A visitor thinks in places: the hotel, Marienplatz, the stadium.

The zone picker has no geography.

Thirteen numbered circles read like a progress bar, not a map. Nothing says where zone 5 is or why you’d need it.

The answer lives outside the app.

To choose correctly you have to leave the purchase, find the zone map and come back, usually while the train is boarding.

Insight

Visitors know where they’re going. They don’t know which zone it’s in. So the app should ask for places and work out the zones itself.

Two ways to fix it

Both concepts use the same scenario: a first day in Munich with stops at Marienplatz, Olympiapark and the airport. The correct answer is zones M to 5, and the airport is what makes it tricky.

Concept A: Add places inline

The Day Ticket screen with By destination selected. Tapping the search field opens Add a place, Airport is typed, and Munich Airport is added from the results. Back on the ticket, three places are listed, the zone range runs from M to 5, a banner says zones M to 5 are selected, and the price rises from €9.70 to €17.80.

Entry point

The zone picker gets a “By destination” mode, with a search field for the places you’ll visit.

Add a place

Search by name, station or address. Every result shows its zone before you add it, up to 5 places.

Zones selected for you

The app sets the range M to 5 to cover every place and updates the price. You can still tap a zone to adjust it.

The fix happens right where the problem appears, and the original zone picker still works for people who know their zones.

Concept B: A live trip planner

A New to Munich? card opens Where are you going?, a screen with a ring map of the zones. Marienplatz, Olympiapark and Munich Airport are added one by one, each with a pin on the map. Adding the airport fills the rings up to zone 5, and the screen changes from Zone M at €9.70 to Zones M to 5 at €17.80. Tapping Use zones M to 5 returns to the ticket with the zones applied.

Entry point

A “New to Munich?” card invites visitors to plan by destination.

Plan your trip

You add a starting point and up to 5 stops. The ring map, the zones and the price update with each stop, and it calls out the trap right away: the airport is in zone 5, so a zone M ticket wouldn’t cover it.

Back to the ticket

The zones are applied, the price updates, and you can still edit the trip from the ticket.

It takes one extra screen, but it explains how the system works.

Comparing them

	A: Inline	B: Trip planner
Where it lives	Inside “Area of validity”	A separate step, opened from a card
Change to the current app	Small: one new mode	Small on the ticket screen, plus 1 new screen
Teaches the zone system	A little, through zone badges	Yes, through the ring map and the explanation
Best for	A visitor on the platform, short on time	A visitor planning the day at the hotel

Where it lives: A: Inside “Area of validity”; B: A separate step, opened from a card
Change to the current app: A: Small: one new mode; B: Small on the ticket screen, plus 1 new screen
Teaches the zone system: A: A little, through zone badges; B: Yes, through the ring map and the explanation
Best for: A: A visitor on the platform, short on time; B: A visitor planning the day at the hotel

My pick

I’d ship A first. It fixes the platform moment with the smallest change to the app, and people who know their zones keep the picker. B’s best parts, the zone explanation and the airport warning, could live inside A’s “Zones selected for you” banner as a “Why these zones?” link.

What I’d check next

Test it with real visitors.

Five first-time visitors at the airport station, measuring time to a valid ticket, wrong-zone purchases and how confident they felt.

Zone data.

Each place would map to its nearest stop’s zone. Stations on a zone border need a clear rule.

Edge cases.

Multi-day and group tickets, round trips, and trips that start outside zone M.

Language.

Show English and German names together, like Munich Airport / Flughafen München.

Notes to self

01Ask people for what they already know.
02A small fix still needs a real scenario. Using my own trip, with the airport as the trap, made every screen easier to judge.
03Keep the expert path. A better default for visitors shouldn’t slow down someone who knows they need M to 2.

This is a self-initiated concept, not affiliated with MVG or MVV. The zones and prices in the mockups are illustrative.

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