CASE STUDY:
Ride - Creating an experience to compare rideshare services pricing and availability
Summary
While there are many applications available to connect riders to drivers, there aren’t any features to directly compare each platform’s pricing, wait time, and driver rating.
With this gap in visibility, I created an application to allow users to bridge that gap to save time, money and have a better rideshare booking experience.
My Role
Dedicated product designer creating an experience around comparing pricing and availability of different rideshare platforms. Responsibilities and roles include:
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User Research
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Research synthesis
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Competitive analysis
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Wireframing
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Prototyping
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User testing
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Mobile App design
Problem
Rideshare users have a variety of applications they can use, with different expectations of each. Users need a quick way to compare the different platforms pricing, arrival times, and driver ratings.
Solution
With the time allotted for this project, I decided on a traditional waterfall approach to my solution. I started with a research phase, collected data from both surveys and user interviews, and synthesized that into a report and affinity diagrams. These diagrams showcased why riders use rideshare services, how they choose the service they use, how they navigate that experience, when and why they might choose another option, and what their motivations are for the decisions they make (i.e. pricing, reliability, reputation, rewards, etc.). I also collected information about what their current pain points are for the product they use as well as the pain points when they use another product, while comparing those services.
Once I collected and synthesized this data, I started my definition and ideation phase. I started by creating personas based on my initial findings. From there I selected red routes and happy paths to create user flows. With user flows created, I created sketches, crazy-8s, solution sketches, and storyboards around my first red route, which was the ride selection flow.
The next step was to create wireframes. I created lo-fi wireframes for my initial round of user testing. The next round of testing, which was guerilla testing, was conducted with mid-fi wireframes. The last round of my testing on this project was with hi-fi wireframes, so users would have a feel for how the launched product would look and interact. I created full prototypes for each round of testing.
The testing phase of my process included 3 rounds of testing, as mentioned above. The first round of testing was conducted over Zoom with 5 participants recruited from past surveys, each given a number of tasks. I collected my findings from these surveys and created a research report. The next round of testing was conducted in the form of guerilla testing. I visited a local coffee shop where users were recruited with a cup of coffee. Each user was given a prototype on an iPhone and asked to complete some tasks and talk me through their thoughts during their experience while using the app. After the last round of testing, which was another moderated usability test, a SUS survey was conducted with each tester.
Outcome
This project is not a finished product, but there is ongoing work happening. Some of the things I have learned from this process so far are:
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Things move much faster than you think they will
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If this were to go to development, I would not have done this in a waterfall process and adapted my process to more of an agile format. This would be to account for development, QA, and release schedules and adhering to product roadmaps.
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Test, test, and test again
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In the end, you are always designing experiences for your users. Making a more enjoyable and easier-to-use experience is our job as UX designers. We don’t always know everything about our users or how they interact with products, which is why it is so important to get their feedback and test your theories and hypotheses.
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