Explore cities in a smart way
UBER CITY TOUR
The smart way to travel
A CITY TOUR feature within UBER that provides efficient
multi-destination sight-seeing routes for travelers
OVERVIEW
HOW IT STARTED
-
My husband and I love traveling to new cities. We try our best to plan out an itinerary for our entire trip.
-
We often use Uber to commute, since this solves navigation and parking problems.
-
This gave rise to the idea as to how we might create a solution by creating a new feature within Uber for a traveler to tour efficiently in a new city.
MY ROLE
-
UX Designer
-
UI Designer
-
Interaction Designer
-
User Researcher
MY TEAM
-
Visual Designer
-
User Researcher
THE FRUSTRATION
Most travel apps don't provide efficient route suggestions, taking traffic & distance into consideration for traveling from one attraction to another.
TIMELINE
-
4 weeks
TOOLS USED
-
Sketch
-
Invision
PROPOSED SOLUTION
A feature which helps travelers select from a list of multi-destinational predefined trips which is then optimized by Uber to create the shortest route.
THE PROBLEM
Based on our research we observed that travelers lack an app which helps them plan an efficient multi-destination site seeing ride to explore new cities
WHY UBER?
Uber has its presence in 60 COUNTRIES & 400 CITIES WORLDWIDE.
Using this application and their services would help travelers use this feature in multiple cities and destinations.
MY DESIGN PROCESS
.png)
USER RESEARCH
For research, we interviewed several users, conducted surveys and user testing to identify their needs and factors that influence their trip planning decisions.
USER INTERVIEWS
RESEARCH QUESTIONS:
We interviewed 5 users who traveled frequently (once in 3 months). The purpose of research was to find out:
-
What kind of tools do they use before and during the trip?
-
What are their pain points before and during the trip?
-
What features do travelers prefer to see in a riding app?
-
Do they wish to have a new app to download for this purpose?
"Uber is easy to use and lets us be flexible. But it doesn't help in planning in advance."
WHAT I LEARNED : COMMON PAIN POINTS
-
The user must do their research and note down all the places they want to visit
-
They must figure out the optimum multi-destination route on their own
-
They must individually book rides from one destination to the other
WHAT I DID WITH IT:
-
User Interviews helped us understand the habits and behaviors of travelers when they are visiting a new city
-
It helped us understand the pain points and important criteria for to use for further quantitative analysis
SURVEYS
Based on the important criterias identified during interviews, we conducted surveys. This helped us understand preferences and pain points of majority of the users. The Survey was sent to 18 users.
KEY FINDINGS:
7 (70%)
Comfort
Cost
Privacy
Flexibility
WHAT I LEARNED :
-
We found out that 70% of the users preferred Uber.
-
They also preferred to spend minimum for traveling, while flexibility and comfort being their top priorities.
-
Their common struggles : (60%) Finding things to do and (50%) scheduling the order in which they wanted to visit attractions.
WHAT I DID WITH IT:
-
Based on the survey results, we could focus on prioritizing the use cases and defining features. This helped us understand user expectations and preferences.
COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS
We performed competitive analysis to determine the strengths and weaknesses of the competitors within the market and to provide better features and experiences to the travelers .
.png)
INSIGHTS: It helped us understand what important features other competitors have and some lack. It guided us to think about how Uber can fill this gap.
USER PERSONA
We created a user persona to represent a user group who face similar problems. This helped us to get a clear idea of the user’s expectations and how they would like to use the product.
The easiest and fastest is the best - Sonia & Tim
CHALLENGES
Showing estimated cost to the riders for chosen route.
Suggesting route options based on time duration selected by rider
Adding a feature without disturbing the current working model of Uber.
Working within Uber Design Guidelines
EXPLORING FEATURE IDEAS
While brainstorming, we jotted down name options, type of routes, various features, all possible use cases and scenarios. The purpose of this activity was to diverge and explore many options and features to find best potential solutions.
CONSTRAINTS
1. Users hesitate to sign up to a new app
2. Users do not want to spend lot of time on research
3. Users do not like plans which cannot be customized
REQUIREMENTS
1. Existing mobile App
2. Route optimization
3. Enable travelers to select from a list of attractions
4. Complete tasks with less number of clicks
5. See reviews of attractions
KEY FEATURES
On the basis of our user research and also keeping our persona in mind, we decided to implement the following features, to address all the key pain points.
STORYBOARDING:
Creating a storyboard helped us decide the use case, whose functionality was most suitable for the persona.
DISCOVERY:
Sonia and Tim arrive in a new city with limited planning. They happened to hear about the new Uber - City Tour feature.
USE:
Since they already had the app, they could easily get started and plan their route within the city.
Uber
CITY TOUR
SUCCESS:
It helped them save time and cost while being flexible, since they could customize their route on the go.
Uber
CITY TOUR
USER FLOW
INITIAL SKETCHES
WIREFLOWS
ITERATIONS
HOW WE PICKED UP BEST SOLUTIONS
1 Where to place the City Tour button
A/B VERSIONS TESTING
We came up with 2 screens to introduce the City Tour feature button and could not mutually agree on the final design to proceed with. We concluded it would be best to test with users.
We decided to conduct an AB testing to find the winner version.
Users:
-
5 users to start the usability testing with Version A
-
5 different users to start the usability testing with version B
-
Users who travel frequently (once in 6 months) and use Uber regularly
Statistics show that Version A - Floating button was the winner
Predictability - Users found it intuitively without struggling. They were able to predict that this would navigate to the new feature
Consistency - User's felt it was naturally placed in the app and consistent with their design
2. Popular Routes vs Build Your Own Route
USABILITY TESTING AND INTERVIEWS
WHAT WE LEARNED
During Usability Tests and User Interviews we found that:
-
8/10 users clicked on Preplanned Popular routes
-
They wanted trip planning made easier
-
They said they would want to use an app to minimize their planning time
WHAT WE DID WITH IT
Based on this finding, we decided to
-
Keep Preplanned route as the main feature and make it customizable as required
-
Remove 'Build your own' feature as targeted users find it to be time consuming and defeating the purpose of the app
USER TESTING & INSIGHTS
ITERATIONS - OLD VS NEW
We performed multiple rounds of testing, getting feedbacks and iterating at each level. Below are some of the key screens which underwent various changes.
THE PROTOTYPE
We started designing the high fidelity prototype for the user interface by following the design guidelines of the Uber App. We made sure we used the fonts and colors mentioned in their guidelines.
GETTING STARTED:
Once the user is on the Home page and taps the floating City tour button, the current city is seen as default. Here they can view and select popular cities which are tourist destinations. By confirming they city, they can see the pre-made routes within that city.
CUSTOMIZING YOUR ROUTE WHEN REQUIRED:
The users may enter the time they have in hand to spend in that city by taping on 'Change Duration'. Now they can view a list of popular routes based on their selection or the can create a route from scratch by selecting "Build Your Own" option. The user can see a preview by clicking on the information tool tip. The can click on edit route if they wish to modify the route.
PREVIEW AND BOOK RIDE:
Users can add destination to the routes. Once happy with the route, they can select type of ride and book as usual. The bottom screen can be swiped up while on ride to view and modify the remaining destinations.
VIDEO OF THE HI - FIDELITY PROTOTYPE
CONCLUSION
TOP LEARNINGS FROM THE PROJECT:
-
We were aiming to fit the sightseeing feature into the current working model of Uber. Our initial idea was to have a designated Uber Driver take the rider around the city. Here, we faced the problem of waiting charges making it uneconomical for the driver and the rider. We achieved the current design after scrapping multiple wire-flows, starting from scratch and also changing the feature name several times.
-
While adding Visual Design to the user interface of the high fidelity prototype we had to sure make to follow the design guidelines of the Uber App. We made sure we used the fonts and colors mentioned in their guidelines.
-
This being a group project, I benefited greatly from discussing ideas with other team mates, as it ensured not only more ideas flowed out but also gave me people who could point out problems that were usually not seen by the ourselves. I understood that one should DARE to disagree and with that comes the best solutions for the user
-
Our initial user research showed that users like complete flexibility, while this holds true, after doing usability tests, we got feedback from users saying that need something ready-made, with freedom to customize. So we had redesign the wire-flows to include modifiable templates- preplanned routes.