An easy way to travel with your pets
About the Project
Overview
This project started out an exercise to understand Uber and find out the possibilities of adding or optimizing features within the app. I was asked to conduct tear-downs and usability tests to find out the pain points faced by the users and come up with effective ways to find a solution.
My Role
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Conducting teardowns
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Performing competitive analysis
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User Interviews and usability tests
With the information from research, I synthesized the data and with the important features, I made sketches, wireframes and a prototype of the design idea, conducting user researches and iterating as required.
Timeline
4 weeks
Defining the Problem:
After conducting initial interviews and usability tests, I realized that pet owners in particular find it difficult to use the app for taking their pets along.
The Process
THE PROBLEM
UBER currently allows pets to be taken along with a rider, only at the discretion of the Uber Driver. How can we create a feature within Uber, which eliminates the uncertainty of getting matched with a non pet-friendly driver as against a pet-friendly one.
THE SOLUTION
This can be solved by creating a feature in Uber which allows pet-owners to enjoy a hassle free ride with their pets by informing the driver about their pets while they book the ride. This will help the drivers have an option to know what kind of pet to expect. We will know this is true when pet-owners complete rides with their pets with no cancellations or uncertainty for both drivers and riders.
MY DESIGN PROCESS
Competitive Analysis
The first step was to understand the market of ride-sharing apps to which Uber is a part of . I listed down the closest competitors of Uber in the ride sharing market - the direct competitors; and the general taxi booking and car pooling services available- the indirect competitors.
Conducting Usability Tests
Research purpose
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To start off the user research, I gave my users a list of tasks and observed them while they completed the tasks to understand the pain points during the process. The purpose of this test was to understand the below questions:
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1. Are the users able to login easily and intuitively?
2. Are the users able to book a cab to their required destination without struggling?
Conducting user interviews
Research purpose
I conducted user interviews to find out:
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What are the pain points of the user while using the Uber App?
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What users feel are lacking in the app to complete their trip successfully?
Targeted users
5 regular users who use Uber or other ride sharing apps (ranging from daily to once a month)
Key findings
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3 users who had pets expressed that the process of taking their pet in an uber is not clearly defined. Currently they have to call the Uber driver after booking the ride and explain. Then there is a confusion as to who should cancel the ride if the driver disagrees to accommodate for the pet.
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2 users suggested that in case they were traveling with big bags, they would like to enter number of luggages in the app while they are traveling, so that the app would recommend the car size and there would be no confusion at the pickup.
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2 users suggested that they would like to have an easier way to contact driver or customer care for ‘Lost and Found’ in case they had left their belongings behind during the ride.
Based on the research, I found that the process for pet owners to ride along with their pet was filled with uncertainty and involved lot of cancellations and rebooking.
User Flow to ride with pet - Current Situation
User Surveys
Research purpose
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Are users satisfied with the current process of riding with the pet?
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Is this insight generalizable to a larger population?
Target Users:
Responses:
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70 pet owners
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Who have taken a ride with their pets
Based on the outcome, I understood that pet-owners are indeed facing a problem while riding with their pets in Uber.
DEFINING THE PERSONA
I created a user persona to represent a user group of pet owners who face similar problems. This helped me to get a clear idea of the user’s expectations and how they would like to use the product.
EXPLORING IDEAS
Initial Sketches:
CREATING WIREFRAMES AND WIREFLOWS
After sketching out some initial ideas, I created the wireframes considering Uber design guidelines. I used these wireframes to conduct another round of usability testing to check if pet-owners are able to understand the flow and book a pet friendly ride easily.
Usability Testing
Participants: 5 pet owners from various demographic profiles and ages
KEY LEARNINGS:
Observation
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1. Users were not able to find the pet-friendly cab option easily.
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2. Users had questions about things to carry with them while riding with the pet.
Interpretation
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1. The lack of introduction of the feature within the app made it difficult for the user to locate the pet friendly feature.
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2. The app should mention details like things to carry and be aware of while using the pet-friendly feature
Iterating and UI Design
Based on the research information received from the Usability test, I reworked on the wireframes and incorporated the changes. I added the visual design elements based on Uber design guidelines to the wireframes to create the below screens:
