understanding trends

In order to add a feature that doesn't currently exist, I conducted a competitive analysis to look at how leading ride-hailing app competitors are succeeding and falling short. It was especially important to note what features each of the competitors provided for their users, as well as how they compared to Uber's performance and service offerings.
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Lyft is one of Uber's biggest competitors, but no other app treats surge pricing as an incentive for riders. Other ride hailing apps like Lyft handle surge pricing similarly to Uber, to the point where they are so similar that users treat them interchangeably when looking up ride pricing. Although features such as ride scheduling have become popular across many ride-hailing apps, surge maps for riders are not a concept yet.

what do users think?

To confirm that the hypothesized problem is indeed an issue, user interviews were conducted to have a better understanding of how users feel about surge pricing and how they deal with it. Most participants agreed they are frustrated with not having alternative travel options when rides are surging and that they would like to be able to walk for a discounted fare with the proposed feature.

5 participants in their mid-20s were were interviewed 1-on-1.
10 participants between the 20-30 years old were asked to share their thoughts through a survey.

who is the target audience?

To consolidate all of the users' needs, motivations, and frustrations, two personas were created to have a specific user in mind when creating this new feature, Uber Walk. It was important to keep two main types of users in mind when designing Uber Walk because of the different things people would need depending on the time of day - riders who tend to call Ubers during the day or as a part of their commute have different things to consider than riders who tend to call Ubers during late hours or after special events.

• Noah primarily calls Ubers during the day to travel between work locations with his coworkers and equipment
• Carrie mostly uses Uber as her mode of transportation late at night for safety reasons and at special events - she usually depends on Uber as her only mode of transportation unlike Noah, who uses it primarily out of convenience

mapping flows

Uber Walk's main goal is to give riders as much flexibility as possible with their travel during surge pricing. Uber Walk is incorporated into Uber's existing main task flow; calling an UberX.
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Before building out the wireframes, it was important to go through the current flow of calling an Uber to make sure the new walk feature would integrate seamlessly into the existing task flow.
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Detailed User Flow

key features and elements

The research informed a lot about what features would be needed to address the user frustrations. It was important to identify which features would be added based on both the competitive and user research.
These features were then implemented in Uber Walk's initial sketches and wireframes.

user interface

For the design, all elements followed Uber's existing UI kit. For new elements that needed to be designed, the interface was kept similar to Uber's design. The surge map was a new element that had to be designed, but was created with a similar heat map as the Uber graphics for the driver's side.

usability testing

After developing the product, it was important to put Uber Walk to the test with some usability testing.
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When conducting usability testing, 18 individuals said that Uber Walk was well organized and that it worked well with Uber’s existing app and interface. Users felt like most of the key features needed were present on Uber Walk’s screens, and overall they identified little to no major issues with the new feature.

For the issues that were brought up, users mentioned wanting even more ways to see prices and distances, whether it was a list or just more graphic representations of the information. Some users also felt that it might be hard to gauge distances on a map outside of a city. The last pain point, which was highlighting the selected walking regions on the map was actually implemented since the initial product, and was what was shown in the earlier screens.

next steps

Moving forward, the next steps for Uber Walk would be to make priority revisions based on the usability test feedback and to work with a developer to see what elements aren’t feasible.

Uber could also clarify how this new feature works to new and existing users. Though there are currently onboarding screens, Uber would also need to flesh out how this new feature would slightly change the experience on the driver side.

Having additional viewing options for pickup, walking trips, and surge areas was one of the main things brought up in the usability test feedback and it would helpful to address especially when considering how this feature would work outside of metropolitan areas.

And lastly, Uber would need to consider how this new feature could work together with other existing Uber features like Uber Pool and Uber Reserve - so, how would users be able to use this new walking feature when combined with ride sharing and when scheduling trips much further in advance?

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