Project DESCRIPTION

The concept of ridesharing has evolved into a mainstream form of transportation for many commuters across the world. Numerous applications leverage this concept and provide ridesharing services at affordable prices. These services have acquired a driver’s user base that includes working professionals, travelers, students, and beyond. With such a broad user base, a need arises to cater to their diverse needs, but current ridesharing applications lack features that meet and anticipate such user requirements. Our team has identified additional user groups which we believe can benefit from an app that would meet their specific needs and offer a more personalized ride sharing experience. Below our team has identified three of our target user groups: 

Target users

1. Riders with Pets   2. Users with disabilities (e.g. wheelchair access)  3. Business Travelers with extra luggage

Research Participants

In all, our group gathered insights from 12 participants that included users with disabilities, pet owners and travelers with extra luggage. 

DEsign Challenge, Project Statement and target audience

Project Goals

Our Design Process

After dividing the project into sections. In the first section, we identified the critical pain points in the existing rideshare experience for diverse users. These insights helped us narrow down several problems we would like to research about the project and predictable ways people would approach the same aspect while using the RydePro. We started our research by conducting an in-person interview session with users who are disabled, pet owners and travelers with extra luggage to find out their experiences with rideshare services. In the second half of the project, we concentrated on user-testing and iterative techniques by trying to solve for a particular needs put forward. The research we did in the earlier phase helped us to have a nice segway into this phase easily. We were able to create an app with feature sets, that provide diverse user types with a personalized experience, and caters to their rideshare needs.

User problems

• I want to book my ride without worrying that the driver might cancel the ride at pick-up location because he can't accommodate my wheelchair, pet, or extra luggage.

• I don't want to call the driver and explain about my condition.

• I don't want to wait and book another ride if the driver cancels the ride after arriving at my pick-up location and seeing my condition. 

Interview Script

Affinity Diagram

Using Stormboard to analyze pain points of diverse users

User persona

Persona completed on Xtensio: https://app.xtensio.com/edit/9ghblyni

Research Findings

User Research Results

Sketching ideas 

Lo-Fi Prototype

Using Marvel POP Link: https://marvelapp.com/7ia0die

Key Insights

Testing the Mid-fi prototype

2nd Iteration using Axure RP: https://m1g9oj.axshare.com

User testing of mid-fi prototype

User Insights 

After testing Mid-Fi Prototype we addressed the insights and refine the solutions.

Project Impact

The RydePro project was done for my Capstone class project while attending DePaul University.  It was a great experience revisiting and applying all that we've learnded since we started the Human-Computer Interaction program. Also, this project allowed me to collaborate and work with an excellent team that understood the impact good research has on the design process.