Lyft - Adding a Feature
Background
On a family trip to Hawaii, I realized we had too much luggage to fit in our Lyft. We had requested an XL, but the car was still not large enough to accommodate us. This got me thinking about the user experience when choosing a car on Lyft, so I decided to dive deeper into it.
Problem
Currently, there are several options when requesting a car but, the passenger is extremely limited on the special requests. I aim to add a feature that allows the rider to customize their trip, increasing the ease of the app and expanding customer satisfaction.
Solution
A new feature for the existing Lyft app that lets the user customize their rider experience. After answering a few short questions Lyft will be able to more accurately choose a car. This feature will also improve the process of planning a future trip.
My Role
End-to-end UX & UI Designer
Timeline
80 Hours
Tools
Figma, Google Suite, Maze, Canva
Empathize
Secondary Research
During this phase in my process, I was under the assumption that riders would like to alert drivers of pets and extra luggage. I learned that UberPET has been around for years in some cities but has experienced a slow rollout. When it comes to the size of the car UberXL is an effective way of ordering a larger car to accommodate more people but there is no way to specify how many people you have. Vans are no longer approved for UberXL, vans are a top car when it comes to fitting many riders and their luggage. My final key takeaways were that Uber Security is buried in the app and Uber has more developed safety features than Lyft.
Survey At a Glance
18 participants
Majority aged 25-34
About 2/3 of the survey participants were women (12)
The majority of the people who took the survey lived in Reno (7)
Most people who took the survey access the internet on their mobile phones 77.8% (14)
How often do you use a rideshare service?
Have you had trouble fitting your luggage in the car?
Have you ever brought your pet in a rideshare car?
Key Takeaways
All of the participants use rideshare at least 1 - 5 times a year, with the majority using rideshare more than 16 times a year (7)
Most participants use Uber as it is more available in the city they live in
All of the participants have used rideshare to get to and from the airport (18)
Most users have no trouble fitting in a car but some do
Ease of app use and availability of a car are the top two reasons users choose one rideshare service over another one
The top two reasons users use a rideshare service are to get to or from the airport or to get home from a night out
Interviews
I did four 1-on-1 interviews with a range of rideshare users. My focus was to investigate the pain points of using a rideshare app and determine when users are most likely to use an app at all.
I learned pets were not a concern at all, this invalidated my earlier assumption and it was time to shift the focus of my project!
Findings
Luggage space is a concern for users
Users traveling with family and carrying a lot of luggage have experienced issues fitting into a car
Users traveling alone with oversized luggage such as golf clubs, have experienced issues
Safety is a major concern of users, much more so than the survey results showed
Pets are not a concern of rideshare users, and most have never used the “pet” feature available on Uber
Users are willing to wait longer for a car if they know it will match their needs, but not too long
The focus should be on extra space for luggage or safety concerns.
Define
User Persona
I created one user persona to cover both a person traveling alone without kids (perhaps for work) and a person traveling with their family. I used the persona to emphasize the pain points and needs I discovered through research. This created a visual for me to continue moving forward with the design.
Site Map
I created a site map to lay out the current organization of the Lyft app. It helped me to visualize where the added feature could be located within the current structure. The Lyft app is rather straight forward, with only three main navigation buttons on the bottom of the screen. Navigating the app is mostly done by clicking from one screen to the next during ride selection. The added feature will likely need to have the same click-through design to integrate it better into the existing app.
User Flows
User goes on Lyft to plan for a ride from the airport to the hotel with 4 passengers, 3 large bags, 2 medium bags, and 2 personal bags
I created two user flows with similar scenarios, the goal was to test how the new travel feature would work. The flows were able to show that there would be alternate paths to get to the travel feature, but would ultimately end in the same place.
Full User Flows
Design & Ideate
It Starts With a Sketch
The sketching process was interesting with Lyft, as I had to try to forget the current layout and design and start from scratch for the added feature but at the same time keep in mind how to integrate it into the existing design. The best way to go about this was to just keep sketching and try to come up with as many ideas as possible.
Wire Frames
My wireframes started out with a higher fidelity than usual for this project as the Lyft UI elements already exist. I found it harder to create black-and-white frames when the full UI elements were at my fingertips. I copied screenshots to help create the necessary screens and recreate the UI kit.
UI Kit
I created a page in my Figma file that contained the UI kit, this allowed me to easily apply design styles to the entire document
UI Assets
I created another frame on the UI Kit page that contained the assets I would use in my designs. This allowed me to create components with styles to be used throughout the design. Doing this early on streamlined the entire process.
Prototype
Creating Two Flows
I focused on two flows, both would access the new travel feature for Lyft. The first flow would be a family of four planning a trip for the future while the second flow would be a single traveler calling a car to the airport right now.
Test & Iterate
Unmoderated Usability Testing
Key Takeaways
I wanted to get a feel for how the 2 original flows were working so I created an unmoderated usability test using Maze. I had 11 total participants. I split the first flow into 2 sections to make it easier for the user and to determine the pain points more accurately.
Scenario 1: Your family (you, your partner, and your two young kids) are planning an upcoming trip. You have decided to use Lyft's new travel Feature to pre-book your ride to the airport.
A major pain point was discovered in locating the travel feature.
This could be due to people expecting to use Lyft as they normally would.
Scenario 3: You are a fitness instructor who has a business trip and is taking a Lyft to the airport. You will need to transport your oversized fitness machine as well as two bags
2 people said they would not utilize this feature as it would take too much time
Someone was confused about how this is different from Lyft right now (which is positive for an added feature)
There was confusion on selecting a car
Scenario 2: Your family (you, your partner, and your two young kids) are planning an upcoming trip. You have decided to use Lyft's new travel Feature to pre-book your ride to the airport.
A lot of the misclicks in this flow point to a problem with the flow itself more than the screens, I need to try and rework the flow to allow for alternate paths
People noted that they would use this feature if they had a lot of people or oversized luggage and this was easy to use
Moderated Tests are a must
In the moderated test the flows need to function a lot better and the story needs to be more detailed
People were generally confused by the use of the feature, and the information page did not ease the confusions
Think about the wording of “travel”
Make another flow that is from point A to point B
Work on how icons appear usable and when they shouldn’t (the on/off function)
Make sure that the choice of a car option makes sense, there should now be times on the scheduled cars (or it needs to be clear that the waiting times will vary based on the choices)
1st Iteration
I changed the information blurb across all screens to be more detailed, hoping to alleviate some of the confusion about the general function of the added feature.
Moderated Usability Testing
Key Takeaways / Next Steps
I conducted four moderated usability with participants aged 30 - 49. My main goal was to determine the pain points throughout the added feature. I was also interesting in learning how the UI design integrated with Lyft’s current platform. I conducted the test using the same two task flows as the unmoderated test.
Remove the skip button
Consider the car choices - currently, Lyft has it so you have one option when scheduling a ride
Consider how to present what the feature is in a more user-friendly way
Clickable info buttons
Smaller tidbits of information provided over the flow
Make sure the code entry is automatic and does not require you to click the purple button as this is something else
Create another flow so it is clear the airport is not the only use
Key Changes
The biggest change I made was how the feature was introduced. It started as a small info blurb, and then more text was added to clarify the new feature. This detracted from the user experience and I needed to redesign this key component. I separated the information across four screens, and while a user could easily click exit any time the call to action remains on continue.
Next Steps
Final Thoughts
I would work to simplify the car selection screen, I was trying to stay in line with current Lyft practices by allowing the user to choose the car at the end. My goal would be to find a new way to present the car selection process entirely. I would then work to get my design ready for hand off.
I really enjoyed creating a project that needed to align with a previously set UI design. It was both challenging and fun to work to create a feature that fits with Lyft’s current branding. It was an excellent learning experience to dive into User Research around Ride Share apps as this is almost a universal experience in the world at this time. I would love to continue to research and design apps that people are using on a daily basis.