Ryder is a carpooling app for suburban drivers with long commutes who are tired of paying for expensive car repairs and gas to get to work. Rider is transparent and focused on saving money by helping get from point A to point B as simply and cost effectively as possible via carpooling.
First and foremost, this project is the Capstone project from my eduction at BrainStation. The primary objective was to learn how to apply my understanding of the UX design process and create a digital solution to a problem we care about.
To start, I researched local problems that affect my social circle and how I could benefit the people round me. "If I could create an app to solve any problem for my friends, what would I make?"
Once I had an idea I created a timeline for the project to work within the 10 week deadline. I used the double diamond iterative framework or this project to consistantly keep on track.
To reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from commuters, people in Metro Vancouver need a way to reduce traffic overall and decrease congestion. thus, reducing the amount of drivers on the road.
HMW reduce the amount of drivers during high congestion traffic hours in Metro Vancouver in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from light-duty vehicles?
As of 2019, Rush hour drivers spend a whopping six days and five hours a year in traffic.
Which is equal to 73 episodes of Game of Thrones .
After COVID it is predicted that traffic volume, will most likely exceed pre-pandemic levels as confidence in taking transit recovers slowly, even as more people get vaccinated and return to the workplace.
As per a census in 2016. only 5% of commuters in Vancouver are passangers in vehicles. While 60% drive and 20% commute.
To gain more insight of my problem space and confirm my assumptions about Vancouverite commuters I conducted interviews with
👉 Folks who drive on their own with experience car-pooling.
👉 Folks who’s commute is longer than 30 minutes each way.
👉 Folks who live within the Lower Mainland
When reviewing my ‘how might we’ statement and assessing my experience map, I found that I was asking the wrong questions and not properly focusing on the problems of my users. The previous problem space focused too much on environmental factors that an app alone cant solve- So I re-assesed
I chose to take some time before writing my user stories to reevaluate the problem space and reconnect with my interviewees for more
in-depth insights.
After refocusing I wrote the following How Might We statement:
As per ICBC’s newest regulations auto insurance has skyrocketed, and the added carbon tax has made gas prices rise making commuting in BC is extremely expensive for young people.
These findings told me that people aren’t as bothered by traffic as I initially assumed. It is mainly a factor of trust, convenience and cost as oppose to my original determination that people would care about environmental factors most overall.
Based off of my research findings and insights, I created a summary of the information into a persona. Demetrius Maru symbolizes our users as an average.
From this point forward I thought of Demetrius consistently to make sure his needs are met:
👉 How would he feel in this situation?
👉 What does he need to keep going forward?
👉 What is getting in his way?
After birthing Demetrius into the world and getting to know him I wrote an experience map to better understand what his current routine is in the problem space, and how I can identify any problems in his routine.
After creating my experience map and reframing my HMW statement I got a clearer idea Demetrius's needs. I created a list of user stories that will lead the design for the apps task flow, then sorted them into epics to have a better idea of how to focus the initial prototype.
My thinking:
“What two things do I need this app to do for it to function at its most basic level.”
From there I used the epics and stories to inform my task flow so that I understand how many screens and actions are needed to use the app effectively and develop the app wireframes.
The main concern with users and driving is convenience and cost. Convenience is hard to express to users, and carpooling is not the most convenient option so I chose to focus on the cost. Value is placed everywhere but most noticeably, savings is mentioned several times throughout the task flow.
Another notable feature is the ‘swipe to confirm.’ This is meant to be a somewhat delightful and curious interaction that the user wouldn’t expect or find typical to give an extra moment to confirm they choice they are making when switching carpools.
To test the app I had 2 rounds of 4 individuals within the target audience for the app (real life Demetrius') try completing the task flow unassisted. Throughout the test, I asked questions about various copy, icons and if the flow as expected and how elements were predicted to function. The success rate was extremely high for both round of testing save for some technological difficulties.
I plotted any problems or fixes to be made on a prioritization matrix and adjusted the problems with the highest effect on the apps usability.
To create the appropriate visual identity for the application, I first had to take the information from the mid-fi critique and assess the user tests for their expectations for the concept.
👉 What information is the most important?
👉 What should the feel of the app be?
To find the appropriate look and feel, I first used inVision to create a visual identity mood board for the name and brand of the application.
After creating the mood board for the brand identity, I could properly visualize the look and feel of the app and move forward with identity development. Starting from sketches, to name iterations, and then iconic logo refinement
I knew quickly that I wanted to avoid the typical font facing car icon that is most commonly associated with carpooling or ride sharing services.
My concept ended up being the graph looking shape. It represents points on a map, and can also represent a graph related to money and savings.
After the brand was completed I used the brand colours and font to further develop the app itself into a high fidelity prototype, complete with images, copy, and animations.
To do this I took the mid-fi from CP2 and adjusted the entire projects to have a consistent grid and used the auto-layout function to make the app as accurately proportioned as possible to help create the UI library later in the process.
In order to market the app I created a prototype of the marketing site for Ryder. This project helped me to expand the brand assets from the UI library and understand the best way to communicate the benefits of Ryder to users.
As I started this project with iOS in mind, i thought it would be beneficial to think of how Demetrius would benefit by having access to the app features on his Apple Watch, he can see his income, expenses and receive messages from his contacts while on the go.
To further explore the future of Ryder, I used the "Tarot Cards of Tech" by Artefact to understand how the app would scale up with more users and potentially become an international product.
👉 What happens when 100 million people use your product?
👉 What would mass scale usage of your product reveal or cause?
👉 How might a community change if 80% of residents used your product?
👉 How could Habits and norms change?