Uber Safety: Add A Feature
Uber Safety feature is the first of its kind in the app to file a detailed incident report in a ridesharing app. The feature itself took into account user research from participants about their last 6 months using ridesharing apps and how the company could improve baseline safety and rebuild trust with customers who had a bad experience.
Timeline: 4 weeks
Role: end-to-end UX/UI designer
The Problem
Ridesharing apps have always had issues with bad drivers, whether that entails reckless driving, unprofessionalism, or in rare cases theft and other illegal activity. With minimal ways to hold drivers accountable beyond a star rating system, I set off to gather insight from individuals about how to fix this problem.
Target Group
Individuals living in the US
Who has used a ridesharing app in the past 6 months
Primarily women and non-male identifying genders
The Solution
Create a robust reporting system with accountability beyond the normal star rating system. A feature that could add an extra layer of safety and security to riders.
Business Goals
Keep users from churning from the app itself
Keep users to continuing using the app
Have users use the feature successfully and help waiver out bad drivers from the system
User Goals
Be safer on a ride
Feel secure and safe in the application itself
Feel heard from the company about issues that arise from bad driving experiences
Competitor Analysis
Main competitors:
SWOT Analysis:
Strengths:
has the upper hand when it comes to competing with uber as they came second and could learn from Uber's mistakes
subscription model to compete with uber
ride pickup
fare estimation
Weaknesses:
Opportunities:
their app seems clunky
I believe their branding identity still feels like they’re second to Uber
long rides or driver retention
their product seems to keep evolving with time as new features roll out and whatnot
different modes of transport (bike, motorcycle etc)
Threats:
they need to create a feature to stand out in their market
inability to change or flex
Strengths:
cabify seems to have a strong hold on the European market which pivots them to make more and more ground against companies like lyft and Uber
they seem to have a big resource team that is seperated into customer/business/driver divisions
Weaknesses:
Opportunities:
their ui design seems clunky
expanding services beyond just car services
they might be a smaller company and in turn lack the available resources
on the business end since they are allowing businesses to pay on their end of a schedule instead of upfront
their marketing, language, color palette and overall design are friendly!
different modes of transport (scooter, bike, motorcycle etc)
utilizing the business side is an innovation
Threats:
they need to create a feature to stand out in their market
EU and brexit
I’d like to explore how often people report incident in ridesharing apps and how we can streamline the process and give a bigger piece of mind to riders.
How often do you feel like you should of reported or could of reported what happened in your Uber to the company? (reckless driving, inappropriate comments, etc)
3 Main Features & Changes
I’d like to explore the ways people would like to report incidents and what key information they would want to put into this report, which would help narrow down the incident report data.
If you could add anything to give Uber more information about what happened during a bad ride what would you include?
I’d like to explore any prior experience people have had reporting bad driving or any kind of incident to gain further insight into how we can revamp the process.
How would you describe the process of reporting an incident in the Uber app?
The Research
Interviews
4 people were interviewed, and all genders were represented equally.
All interviews took place online via Zoom & via surveys sent out.
The goals of the interview was to gain more insight into the qualitative side of the research by prodding User’s pain points on bad ridesharing experiences.
Insights
Most participants used the app Uber 1-5 times a month.
Most participants rated feeling safe often with the driving of their Uber.
Most participants rarely felt like their driver was distracted on the road.
Most participants rarely feel uncomfortable in their Uber rides.
Most participants rarely report what incidents happen in their Uber.
Most participants rated processing an incident easy in the Uber app.
Low Fidelity Wireframes
Affinity Map
User Flow
Personas
Mid-Fidelity Wireframes
Uber Homepage
Trip in progress: Report Button
Uber Ride Safety Report
Trip In Progress Dot Bar Report Button
High-Fidelity Wireframes
Uber Ride Safety Settings
Reporting Page with contact details and personal case representative
Usability Testing
I reached out to 5 participants from the first batch of research & asked them to test the main flow:
Reporting
Participants finished these flows in a 15-minute google meet call
Feedback
Participant Feedback
All participants completed the flow
most participants found this flow useful as an after-report
most participants wanted the popup submitted slide as a whole new screen instead of a window
feedback from a group critique found that the representative contact should be removed due to potential stakeholder feedback
Actionable Items
Remove the representative contact
change the popup window as a new screen
Final Result based on the feedback
Thoughts behind the design:
I wanted to provide the design to be used not only during a ride for safety reasons but also before the ride so users can add their emergency contacts into the app so the user flow is overall quick and easy to use in situations people don’t feel comfortable.
Key Takeaways
What I would have done differently:
The safety feature spoke to me personally as my friends and I experienced this while using ridesharing apps.
I felt like the actual software behind the Uber app definitely could use more of a robust overhaul as there aren’t enough safety features to use in the app itself but rather to set up in the settings feature. Leading users to not use them in actual dangerous or uncomfortable situations.
Personal Aspect:
The safety feature spoke to me personally as my friends and I experienced this while using ridesharing apps.
I felt like the actual software behind the Uber app definitely could use more of a robust overhaul as there aren’t enough safety features to use in the app itself but rather to set up in the settings feature. Leading users to not use them in actual dangerous or uncomfortable situations.
Stakeholder Management:
Stakeholder management came up many times during this project as my mentor and I talked about current company resources. I wanted to implement this feature with the goal in mind that you speak to an actual representative or human to go through what happened to better square away any issues. This eventually fell through after discussions about current company resources and how I didn’t want to add another cost to the company but rather try to save the company some money with this feature.