Carpool World
Project Overview
The owners of the product - Carpoolworld.com came to Rutgers with a problem stating that they wanted to better design their product to increase user retention rate and create increased user engagement online.
Carpoolworld helps match users for their transporting needs. It matches drivers and carpoolers based on source and destination as well as has corporate collaborations to enable easier transportation for employees to and from work.
My Contribution
UX Research, UX Design
Note to add: I did independently work on this after the semester to enhance some features, deliverables and add more design elements to the project.
Team Members
Pooja Gurudatt - UX Designer, Researcher, Tester
John Reda - UX Designer, Researcher, Tester
Brittany Norwicki - UX Designer, Researcher, Tester
Timeline
3 months [June 2018 - August 2018]
The Problem Statement
The clients wanted to revamp their web application and also provide a mobile centric experience for their corporate clients. They pressed on the need to collect user data seamlessly, retain their customers and also provide value via great user experience.
Revamp website
Mobile UX
Collect Data
Retain Users
The Objective
Research existing product, conduct UX research not only for users but also their clients, strategize how to attain business goals using UX best practices by providing a prototype.
I aimed to reduce redundancy, streamline booking process, increase user signups and rate of re-entry.
Design Process
Discovery
Research
Ideate
Design
Test
Features & Solutions
1. Discovery - Stakeholder Interviews
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They have collabs with corporations to get employees to carpool to and from work
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Website is very old and needs to be updated
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They provided us with a mobile wireframe to refer and improvise designs
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Are there any government incentives we can utilize?
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Need to translate web app to mobile
Revamp website
Mobile UX
Collect Data
Retain Users
2. Research
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12 users interviewed, surveys, talked to
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Investigated online for why people carpool
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Mapped out a competitor and SWOT analysis
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Conducted heuristics on existing site to uncover issues with usability and how to solve them
User Survey
User Interview
Internet Research
Heuristic Analysis
Mobile UX
2. Research - User Survey
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12 participants (as of june 2018) to google forms survey
- 75% never carpool
- 53% women and arrive stressed to work
- 60% prefer carpool > public transport
12 participants
75% never carpool
53% women
60% prefer pooling
2. Research - User Interviews
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Social Anxiety was biggest barrier to talk online
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Surveys on webapp were too lengthy for users
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Most prefer using their mobile for all needs
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Cost was the biggest factor for carpooling
2. Research - Internet Research Insights
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The US Government gives its carpoolers tax benefits!
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Companies have priority parking for employees who carpool
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Driving on HOV lanes during rush hour is a great perk
2. Research - Heuristic Analysis
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CTA not on landing page
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Ambiguity during user signup process
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Information not organized and presentable
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Webapp not mobile friendly
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Irrelevant data being displayed and confusing users
3. Ideate
Lots of data, research points and information gathering was done to go to Ideation stage of the journey. On a tight schedule of 3 months and zero spend budget, we had to think of how to ideate and execute this project successfully.
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Conducted brainstorming session with team
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Defined design ideas and categorized them on priority
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Debated about if we should design for web or mobile only?
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Wondered how to measure KPIs with short timeline?
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Ideated user journey from start to end of product use
Brainstorming
Priority Map
User flow
3. Ideate - Brainstorming
I did the whiteboard design challenge method to generate as many design ideas as possible. I came up with quite a few ideas that were implemented as well. We will see more on that as we explore.
3. Ideate - Priority Mapping
Taking into consideration the time restraints, resources restraint and business needs and user priorities, I mapped out the design ideas into what we can and cant do. I used the priority map to help focus on what is the need of the hour.
Top takeaways from this exercise
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Users want shorter onboarding
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Need clear CTA on landing page
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Translate the web app into mobile
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Remove user poll fatigue
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Structure the flow and information clearly
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Encourage users to submit data easily
3. Ideate - User Flow
The user flow was defined based on user journey and based on research and data collected previously. I wanted to keep the web app flow and mobile app flow similar.
4. Design
My favorite part of the journey has to be the design phase. We were on a tight schedule of 3 months to present our design ideas and I thought having a prototype will be best to communicate these features to stakeholders.
Focus on onboarding users effectively and quickly, increase signups and create more user centric features. Also help business by enabling data collection.
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Starting with drawing rough sketches using 8 box method
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Sharing and collaborating with team to select the most impactful designs.
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Wireframing the solutions for mobile first designs
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Creating a prototype to communicate idealogies
Sketching
Wireframing
Prototyping
4. Design - Sketches
I quickly dove right into sketching to put my thoughts onto paper. I considered the 8 grid box method to sketch out my designs.
Box1 : Starting situation.
Box 8: Ending results.
I then filled in the rest of the boxes with different actions for different stages of user journey.
4. Design - Wireframes
I initially used marvel app online to wireframe but decided to use miro and figma later on to create more cohesive and quicker wireframes. Click the right arrow in the carousel below to see zoomed in frames.
4. Design - Prototype
I decided to use any basic available design system online (in this case, I decided to use Material UI) and stick to black and white (mostly neutral) color scheme to better communicate how these designs will benefit not only users but also the business eventually.
Initially used marvel apps to design but later switched to Figma as it was quicker and easier.
5.Testing
Once the wireframes were produced and we could make it into a clickable prototype, usability testing was done to get real time feedback and observe how users interact with the system.
Moderated
A/B Testing
5.Testing - Takeaways
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Users preferred the flow on webapp more but wanted to use mobile
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Direct CTA was a hit and improved task completion rate
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100% users would now try to carpool if they have this service available to them
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Users wanted to have the feature to create advance trips and book rides
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One click survey increased user data collection by 100%
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90% users completed tasks successfully
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User confused by CTA button wording on landing - We must change to non-commitment language instead.
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There is no need to re-invent the wheel, but just enhance it
Outcomes
Successfully translated our designs into a working prototype and handed off to the founders. Here is what happened next!
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We helped Carpool world save over 1 million $ USD in YOY expenses!!
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Ideas were immediately implemented into webapp
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Mobile app is being built by developers.