Uber Idle Time Notifications - UX Case Study

About the Project

Online taxi booking is now common. Most of us often use taxis for work, going to the airport, meeting friends, or spending time with family. Apps like Uber make it easy to book a taxi. With more people wanting rides, it now takes longer to get one, leading to many ride-hailing apps competing in the market. We often use different apps to quickly confirm a ride for work.

Have you ever waited a long time to decide, then switched to a different app or mode of transport? How often did you forget to cancel the original request? Sound familiar?

This project aims at highlighting how common this problem is and how it can be solved.

Research

I took insights from a pool of 50 people. These people came from various backgrounds, professions and cities. They were asked how often they book cabs using mobile apps. About 64% of the people use these apps quite frequently, as the graph below shows.

How frequently do people use mobile apps for booking cabs

(0 - Not very frequently, 5 - Very frequently)

My next question was about which apps they use. The most common result was Uber. Hence I have used their user interface in my solutioning.

Which apps do you use for cab booking

In my follow-up question, I inquired if these users used several apps consecutively when booking a cab. Surprisingly, many people reported doing this, as indicated in the data below.

Do you use multiple apps consecutively while booking a cab?

Out of these, about 45% users reported to be always using this method to reduce waiting time, while 34% users claimed to be doing this but not everytime.

Describing the problem

Suppose you requested a ride on one of these applications. The long waiting time made you switch to another application, or perhaps another mode of transport. In doing so, you forgot to cancel the original request,

Can you relate to this scenario? If yes, how commonly?

The findings in this section surprised me. Around 25% of users said they never encountered this situation, but the rest mentioned experiencing it frequently or at least once.

Pain Points

You’re now probably asking, SO WHAT? I know. These uncancelled requests, if confirmed can lead to the following issues =

  • Platform levying penalties for late cancellations.

  • Drivers travelling long distances, only to find that the rider has cancelled.

  • During that time, drivers are occupied and can't pick up other requests.

The Solution

The big idea is to create a single platform where you can request rides from all apps at once, but that's a big challenge. A simpler solution I'm suggesting is to use push notifications to remind users about their ride request and update them on its current status.

Iteration 1

I started out with a simple, informative push notification. This will serve as just a reminder for the user. They may open the app if they wish to act on it.

However, there is a significant probability of overlooking this notification, given its potential confusion with a marketing message or promotional offer.

Iteration 2

This time, I thoughtfully composed the message and included actionable buttons in the notification, making it easier for the user to decide if they want to continue.

The drawback is that this design could cause users to cancel requests easily from notifications, which may not be ideal for business goals. This led me to play around with the cancel CTA a little, making it disabled initially to prevent mis clicks and activated after a few seconds.

Iteration 3 (The Final Solution)

What I believed the above two messages lacked was giving users the control about their request. Both the above iterations above highlight the delay in the request rather than asking the users if they wanted to continue directly. This absence of direct user involvement in the decision-making process was bothering me.

This version directly asked users if they wanted to continue, acting as a gentle but effective reminder that their request is still in the queue, without the necessity of including a cancel button, aligning perfectly with the intended objective.

Impact

According to the research findings, approximately 60% of users tend to book cabs in the price range of 200 to 400 INR. This practice may lead to additional cancellation fees ranging from 20 to 40 INR, added to the frustration experienced by the drivers. On another note, the average cost involved in sending push notifications in India is estimated to be around 0.83 INR.

It is crucial to consider the timing and frequency of these notifications as they directly impact the overall expenses associated with this essential feature. Despite appearing insignificant, incorporating this functionality into the app could prove to be highly beneficial.

How much do you usually pay for cab rides?

Wrapping up

As an experienced professional, I learn a lot from understanding how users behave in each project. This is often more valuable than just focusing on the design. This was also true in the current situation; many stats were more common than expected.

I would love to hear your feedback/suggestions on this (if any)


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