Building better bike routes using crowd-sourced data
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Prototype walkthrough
Overview
Outcomes
Established visual style and designed new features that were implemented by developers, resulting in 2300+ app store downloads within first month
Team
4 developers, 3 marketers, 1 designer (me!)
Role
Led both the visual and interaction design efforts as the sole designer
Context
Pointz is a micro-mobility app using crowdsourced data to route safer routes.
How Pointz works
Where Pointz was
- Already launched a MVP and beta-testing with 300+ users
- Still in the raising stage with upcoming official launch in January
Where I came in
- Analyzed the current experience
- Talked with cofounders to decide upon branding direction
- Conducted user research to figure out directions for new features and test existing ideas
Challenge
How might we design a rider feedback loop?
Pointz’s model relies on the feedback provided by users to calibrate routes - so how do we make it easy for riders to leave feedback?
Considerations for designing a user feedback loop
Before the ride
How can riders assess the route?
Safest vs fastest
- Showing safest route by default
- Being able to toggle between safest and fastest and overview routes before making decision
- Being able to preview time taken, distance, estimated time of arrival
How do we utilize rider feedback?
Road Ratings
- Road ratings show how bike-friendly certain roads are using reviews collected from riders
- Visualizing information through color-coding for bike friendliness
- Ability to see emojis for roads as well after certain level of zoom for more accessibility
During the ride
What problems do riders run into?
Initially I focused on rating the road after the ride. However after talking to stakeholders, I realized we had to take into consideration the reliability of the reviews (rating roads purely after the ride will compromise accuracy) and the backend logic.
Being able to rate route section by section
Prompting to review only if overall ride rating is less than perfect
Taking into mind stakeholder feedback, as well as safety and convenience of users, I began designing and testing ways for users to leave feedback during the ride. I conducted testing with 3 users.
Receiving feedback on designs during user testing session
Key Insights
- Users driven by desire to help other riders
- Users willing to review roads while riding if it was safe enough
How to provide accurate feedback without compromising safety?
Flagging issues
- Can choose whether to initiate feedback at any point
- Dismiss button that will automatically time out after 5s
- Large buttons for common problems
- Being able to add details once the ride is over
After the ride
How can riders leave feedback on their rides?
Reviewing flagged roads
- Auto-populating with anything they report during ride
- Making it more obvious that issue details were optional
- Adding progress bars to show how many flags were left to review
- Having ability to skip sections if they do not remember
Takeaways
Through this project, I learnt the importance of being able to communicate and advocate for design decisions with stakeholders. Given more time, I would have explored using visual cues to convey information about routes and jot the memory of riders.
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