OBJECTIVE
To design the map/bike selection + payment screens for a dockless (can be found across the city) bike rental app.
OUR USER
Tourists and locals in San Francisco
GOAL
Display information and pricing for different bike types
Single bikes
Tandem bikes
Electric bikes
Map displaying bike locations
User should be able to view the bikes, select one, and then purchase using credit card
Map displaying bike locations
Users should be able to view bikes, select one, and then purchase using a credit card.
RESEARCH
Benetting for the competitive analysis on similar bike-rental services such as LimeBike, Mobike, Ofo, Spin, Bird, etc.,
I've done some digging to discover the user and higher overall bike-sharing app experience. Mainly, I was interested in discovering pain-points that made those experiences less-than-perfect, to find out what could be done differently.
What people were saying:
"I was really excited to use the scooter but because the app refuses to save my card info, it refuses to let me use anything
"I don't want to store my credit card on your site! Why isn't Paypal or Google Wallet a payment option?"
"Careful of the billing currency. I entered a US Visa as payment to ride a scooter in Florida and was billed in Canadian funds on my card. I got dinged twice on the exchange rate when I shouldn't have at all".
"Why does it cost $1 for 30 minutes in the US but $3 for 10 minutes in Sweden?"
"Too bad, I barely unlocked it, it didn't work. So the time I locked it, took around 48 seconds I got charged for a ride”
MY FINDINGS
It seems that some of the biggest concerns that are expressed through comments on bike-sharing apps are
Some experience difficulty locating a bike or the specific type of bike and actually finding it when they arrive at the location.
There's a lot of confusion with money, currency and language selection. The app wouldn't take into consideration the difference of currency that varies from country to country.
SAFETY ISSUES (Damaged bikes are frustrating and dangerous.
It's too expensive to pay-per- ride.
Some have trust issues with storing their credit card.
Problems defined
These are representations of the most common problems that users are facing:
Reservation Problem
"A lot of gas and wasted time going to pick up a bike and someone already got it"
Maintenance/ Bike Safety Problem
“The scooters are gone (breaks are not working...), difficulty to find the location of the bicycles and scooters, and poorly maintained"
"Riding an electric scooter in an area where the streets are not flat is extremely dangerous.."
Language Problem
"There is a bug in the language unicode.I can't understand anything. The user must be able to change the language on the first page..."
"Whenever I download this app the language is in Arabic"
Credit Card Problem
"I don't want to store my credit card on your site! Why isn't Paypal or Google Wallet a payment option?"
Price Problem
"It's super cool to ride them but the only way I give 4 stars because of high price"
Billing Currency Problem
"Careful of the billing currency, I entered a US Visa as payment to ride a scooter in Florida and was billed in Canadian funds on my card. I got dinged twice on the exchange rate when I shouldn't have at all"
"I still can't top up my account in local currency. I'm in Poland and I want to top up in PLN, not Pounds worth 5x more..."
The city of San Francisco
What do we know about the city of San Francisco besides the hippie movement history and beautiful landscape that's relevant to improving the bike rental app experience?
Lots of steep hills
Homelessness problem:
Crime (violent Crime rate projection: 749 per 100,000 residents. Property crime rate projection: 5,851 per 100,000 residents)
Drug use (As of October 20018, over 7,500 complains about discarded needles have been made, compared to just 132 a decade ago)
The mentioned factors raise a couple of concerns for the bike riders:
Safety concern due to high crime that is more condensed in some areas than others. If by accident our tourist passes through those areas, there's a big chance he'll get robbed, etc...
Safety concerns caused by a damaged bike + steep hills. When the hills are as steep as in SF, a broken or poorly maintained bike could be a serious problem and lead to a potentially deadly accident: If our tourist would go down the steep hill in the busy downtown (like California st.) and suddenly the brakes shot down... There are many busy intersections on the way down, so the consequences could be horrific.
SOLUTION BRAINSTORMING
View available bikes: view all or narrow the search by selecting one type - single \bikes, tandem bikes or electric bikes. This way the map screen will be less cluttered and easier to navigate.
Display the mechanical (or other) issues with a bike by including the reporting system: Rider who detects some mechanical problems with a bike he/she just rode would be able to leave a comment on the overall well-being of the bike. This way, the rider will
Warn others about the problem
Prevent an accident from happening
Help the company to react and eliminate the problem quicker and get better at keeping up with maintenance of bikes.
Reservation system: If one locates the bike that's within 10 min or so walking distance, he'll be able to reserve it to make sure no one takes it before he arrives at the location. If one exceeds the given time, the bike will, once again, be up for grabs.
Changing Language "switch" should be always accessible. Not all tourists speak English.
Currency needs to be explained in a transparent way: An international tourist should be able to easily find the information about the local currency and bike prices compared to other countries etc.
High Crime Areas: Include the option to display areas that are better to avoid - high crime areas, and possibly show warning signals as the tourist approaches or about to enter the undesired part of town. As the person is looking for a bike, I'd give an option to not show bikes in undesired areas. This option could prevent robbery or other unpleasant situations.
For people who find it too expensive to pay-per-ride, I'd offer the option to prepay on a week/month/ or year basis. This will make it more predictable and comfortable for those users.
Besides just a credit or debit card, I'd also offer other payment options such as PayPal, Google Wallet, etc. A lot of people are more comfortable paying with PayPal for the identity protection reason. For some, Google Wallet is easier. The more options are left, the more people's needs are met.
Have options for storing / not storing credit card info (To accommodate different trust levels): Stored credentials in the app for the fast and easy pay process. Not stored in the app -for users who are extremely protective over their sensitive information and prefer not to store their card at all.
SOLUTION
Overall User Journey:
CHOOSING the bike type
LOCATING/VIEWING bikes
SELECTING a bike and DISPLAYING the information about it.
RESERVING and NAVIGATING to the bike's location.
PAYING / ADDING PAYMENT METHOD
1. VIEW/ LOCATE.
The Flow For Locating The Bike...
Choose type of bike to search (top) (As an example, I chose the ELECTRIC BIKE),
The price options for the selected bike type would be displayed at the bottom (left)
The price display can be closed to get a better view of the map (right)
Map and List display of bikes' location in proximity to the user
Solution To Avoiding Crime Areas When Searching For Bikes
The check-box on the top left allows to show bikes that are NOT located in high crime areas.
Solution To Language Selection Accessibility Problem
Since there were a lot of complaints about the accessibility of the language preference, I figured that it should be always within reach. I placed it right on top (right corner)
2.SELECT
Solution To Bike's Maintenance - Safety Problem
Having a review system by riders for riders, one can openly see the basic information about selected bike's "well-being" and, therefore, avoid unwanted situations (such as dying battery, flat tires, broken brakes, etc..). I prioritized the information to display about selected bikes and came up with the following solution.
As the bike is selected, the pop-up screen will appear, containing:
Bike number
Battery life (crucial)
Mechanical well-being of the bike (based on reviews of previous riders) Option to reserve the bike (to make sure no one else takes it before user's arrival)
Option to navigate to the bike's location.
Solution To The Bike Reservation
As many riders have mentioned, it's frustrating to spend time and energy getting to the location and not find the bike there because it was taken by somebody else. It seems logical that there should be a reservation system which will allow riders to reserve a bike and have a reasonable, but limited amount of time, enough to commute to the given location. (in this example: 10 minute time limit).
Select - Reserve - Navigate To The Bike ...
Select the bike
Reserve (optional)
Navigate to the bike's location (optional) Check "Avoid high crime areas" if the user doesn't want the app to show bikes that are not in safe areas.
See the timer (bottom): Time left to walk. Time left till bike reservation expires.
Once the bike's found, let the app know to continue to the next step
Select-Reserve-Navigate to the bike
3.PAY
User Flow For Payment Method Input Process:
Solution To Overpaying For Frequent Single Rides
A lot of people who rent bikes frequently, find it expensive to pay on hourly basis. I offered following choices (besides Pay-Per-Ride) to accommodate user needs:
Prepaid passes on a weekly/monthly/annually basis.
Solution To Time Consuming Payment Method Typing In Process
To make this process quicker, riders can have an option to scan the card instead of typing.
Solution To Storing Card Info Issues
To accommodate both, people who don't mind storing their card info, and people who do, I’ve introduced an option to save the card info for future convenience or use it only once.
Solution To Billing Currency Problem
I placed a checkbox as an option to pay in local currency (in case someone is visiting from another country and doesn't want to overpay due to difference in currency). The checkbox will only appear if the rider's country (billing address) appears to be different from where he's attempting to rent a bike. (In this example, it's Canada)
Confirming the payment method, and moving forward…
In the perfect world of an infinite amount of time to work on a how would I improve this app?
Nothing should be standing in the way of one enjoying the wonderful happy moments in life such as traveling, exploring the new city, and riding a bike. Bike-renting app should be as seamlessly helpful, supportive, and flawless, as the tail wind blowing the biker towards new horizons. Aiming for that flawless experience, I would complete the entire bike-renting flow from locating, selecting, paying, and unlocking the bike, to creating the riding journey, commenting and parking / locking the bike.
Some of the main key points that I can see myself improving if given more time:
Include payment methods such as PayPal, Google Pay, etc.. This way, different payment method preferences could be accommodated.
Since language preference and money currency are a big part of travelers' experience, (as it appears, it hasn't always been smooth for everyone), I would definitely analyze this matter more thoroughly and think of more solutions.
I would work on interactivity of the app: I'd create a way for groups of friends to be able to connect and interact with one another within the app. For instance: friends, who use the same bike rental app at the same time would be able to see one another on an interactive map, would be able to communicate, and meet/ gather at desired destinations, etc..
I would also include the ability to purchase a gift of bike riding - a prepaid bike pass.
I would make sure that when navigating in the city such as San Francisco, tourists would be able to avoid steep hills (great for riders who are not in perfect shape).