Project Overview

Bird is passionate about vibrant communities that have less traffic, cleaner air, and safer streets. They are working with cities and universities across the world to provide new transportation options, complement public transit systems, and invest in safety infrastructure that benefits everyone. A loved transportation tool among city dwellers and students, Bird believes transportation can bring you joy—and be a force for good. They design every one of their vehicles with performance and sustainability in mind.

Tools

Figma, Photoshop, Maze

Role

UX Designer

Project Duration

2 weeks

High-Level Design Goals & Objectives

Designing a feature that provides route guidance when traveling to their destination

Key Features

Add start / end destination and get estimate time of arrival
Guidance for routes with bike lanes or scooter friendly roads
Ability to add a stop along your route

Empathize

Research Goal

With the electric scooter rental market experiencing rapid change, the goal is to provide insights into the evolving landscape, key competitor, and demand factors.

Methodologies

Competitive Market Research
- Bird and numerous other scooter and bike sharing apps all look relatively the same
- To start any of the app to ride an electric scooter or bike simply reserve or walk up. And to unlock, scan the QR code located on the handlebars or the baseboard using the app

Scooter rental companies have shifted the focus away from fighting new regulations and toward cooperation with cities on new rules due to riders breaking traffic laws, cluttering sidewalks, and scooter-related injuries. Some cities are regulating the use to ensure safety, equal access, and to assess the impact of scooters on traffic and each city’s transportation infrastructure.

Route Guidance Market Research Findings
- Creates driving directions to multiple locations
  + Capability to provide different options to the user when it adds several locations
  + These capabilities are available both online and on mobile apps.
- There is a rise of exercise-specific applications like Strava and Komoot over transport-focused ones like Google Maps.
- Since February, there’s been a 69% increase in searches for cycling directions, with the all-time peak in June.
  Thanks to COVID-19, there’s been a swell in pop-up bike lanes or enhancements to existing cycling infrastructure. Whether from local governments installing new lanes, or the bike industry stepping up to support new riders, or tech giants rolling out updates to mapping software.
User 1-on-1 Interview Research Findings
- Use scooter for convenience
  + less than a mile distance
  + hard to find close public transportation
  + hard to find parking
- Use scooter for touring new cities or neighborhoods
- Use map app to navigate through unfamiliar routes
- Bike lanes and none major roads are preferred
- Wishes to know the cost and range estimates ahead of time
- Major safety concerns:
  + unfamiliar roads and routes
  + not knowing road conditions
  + crowded sidewalks or bike lanes
  + Busy traffic roads
- Preferrer to use back road or side roads where it is less busy

Synthesize

Provisional Persona

People spend a lot of time getting from point A to point B and are seeking new forms of transport. E-scooters are emerging as a viable alternative. After watching scooters take over the city, I identified two types of users.

The Commuter

Goals

Locate scooter easily
To be able to get to end destination
To know estimate time of Arrival

Pains

Lack of range to cost estimate
Unable to find a scooter when needed
not knowing where bike lanes or safe roads are to ride

The Tourists

Goals

To locate groups of scooters
Find places to explore with ease
Understand cost and range estimate

Pains

Unable to locate scooters in groups
Riding in unfamiliar territory
Confusion about where to explore

User Persona

Adam P., Age 28, A Video Editor from Los Angeles, CA. He is a freelance video editor and enjoys meeting new clients and friends around downtown LA but does not enjoy finding parking. He owns a bike but does not like to show up to places perspiring after the ride. He found out about Bird while traveling Berlin and loved the convenience and ease of it. Bird has become part of his commute routine ever since.

Needs

To be able to find out the roads are safe to ride
To know cost ahead of time to end destination
To be aware of surcharges ahead of time
To know when the roads or lanes are crowded
To know the road conditions (potholes, constructions..etc)

Ideate

User Flow

I created a user flow to visualize how would the Navigation Feature fit into the existing Bird app, and how riders would access and use it.

Wireframes

When ideating, I did couple of iterations of sketches, revised them, and synthesize the parts of the designs I liked best. I wanted the Directions feature to seamlessly blend in to existing interface design. I also wanted the UX to flow similarly to existing design. I was mindful of the user flow and wanted the new feature to be part of the unlocking step to use (or not use) the navigation system.

Prototype

Introducing Directions

Hi-Fi Prototype

Design Process
A few simple improvements to Bird’s app would leave a large impact on the rider experience. I wanted to improve upon the map system by adding a Route Assistance feature called DIRECTIONS.

Added Features

provides route guidance when traveling to the destination
Ability to add starting and end destination and get estimate time of arrival
Have guidance on best routes with bike lanes or scooter friendly roads
Ability to add a stop along your route
Nice to have Features
- Share your trip progress with a friend or family
- Voice activated assistant
- Scenic route or sightseeing suggestions
- Hot spot for parking and finding scooters
- Suggestions on places to explore

Usability Testing

Test Objectives

To observe users direct and indirect path to completing the task
To identify potential issues regarding turning off the new features for user type B (the commuter who does not need the route suggestion feature for everyday use)
To discover pain points and confusion when using the new feature

Test Methodology
Maze usability testing to find out hot spots, success, and failure rates.

Participants

8 participants
- 84% success rate in using the new directions feature
- 66% success rate in turning off the feature

Findings

Although 66% of the participants succeeded in completing the task of turning off the direction feature, all of the participants had a hard time taking the direct path.
The finding revealed it would have made more sense to have a CTA button to exit out of the route assistant feature when wanting to opt-out.
The toggle was too small to be noticed and did not serve its purpose.
There was no easy way to exit out of route assistance which testers found confusing.
The new feature information page was hard to find and did not help inform the users.

Priority Revision

Revised Prototype

Scenario B: Opting out of the Direction Feature

Conclusion

This project taught me a few new aspects of design to consider while working within an existing product. Digging into Bird and their brand message, trying to understand the choices they made, and building onto that thought process in an additive way to create a new feature that helps better user experience. I found out that when it comes to transportation apps, helping the user navigate the real world is just as important as how they navigate within the app. I wanted to come up with a solution to a problem many of the users had which was navigating the roads safely while on the scooter. The solution I came up with was to integrate a navigation feature to the current app. It is important to reassure the user that they are able to use the new feature with as little friction as possible.

Bird App - New Feature