Overview

Uber Air is a new innovative approach to aerial ridesharing through the use of electronic vertical takeoff and landing (eVOTL) aircraft vehicles. The long term goal is to make aerial ridesharing as commonplace and affordable as regular ridesharing, thereby solving the problem of city congestion. During the program, I designed the Uber Air booking flow to make the process of booking a multi modal journey as seamless and simple as possible.

Context

8 weeks

Applied 2020 Program

Role

SOLO UX Design project with industry mentorship

Problem Space

Through my survey and user interviews, I identified that most people would be willing to pay more for a service such as Uber Air. However, many were worried about the practicality of it and expressed that it would become too complicated to weave in ground transport options amidst the booking process.

My goal for this project is to break down that technological intimidation that users had and create an inclusive design so that anyone would be able to book an Uber Air easily and conveniently.

Design Process

Discovery Research

Uber has released a beta version of their Uber Copter service in 2019 that was available in New York City at the time. I delved further into their booking process and analzyed the few customer reviews and feedback left to obtain a better understanding of what exactly an Uber Copter ride entails. I found that their current booking process for Uber Copter is divided into 3 steps.

Something I also noted was that ground tranportation options are automatically included for the rider and cannot be changed. 

Competitive Analysis

To truly understand what sets Uber Air apart from other competitors, I researched other rideshareing apps and related modes of transport such as commercial flights and train rides. Through my research, I found companies Skyryse and Airbus that also had similar ambitions for standardizing aerial transport, yet their focuses are more directed on automated planes and they are still in their prototyping phases. The most similar service and competitor therefore was Blade. However Blade is more focused on the booking of private, chartered, or shared short-distance helicopter rides, and is still expensive compared to the initial launch prices for Uber Air. Uber Air is still unique in the sense that the long term goal is to reduce friction in cities and provide riders with an affordable alternative to ground transport. 

Survey Findings

I sent out a survey to my immediate network of people that was further spread around to gauge peoples' preferences when it comes to ridesharing experiences. After reading through the responses, it seemed that people preferred convenience above all and would like different modes of transport to be within a singular app.

User Interviews

In the 6 user interviews I conducted, I identified user's main concerns and pain points to understand what I can do as a designer to alleviate their concerns and make the experience more plausible and secure. 

Key Insights

 1. Air transport is complicated and isn't practical

4/6 users believed that booking a flight involves too many steps and were concerned whether aerial ridesharing would actually save time.

2. The multi-modal aspect seems more complicated than convenient

5/6 users expressed their concern with the automatic opt-in feature for ground transport and many argued that it should be up to the rider whether to opt in or opt out.

3. Even if it does work, it'll be expensive

Besides functionality, cost also played a large role in peoples' skepticism of the product.

"It's a unique concept. But how is Uber going to simplify a multi-modal journey? Booking a regular Uber is already a multi-step process. The long-term goal is admirable but I just don't think it's practical." - Peter W, 42

Based on the responses that I had received, I planned to focus on the first two concerns and took it upon myself to make sure users will have a relatively simple yet balanced booking process to ensure security as well as making sure that the multi-modal feature is integrated seamlessly so as not to induce more stress.

Use Case and Personas

After empathisizing with users, I reflected on their concerns and thought about the target usergroup for a product such as Uber Air. Based on the fact that it would be a more expensive service at first, I decided to focus on business and medical professionals as I feel that their time is especially valuable to them and on the business side, Uber can take the opportunity to partner with businesses and hospitals to make their product service even more accessible to this specific group of people. 

To get into the headspace of the user, I created these two personas which helped me identify the core challenges of my stakeholders. 

Core challenges for Stakeholders:

1. They are in a time constraint or time rush and need to be able to get somewhere quickly.
2. They prefer not to spend hours waiting in traffic and make more efficient use of their time.
3. They have work that requires traveling back and forth long distances across the city.

Ideation

After figuring out the pain points, use cases, and user group, I created a user flow and sketched on paper to map out my thought process.

Wireframing

I quickly transformed my sketches to wireframes to validate my flow with user feedback. My initial wireframes were similar to Uber Copter's user flow with a changes to a few key aspects. A few of the changes included:

• Separation of Uber and Uber Air rides into tabs
• Allow users to customize Skyport and Service (ground ride options)
• Access to view boarding pass after trip is booked

Usability Testing

After conducting my first round of usability testing through Zoom, I had received a lot of feedback and knew that many changes were to be made. The main points I identified through user testing was:

1. Choosing and customizing the Skyport and Service seemed like too much work.
2. The way Service was worded and framed made it unclear that it was referring to ground transport options.
3. The select trip page was overwhelming since it presents the user with a lot of different choices.
4. The overall flow felt incomplete and the confirmation page didn't indicate a clear end point.

Iterations

I took some of the points I've noticed and decided to start iterating. I went through countless screens trying to determine which flow and structure would work out the best.

High Fidelity Prototyping

After multiple iterations and usability tests later, I decided to move onto high fidelity screens so that I had time to get in at least one more round of usability testing before final presentations.

I decided to add more features based on feedback I'd gotten from users and to complete and round out the user flow. 

Revisions: 

1. Making boarding passes and flight information more accesible by having it in the hamburger meny in home
2. Adding a Terms and Conditions page for legal reasons and ensuring it would mimic a real life Uber Air user flow
3. Finishing off with the pick-up screen to let users have a sense of finality when the booking process is over
4. Including an onboarding experience to better introduce the user to Uber Air's mission and goal
   

More Usability Testing

After making the necessary revisions and making sure the designs followed Uber's design system, I decided to conduct one more round of usability testing to see what users had to say about the hi-fidelity designs and if there were any further improvements that could be made.

Final Design

Click here to view the Interactive Prototype!

Next Steps

In the future, I would love to focus more on the visual design of the product as well as working on the full end to end experience. This would include creating screens for what the user would see once they are actually picked up, when they are entering the plane, when they land, etc. Something I didn't get to incorporate into this project is adding microanimations and those small details which I definitely want to explore in the future!

Reflection

Over the course of these 8 weeks, I worked closely with my designated buddy and mentor through one-on-one feedback sessions as well a weekly group critiques with other team members. It was truly such an insightful and enlightening experience being able to learn and follow other ambitious designers' design process. As a result, I've learned many new design tips and tricks along the way that I'm excited to apply to my future projects!

With only a singular group project under Anna's belt, she entered the ring of Applied 2020 as an underdog, but never pulled a punch. Anna forged her path forward with methods she'd only heard of and an open mind fueled by feedback, validation, and sheer will. She knocked her design promp straight on the head expertly adapting to every challenge, she seamlessly created visuals that matched Uber's visual style, prototyped natural animations, and illuminated an intuitive user flow with her final solution. Anna's growth was so astonishing, it's truly inspiring. 

Joylyn Yang, Product Designer at Intuit

Lessons Learned

1. Designing within constraints

This was my first time following an existing design system and I realized the importance of making intentional design decisions in order to create a realistic end product. Along the way, I also learned about important visual design principles that I wasn't familiar with before to ensure that the end product would match the company's brand and reputation.

2. Trusting your designer intuition

I conducted many many many usability tests but at the end of the day, I had to remind myself it wasn't possible to please everyone. Similar to my first point, I had to make careful decisions about the changes I made in my iterations to ensure that it would be beneficial for the end product.