So, what is Lyft?
It is a ride-sharing app with the purpose of giving users an alternative to taxis or public transportation, in general. Ride reservation, payment, and communication with your driver are all handled throughout the app itself.
We started on by identifying the competitors of Lyft, who is our target audience and the user experience flow within the app. For the competitors, we selected Uber for its rivalry of ride-sharing apps, SEPTA as our target audience being Philly residents that rely heavily on public transportation and lastly Doordash for its food delivery convenience, therefore eliminating the need for Lyft.
Target Audience: Individuals over 18 and younger than 35 living in Philadelphia
Uber
Positives - Offers delivery services & reliable drivers
Negatives - More expensive and longer wait times
SEPTA
Positives - More cost effective and environmentally friendly
Negatives - Safety / cleanliness
Doordash
Positives - Offers food delivery
Negatives - Not a ride-sharing app
To start our process, we developed a survey using Google Forms and distributed it across all of our social medias. From the two weeks it was out to the public, we were able to gain 33 responses. Our goals for the survey were to gain insight on why users use these ride-share apps, the amount of their usage, their thoughts against the services, and their preferences towards any of the ride-share app!
People overall have a positive experience within the app itself. When people needed to see more cheaper options or drivers in general, they switch over to Lyft.
The reason why people choose to use ride-share apps is when it is late at night or when they are going out. Safety and saving time were the people’s main priorities. Ride tracking is the biggest factor into making people feel safe while using any ride-share app.
Based on our survey insights, we decided to dig a littler deeper and transition into conducting interviews to understand the user more about their patterns.
We collaborated to create a set of interview questions that reached our main objectives while keeping it clear, concise and thorough for the participant.
Objectives:
1. Learn more about the likes/dislikes from each participant
2. What motivates each one to use Lyft more
3. Learn more about the user experience
4. Learn more about the needs of the user
- Wished that there was an easier way to split the price/more convenient payment options
- Did not like the rating system for riders
- Wanted more transparency within the appIn order to check their route, they used maps
- Preferred a faster pick up time over rider preferences
With the research that we have obtained, we developed three personas based on the motivations, challenges, frequency usage and how tech savvy they are. By putting an emphasis on these main factors, we felt as though we could cover the range of users within our target audience.
From our research, we gained insight about Lyft's design. Originally, we believed that its clean interface was the reason why Uber was so loved. However, we discovered something different. The iconic magenta color from Lyft was a very memorable aspect for the user experience.
Through our interviews, we noticed a pattern where despite its simple flow, user still had that sense of clutter. This caused the development of two possible solutions; alter the interface with a cleaner and minimal layout or go in strong with a more lively atmosphere.