1. Understanding the User

Carpooling’s popularity has waned in the United States. Aspects like coordination, payment, planning, and communication make carpooling a larger hassle than a solution.

By completing secondary research and interviews, an understanding and empathy for the user was developed.

Some artifacts that were produced include an affinity map, empathy maps, personas, and a post-interview survey analysis.

• Affinity Map

  

  Through the creation of an affinity map, post-interview quotes, comments, and data could be categorized into four main categories.

  Decision
  Aspects related to the act of deciding to or choosing a carpool.

  Route
  Logistics tied to both the carpool’s route and routes of alternate transportation options.

  Responsibilities
  Questions and confusion over carpool details such as: who’s driving, who’s car, what route.

  Trust
  Feelings and questions, towards carpooling with strangers and known acquaintances.

• Empathy Maps

  

  Empathy maps were created to represent two user archetypes from the interviews.

  The Occupant
  An average carpool passenger or driver from key demographic groups including students and metropolitan workers.

  The Planner
  The user who is more inclined to be the organizer of their peer group. This could include a personal inclination or professional responsibility.

• Personas

  

  As a method of further increasing empathy with the users, personas were created to resemble the two user archetypes.

  For red route creation and testing, the goals and frustrations focused on and pertained to the generic find and create carpool experience more related to John.

  Additionally, for MVP creation and testing, an emphasis on George would be beneficial for providing unique features such as private carpools and voting mechanisms for both driver and route selection.

• Likert Scale Analysis

  

  A post-interview survey was conducted utilizing the Likert Scale. The purpose of this survey was to validate information gathered from interviews while also helping to prioritize features. Some key insights also included:

  Specificity by time
  During secondary research, it was possible to believe in ignoring the user selection of time - because of the lack of available carpools and the struggle to find ones by time.

  Information on nearby carpools vs. show frequent locations
  All participants agreed on having information on nearby carpool location hubs; however, they diverged for showing frequent locations. The difference in responses showed a need for further research.

  Friends vs. rating and reviews
  Rather than being friends, users leaned towards being professional and transparent.

2. Ideate and Implement

Finding and creating a generic carpool were chosen for red route designs.

• User Flows

  

• Wireframes

  

• Mood Board

  

  Green was chosen as the primary color because of its relation to transportation. Green road signs, the green light, green in the context of traffic, and the phrase “go for green” can all be considered.

  A sense of note-taking and ad-hoc highlighting was pursued to relate to logistics, memory retention, and impromptus.

• Style Guide

  

  A sans serif font was chosen to complement a flat design while Open Sans was chosen for its ease of implementation and popularity.

  Colors, buttons, and links were chosen to relate to paper interactions such as note-taking.

3. Test and Iterate

Upon completion of a prototype for the red routes, two rounds of usability testing were undergone. Major insights could be summarized into three categories: Information and details, access to actions, and contrast and compatibility.

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  Information and Details
  Users exhibited a need for more information as a carpooling service was something they were new to. Users also exhibited a need to confirm their previously inputted data.

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  Access to Actions
  Usability testing showed a user’s natural tendency to search a list prior to filtering - resulting in the filter or sort functions being hidden. When progressing through various steps, users also exhibited the need for actions to be made visible on the current screen.

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  Contrast and Compatibility
  In-person testing showed the need to accommodate varying screen devices through a darker shade of gray. Users also did not prioritize the top features due to the lack of contrast and attention given to the call-to-actions.

• Updated Designs