Usability Analysis on the prototype
Stranded on the busy streets on a cold winter morning at 4am in Delhi, is surely not a great experience. Uber, has truly pioneered the concept of mobile tech-driven urban transportation. As the app loads, the user’s location is detected via a GPS, available taxis are visually displayed on a real-time map, you are informed about the estimated arrival time and fare. Amazing concept executed amazingly! With its presence in 449 cities and 66 countries as on May 28th, 2016, the brand continues to keep the great user experience tag intact. The app is not at all a puzzle or a brain-teaser in terms of usage — Simple yet impressive.
Personally, I love Uber. But based on user insights on CanvasFlip, I present this usability analysis which intends to focus on the factors for and against the Uber user experience.
Before we get deeper into the analysis, I presume you would love to experience the prototype yourself. So here it is. Give it a shot –
Click to experience the prototype
+ On-boarding
The sign in and register tabs are placed on standard coordinates that make them easily discoverable for the users. Also, the size of the clickable area is quite comfortable.
The placement of these call to actions(SIGN In and REGISTER) lie in the “easy to reach” region. According to a study, 49% of the users use a single thumb to go through the app. 36% use 2 fingers and 15% of the users use both the thumbs. If you super-impose the sign-in screen with the “thumb-based-ease map”, you would find both of these buttons in the easy region, which is wonderful and very thoughtful. Isn’t it?
(Both Sign in and Register CTA on “Easy to use” section)
+ Automatic detection of location
The basic rule of user experience is to reduce the effort he has to put in to get what he wants. In the Uber app, the user’s work is considerably decreased with automatic detection of the location. The user does not have to engage with any UI elements to get started. The first decision he makes is only after he knows that the cab is available.
+ Navigation on the app
- Distribution of information
The app makes sure that the user is not exposed too many bits of information on every screen. The app is not a bulky one. They make sure that they have some 3–4 bits of information on every screen. Check out this image below to get the idea of how they have wisely split the information on different screens.
(App does not overwhelm the user with too much of information at once)
Sliding navigation for cab categories
Navigation to find another category of a cab is again placed in the easy-to-use region on the screen. The user can easily toggle between different varieties of a cab. Having talked about the categories of the cab, I believe the business would also love to know which category is most desired! So here is the heat map. And I would let this heat map do rest of the talking!
(“Uber go” gets the maximum attention from users)
As the heat map shows, “Uber Go” gets the first attention of the users. Before trying for Uber pool or UberXL, users have opted for Uber go.The Fare would be the obvious answer. But the other fact that we understand from this heat map is that users do not compromise on their privacy and comfort even if cost is a parameter. That is probably the reason why Uber pool has lesser interaction than Uber go.
– Information about cab fares and service
During the usability test, I noticed a friction point few users were having — finding information about the difference between cab services and fare charges. Watch this session replay to figure out this struggle –
Here’s what was happening in the session replay : The user waits for a while to figure out where he could get the information from.. Then he tries various things — tapping on the car, going to the hamburger menu for details and many other useless taps. He goes ahead to book expecting some kind of information ahead but returns back because he could not find any information. Finally, he clicks on the lower navigation, when the details of fare and service appear. After which he is convinced to move ahead.
The design team at Uber should probably work on this — The details about the difference in service and fares is not quite upfront or intuitive.
+ At your rescue always
The app ensures that in the case of any fallacy the user knows that there is a problem. If at all there is an issue with the internet connection, it lets the user know that “the GPS cannot detect the current location”
Also, the help section is accessible at every stage of the app — finding a cab to confirmation of the ride
(Help section accessible at every stage)
– Timing of feedback
Once the ride is complete, Uber sends a receipt on the registered email id and on the app. The problem with the receipt on the app is that the next time you open the app for a fresh ride, the receipt and feedback form appears. Mostly, the users don’t remember the details of the previous ride and then they struggle to get rid of this rating. But there is no way out. The users have to rate the previous ride to move ahead. This often leads to a random rating which is anyway not useful.
+ Excellent way of confirmation
There could be no better way of saying that “Yes your cab is confirmed”!
The app immediately gives the details of the cab and the cab driver when the cab is confirmed. This I feel is the best way to confirm to the user that the cab is on its way. A successful booking message would not be as helpful as this is. It builds the trust in the users that you could call the driver if required.
Final words :
With the advent of Uber, the complete concept of pre-booking a cab has been diminished. They have no option for “riding later”. Rather they make sure you get a cab at your doorstep when you need it. Uber has disrupted and revolutionized the industry standards with the kind of experience they provide.