User Study: Uber App
For those of you who don’t know what Uber is,
It is a peer-to-peer ridesharing and taxi cab company.
With over 100 million downloads on Play Store, Uber is one of the most loved apps. They have revolutionised the way we used to book our cabs.
But, Uber is not the only company that exists in this particular space, right?
So what makes it so unique in this space?
In my perspective, the one thing that makes it unique is the look and feel of the app. In technical terms, it is the UI (User Interface) and UX (User Experience) of the app.
UI is how things look, while UX is how things work.
Uber has provided such an efficient way to book our cabs. Within 3–4 clicks, we can book a cab for almost any purpose, at any time, from anywhere.
But, does that case hold true for everyone?
To get an answer to this question, and to feed my curiosity, I called up my friend and invited him to do a basic user study of the app.
Here are a few things that I learnt:
1. The authentication flow is pretty smooth.
It is self-explanatory, so the user doesn’t encounter any type of problem while going through it. Also, the app provides an option to log in via social accounts, which in turn makes the process much more smoother.
2. The app focuses on the company’s objectives.
This is why, whenever you open the app, you are instantaneously prompted to provide the destination and source of your journey.
Then within 2 to 3 clicks, you can book a cab!
Uber has made this process so efficient that even the people who are not so much acquainted with the technology, can get through with ease.
3. Similar workflow for almost all the processes.
For instance, scheduling a cab follows the workflow similar to that of booking a cab.
This standardisation across the app helps to provide a much better user experience, which in turn helps to improve the retention rate.
4. Separate space for all the secondary functionalities.
All of the secondary aspects have been given a separate space (in the sidebar), so as to keep them out of the main view.
For instance,
Features such as payment methods, previous trips have been provided in the sidebar so as to keep the main screen focused on fulfilling the company’s objective.
5. Consistent UI throughout the app.
The design team has made considerable efforts into making the design, consistent throughout the app.
This can be easily demonstrated by looking at the following screenshots.
Wrapping Up
Uber has put immense effort into making the process simple.
One thing that the Uber team has stressed on the most is minimalism.
They could have displayed a lot of features in one view, but they chose not to.
Also, the Uber team has done some tremendous work in managing the tradeoff between accessibility and minimalism.
This user study has provided me with some deep insights into the field of design and gave me a perspective on how to think about an app (before building it).
If you are into app development and haven’t done any user study yet, I would highly recommend you to start doing it.
It would help you become a better developer.
Thanks for reading!
