Gig Carshare
Product design | Client work
Overview
Gig is a car-sharing service operating in the Bay Area, Sacramento, and Seattle. Their main offering is car rentals that can be spontaneously booked and ended. They came to Berkeley Innovation with the problem of reducing member frustrations and the number of non-urgent calls.
Key deliverables: Slide deck, high-fidelity mockups, research findings
Duration: September 2021 – December 2021 (3 months)
Team: Jasmine Chen, Cici Wei, Isabel Zheng, Etheline Nguyen, me
Tools: UX research, Figma
Defining the problem
🤔 How might we...
Create a seamless and intuitive Gig vehicle experience to help Gig Members during their trip so they don’t need to look at their phone for the FAQ or call support for general questions to reduce Member frustration and call volume?
Exploration
Surveys
We conducted a general survey of pain points and users’ experience in order to understand reasons behind user preferences and current behavior. The data showed us users' most common pain points and what they value when troubleshooting.
Interviews
Our goal was deeper visualizations of the user journey and how they approach troubleshooting. To do this, we needed to understand user needs and how we can design our solution to prevent current pain points. We gained a greater understanding of user values and progress towards narrowing project scope.
Research Outcome
We pivoted to focus on improving a specific flow as a problem prevention method.
Synthesis
We chose one representatitve persona, Jennifer, to personify a Gig user that would interact with our solution. Our persona illustrates Jennifer’s core needs, the context in which she uses Gig, values, and pain points.
Ideation
Narrowing the problem space
We settled on the issue of reservations running out within the free 30 minute period users have between booking and starting the car.
🗣️ Supported by user research
Many interviewees said it is “difficult to find cars nearby.” We found that users values timeliness, but currently have to call to extend pickup time. This is one of Gig's top call problems, so users would no longer need to call in for support.
📈 Aligns with business goals
This motivates people to get into cars instead of resorting to a different method of transportation. This problem is also one that Gig has explored before, but they didn’t get very far with it.
We deliberated over 3 ideas to combat this problem.
#1 Prepay to extend pickup time
During the initial booking, users decide if they want to prepay for additional time.
#2 Manual extend pickup time
Users can choose to add an increment of time at any point during their reservation window.
#3 Auto-extend pickup time
Once the free 30 minute window ends, the reservation automatically starts charging the user for additional time.
We moved forward with auto-extended pickup time (#3) because it was the simplest and least stressful for users.
Final solution
Upon initially booking the car, the user is met with comprehensive text about auto-extension and the option to opt-in.
A popup confirms their choice. If they have opted in, the way it works and pricing are reiterated.
During the free 30 minute window, users see a countdown of how much time is left and a reminder of whether or not they've opted in. After the 30 minutes, the user can no longer opt out, and the estimated cost of the extension period is shown.
If a user had previously decided to opt out, they will receive a gentle reminder when there are only 5 minutes left to their reservation. This reminds them they can still opt-in to auto-extend if they now realie they need it.
Once a user reaches their car and begins their ride, they are shown how much time they've spent during their ride, as well as the estimated cost.
If a reservation expires or a user decides to cancel, they are told that they will no longer be able to book that car for 2 hours, and the cost of their extension, if applicable.
Reflection
💰 Monetary issues
Further research is needed to determine rates that users see as reasonable, while still benefitting the business.
😰 User safety
Manual extension may have a place within this feature for users who feel anxious about not having total control over how much their total bill will be.