What Makes Good Products Great?

Written on November 6, 2014

I still remember the first time I used Uber.

I’d casually followed the company’s story and growth, had downloaded the iOS app to check out the UX and read a lot about how the product worked — so when when Uber arrived in Australia, I was looking forward to trying the “Software eats Taxis” service first hand.

The funny thing is that I don’t remember the trip itself (I had to log on to look it up) but I do remember that that first experience was pretty much as advertised — simpler, cheaper and more efficient than a traditional taxi (UberX). There was definitely an element of fun too, as we watched our driver’s car approach our location on the map.

There were other things that helped make that first impression a positive one; the iOS app had a unique identity and aesthetic (which can be hard to find these days IMHO) and the execution was everything you’d expect from a company that has raised hundreds of millions in venture funding. Features like the credit card image recognition during sign up and the direction-aware car icons overlaid on top of the maps were two particular examples I noticed and have read about subsequently in blog posts.

By this point I was already a satisfied customer but the thing that impressed me the most was a small detail on the receipt I received shortly after stepping out of the driver’s car. Next to more polished design details laying out the ride time, route and distance was a breakdown of the fare. Towards the bottom was a single line item that said “Rounding Down -$0.87".

They had rounded down my fare to the nearest whole dollar amount. Sure it was only 30 cents, loose change effectively, and one I wouldn’t even notice since it was automatically deducted from my credit card but the gesture really made an impression on me.

Why? To me it showed that Uber was walking the talk about its mission of simplification, cost reduction and efficiency. For Uber, to take this philosophy and apply it to their billing meant that they:

1) Placed greater value on the indirect benefits of surprising and delighting customers over the direct impact of lost revenue from lots and lots of rounded down transactions.

2) Recognised that user experience and design is as much about function as it is form and that all elements of the product and business model require great care and consideration. (Dieter Rams: “Good design is thorough down to the last detail”).

Cheers, Cam