Redesigning the Lyft experience for riders with luggage

Christabel Agbugba
Nov 6 · 7 min read

Identify a common issue and design an experience that will solve the issue

Riders with luggage waiting for their ride to pick them up
Riders with luggage waiting for their ride to pick them up
Photo by Dan Gold on Unsplash

The objective of this Case Study:

  • To practice and learn the design thinking process by redesigning an app.
  • To explore ways to maximize the experience of users and have a positive Return On Investment.

Overview:

As a human being without a car and whose close circle of friends do not have cars as well, we Lyft everywhere frequently. On many occasions, I have traveled with luggage to and from places that are not the airport. A similar experience I’ve had was not having enough space for my baggage, so I will walk you through the process of how I designed a feature that I think creates the ideal experience for travelers with luggage.

I will be using Lyft for my case study because it’s the rideshare app I use most frequently. I am in no way affiliated with Lyft; I am just looking for ways to practice my design skills.


The Problem:

I, personally, have been inconvenienced multiple times while riding with Lyft because I’ve had luggage. This is one of the situations:

At the beginning of a new college semester, I went to Walmart with some friends to shop for school items and when we were through, we ordered a Lyft. When the Lyft arrived, our driver told us that her trunk doesn’t work. My friends and I had to carry our groceries on our laps and put some of it on the floor. This inconvenienced us throughout the entire ride.

After identifying my problem as a Lyft rider with luggage, I interviewed and sent out a survey asking other Lyft riders with luggage what their experiences have been. While I got feedback on positive and comfortable rides, here are some excerpts from the not-so-comfortable riders:

“There wasn’t enough space in the Lyft for my bags”

“I had groceries and there wasn’t much extra room”

“I rode from the airport with multiple people in a Lyft XL. There were enough seats for us but not enough space for luggage”

“The driver had other stuff in his trunk. I had to sit with most of my boxes in the passenger’s seat”

“Sometimes I have to put my things on the passenger’s seat because the driver already has things in the trunk. This causes extra hassle”

Why should Lyft care about this?

By improving convenience and experience for all types of riders, Lyft

  1. Forms a more trustworthy and reliable relationship with a wider audience.
  2. Is provided with more data about luggage riders for them to study.
  3. Will have a wider and happier audience, improving their ROI.

The Road to the Final Solutions

Riders may input what they need from a driver’s car from their app and their needs appear on nearby drivers’ apps and it is up to the drivers to decide if they can satisfy the rider’s needs based on the availability of space.

Assume Vanessa is heading to a destination and she has luggage with her. To order her Lyft, she will enter her destination and indicate that she has luggage. Then, she will select a car that she feels will meet the needs of her and her luggage.
After Vanessa indicates on her app that she has luggage, nearby drivers will be identified by the dark grey luggage icon. If Vanessa had indicated that she did not have luggage, the luggage icon would be greyed out. The driver now uses his discretion to decide if his car can accommodate both Vanessa and her luggage.
Since Lyft automatically adds other riders in need of a driver to the drivers' app, it is important to know if the people in the queue, have luggage as well. The luggage icon is used on the profile photo of the rider to indicate if they have luggage or not. If they do not have luggage, the icon will be greyed out.

Strength:

  • It meets the needs of riders with luggage to the best of its abilities.

Weakness:

  • This is a manual selection of rides that can be done better if Artificial Intelligence does the matching.
  • The driver will have to pay more attention to more information than normal while they are driving. This may be a safety hazard.
  • There is more time involved in ordering a ride because riders will be inputting their luggage needs as well as the location of their destination.

Both riders and drivers fill out availability questionnaires and Lyft AI filters and recommend to the rider the driver who can satisfy their needs. The questionnaire that the riders fill asks if they have luggage. The questionnaire for the drivers asks if they have trunk space assuming that all the seats of their cars are available.

Same as the first stop for the rider. The rider indicates if she has luggage or not. But the driver app interface is a little different.
On the driver's app, they indicate the space availability of their vehicle. This feature was added to the vehicle section of the menu. After the riders indicated his need and the drivers indicated their status, Lyft will then match a driver who meets the majority or all the needs of a rider.

Strength:

  • This option solves the problem of manual compatibility by letting AI match compatibility.
  • The questionnaire will be used as a way to communicate the needs of the riders and the availability of the drivers to accommodate the riders’ needs.

Weakness:

  • The interaction for the questionnaires takes away the seamlessness of the Lyft experience for both the drivers and the riders because they have to answer more questions which increases the time needed to select a ride.
  • There is even more time involved in ordering a ride because riders will be inputting their luggage needs as well as the location of their destination.

Both options ahead faced one problem: People who don’t have luggage still have to go through this process so they are involved in a problem that is not theirs, which makes their experience not-so-seamless anymore. To solve this problem, we can create a feature- Lyft Luggage- that is available to only the riders who need it.

The vision of Lyft Luggage is that depending on how much luggage you or your peers have, the cars for this feature will have large trunk space and the driver of the car will know that they need to have all the seats in their car available. There will also be a specificity of Lyft or Lyft XL depending on the number of people involved per ride.

Strength:

  • This option maintains the same seamlessness of the original app. There are only 2 pages and 2 interactions required to order a Lyft.
  • This option does not need a questionnaire which means that the time needed to select a ride will be the same as before.
  • This feature does not inconvenience the riders who do not have luggage. Only riders with luggage will require this feature.
  • This feature takes into consideration the number of people who have luggage per ride.

Weakness:

  • It may be a long process to determine which car models can be categorized under Lyft Luggage

Closing

  • I didn’t have full access to a driver’s app. The access I had was from a YouTube tutorial on how to use a Lyft driver’s app, so a lot of the experience for the driver is assumed.
  • I had 3 weeks to complete this project. I only had a limited number of people to interview and gather more in-depth information about.
  • I underestimated the complexity of this case study and that made me realize a few days to the end of the project that I would like to test my usability with the drivers too. I would need to plan better and have a more open mind when handling case studies.
  • There will at least be one car in a rider’s vicinity that meets most of their needs
  • All back seats are available and there are no personal items on the seats
  • At the first stop, drivers will be honest about if they can honestly meet the needs of the riders.
  • Riders and drivers will be honest with their questionnaires
  • Riders will only select Lyft Luggage when they have heavy or bulky luggage

This is my first UX case study and I can say I was challenged during the entire process, but that was what I loved about it. It made me feel more involved in the problem-solving and design thinking processes than designing for the DailyUI Challenges ever did.

I have taken some personal notes on the areas I did well on and also the area I did not do so well on. However, I would love some external constructive criticism, because other than practicing often that is the only way I can grow as a designer. If you see any errors or mistakes, please let me know in the comments below.

Christabel Agbugba

Written by

Aspiring User Experience Designer. Interested in Front-End Development. Feminist. I live for the woman I will grow to be.

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