How a focus on female and male user needs can grow the ride sharing community

design-people
Sep 5, 2018 · 3 min read

Learn more about our exciting collaboration with the Danish ride sharing service GoMore

With the transport industry as one of the biggest sources of CO2 emission there is a pressing need for new approaches to transportation. The average European car is only used for transportation 5% of the time — the remaining 95%, it is parked, in congestion or looking for parking. Also, the average car only transports 1,5 people. Car sharing services address these issues, connecting drivers and passengers and helping them reduce the CO2 impact of their trips. At design-people, we believe that the car sharing economy has huge potential for shaping a more sustainable future.


User studies focusing on user needs and motivations

How do we make sure that the ride sharing community grows to its full potential? By understanding and targeting the needs and motivations of the existing and potential users. The goal for our study was to gain deep insights into the car sharing experience, and how it might differ between male and female users. So, applying a diversity lens, we set out to explore the user needs and motivations car sharing service should address.

In collaboration with the car sharing company GoMore, we carried out user studies on the customer experience of using their service. GoMore has great success on the Danish market with more than 700.000 users who connect through their platform, and they are also present in other European countries. Their offerings are ride sharing, long term leasing and peer-to-peer car rental. Our study focused solely on ride sharing and we conducted both focus groups and contextual interviews with men and women using GoMore.


Differing social needs for her and him

An overall conclusion is that the women participating in our study expressed different needs and motivations than the men. We found that the men focus explicitly on the joyfulness of the social experience, whereas the women focus more on safety and convenience. To the men, it is of high importance to be able to connect and share during the ride and to have interesting conversations, preferably on topics of mutual interest. More than that, some men value the opportunity to drive in a luxurious car. Female users report more basic needs like feeling safe during transportation. Their strategies for safe ride sharing are to choose female drivers or rides with other women. Alternatively, they choose drivers who they can track on social media or who have received positive reviews on GoMore. Safety is not a reported concern amongst the men.

The focus on safety more than self-realization amongst the female participants, does not mean that women do not value interesting conversations during their trips. Feeling safe is however a fundamental and pressing concern for female ride sharers. In order to grow the female ride sharing user base, it is therefore essential to address the safety concern convincingly.

Our design team came up with tangible suggestions for the GoMore app to adapt to the needs expressed by the female and male users.

Learn more about what matters for women and men in relation to ride sharing and see our team’s ideas to improve the GoMore customer experience by accessing the full report from HERE. If you want to know more about design-people’s projects on “design for diversity” in other fields, look HERE.

design-people

design-people is an ambitious innovation and design consultancy. We are here to help you win the hearts and minds of your future customers.

design-people

Written by

design-people is an ambitious innovation and design consultancy based in Aarhus, Denmark. Reach us at https://www.design-people.com

design-people

design-people is an ambitious innovation and design consultancy. We are here to help you win the hearts and minds of your future customers.

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