Take me Home, Uber
Lot of rides (almost 50%) I take with Uber have my home as the destination. Wherever we go, we need to return home. I am sure lot of people would agree to this.
I land in the airport. I want to go home.
I am done with office work at 7 pm. I want to go home.
I went to a market. I am done shopping. Take me home.
I finished watching a movie on the weekend. Let me go home.
& so on…
Since it is a very common use case for a majority of people, I think it can be made into a one click experience, for power users. While the ‘Home’ destination shortcut on the Uber App Home screen does help, I think there can be a still faster way.
Uber can make use of the new Android shortcut feature: Long press on Uber app icon to reveal shortcut actions, in this case, Take Me Home.
Obviously, there are a bunch of things Uber needs to confirm a booking.
Pickup location:
Uber can detect my current location and optimise a pick up location, which it already does.
Destination:
Home. Uber already knows the exact location.
Payment Method:
Pick my last known payment method. I mostly have sufficient money loaded in my Paytm Wallet if I am using Uber frequently. If it is credit card, there is no issue. If there are issues with the payment methods like insufficient balance, card expiry etc., cash is an option.
Type of Cab:
Pick my most frequently used option. In my case, UberX.
& well, Uber now has all the information available automatically :)
For older versions of Android, Uber can have a fallback by adding a shortcut on the phone. The experience can be something on these lines: Along with the main Uber app, there can be a shortcut icon added on Android home screen that says ‘Take me Home’. Tap on that should book a cab. That’s it!
There are obviously a lot of edge cases that needs to be handled, but I think, for Power Users, when the conditions are met, this truly one click booking to home without any worry would be an amazing experience.
This can also be extended to more shortcuts for more frequent destinations.
Although it is not something that significantly saves time, it provides a much better feeling to the user. It saves a lot of taps. I don’t need to see an empty canvas first and then the map being loaded slowly. I don’t need to see various loading states making me feel irritated. Rating my previous trip won’t come as a hindrance to booking a new one. All of these makes me focus my time on the app while I may be busy with something else on the road or in the mall or in the airport.
Uber, I believe, can and should get to a point where its users don’t even notice that they are booking a cab. It should just happen like a habit, without any conscious effort whenever they need it.
