Lyft Social
A conceptual feature integration into an existing product
The “sharing economy” have blurred the social boundaries. In a ride share, your name is known to the driver and other riders, and theirs to you. Drivers use their own cars and act like hosts, lowering social barriers for everyone in the car. All of this creates a favorable environment for meeting new people.
The concept is a feature that will support this emerging phenomenon and help people connect beyond the ride.
So I partnered with two other UX designers to find a solution that can be integrated into the current Lyft app.
(This is a conceptual design. We are not affiliated with Lyft.)
My Role
UX Researcher | UX Designer
Time
Nov. 2018
Duration
2 Weeks
Hypothesis
Riders in a car share would be hesitant to initiate social connections with fellow passengers who are strangers.
How might we design a feature that allows people to feel comfortable connecting with those sharing a car?
User Research
To understand the user group, we started our research with screener survey to find those who frequently use ridesharing services and social media. We received 22 responses and conducted 5 qualifying interviews.
Following the interview, we synthesized the results using Affinity Mapping to pinpoint users' habits, likes, dislikes, and needs. Here are the key findings:
1
Passengers want to feel safe when traveling with strangers and don't want to share private information
2
People enjoy meeting interesting new people and want to grow their professional network
3
All interviewees use various social media platforms and are willing to show their public personas
Persona
Based on the research insights, we established a primary persona to represent our target user group. It helps build empathy, remind us of the user during the design process, and align our strategic efforts to focus on their problems in the next stage of ideation.
Primary Persona:
Paige the Photographer
Paige works as a freelance photographer. While business is steady, she is still on the lookout to grow her portfolio and client base. Paige likes to meet new people to build her business, but she still wants to be in control of her personal information.
Problem Statement
How might we help Paige use this carpool experience as a business opportunity to promote her photography, connect with new people, and keep her feeling in control of her privacy at the same time?
Ideation
We started our ideation process with a Design Studio session where we brainstormed and quickly generated concepts, flows, and features to be integrated into the MVP (Minimum Viable Product). We ensured the design solutions were focused on specific problems facing the primary persona. We rapidly hand-sketched different layouts and flows, openly discussed ideas, and then iterated again.
.jpg)
The list below shows our research >> design decisions:
1
Insight
Passengers want to feel safe when traveling with strangers and don't want to share private information
Feature
Control your private information and block unwanted correspondence
2
Insight
People enjoy meeting interesting new people and want to grow their professional network
Feature
Send social media and business card information to other passengers
3
Insight
All interviewees use various social media platforms and are willing to show their public personas
Feature
Preview another passenger’s public social profile with the option to connect from there
Solution: Lyft Social
Lyft Social is a feature within Lyft that will allow you to connect with other riders/drivers to create a business or personal opportunities. By creating your social profile, you can easily build your professional and social networks and share your social media, with the option to opt out.
Research >> Design
Here shows how we translated each of the 3 key insights uncovered from research into our specific design products.
1
Insight: Passengers want to feel safe when traveling with strangers and don't want to share private information
Feature: Ability to make your social profile information private
Option to receive message
(Social Profile setup)
Option to make certain parts of the social profile private
(Edit Profile Popups)
(Hover over to see annotations)
Feature: Ability to block unwanted correspondence
Block button (Inbox)
Block confirmation
Block button
(Post ride)
Block button
(Ride History)
(Hover over to see annotations)
2
Insight: People enjoy meeting interesting new people and want to grow their professional network
Feature: Ability to share business card or professional networking information
Business Card feature that can be edited and displayed on profile
(Edit Social Profile)
Option to share LinkedIn profile
Ability to send message and business card to other opt-in user
(Hover over to see annotations)
3
Insight: All interviewees use various social media platforms and are willing to show their public personas
Feature: Ability to preview another passenger’s public social profile with the option to connect from there
Option to display social media info on Social Profile
Another user's public social profile + Option to connect
User set to private cannot be contacted or seen (Post Ride)
Ability to message already connected user
(Hover over to see annotations)
Design Process
So how did we make the screens we just saw above?
Mid-fidelity
prototype
We first started with mid-fidelity wireframes and prototype based on the hand sketches we created from the Design Studio.
Usability Testing
(Round 1)
Then we conducted the 1st round of usability testing. The mid-fidelity prototype allowed us to test the pure functionality of the new features and the flows. The chart below summarizes the testing result.
Key Findings, Design Changes, &
High-fidelity #1
Usability Testing (Round 2)
As you can see from the above chart, 4 out of 5 testers were unable to complete task #3. It was because most people had trouble figuring out the way to contacting someone from a past ride.
In addition, we discovered two more key findings from the test and made corresponding design changes to address the issues while we brought the prototype up to high-fidelity.
The graphs below show the key insights and changes respectively.
After having the first High-fidelity prototype, we conducted the 2nd round of usability testing. The chart below summarizes the testing result.
Key Findings, Design Changes, &
High-fidelity #2
As you can see, the performance had been generally improved. There's no unsuccessful result for task #3 at all. Meanwhile, we gathered 2 insights and made respective design changes to address the issues.
Prototype
After incorporating the design updates, we finalized our prototype.
Next Steps
The next steps would be conducting another round of usability testing on the latest prototype and synthesizing the findings to help guarantee the success of the integrated social feature in Lyft.
The final thought learned from the research, is that people would use this new feature once integrated knowing that they have control of their information. After all, this conceptual feature is feasible as long as it addresses the biggest concern of users: privacy.