Campool

Role

UX Designer & Project Management

Team

4 UX Designers

Duration

3 Month Capstone

Campool is a college ride-sharing app designed to offer flexible and affordable rides and foster social connections among students.

I led conducting user interviews, usability tests, creating user journey maps, and designing 2 major flows. Additionally, I handle the final touch-ups on the design guide and UI designs.

Problem

In the United States, there are 19.4 million college students and 51% of them don’t have a car on campus, highlighting the strong market potential for campus carpooling. However, students express the need for a platform that ensures safety, flexibility, affordability, and opportunities to build social connections with other students.

Design Challenge

"How might we create a campus ride-sharing app that offers safe, flexible, affordable rides and fosters social connections?"

Solution Overview

01. Student verification ensures safety

Student status is verified at registration.

02. Scheduled service ensures flexibility and affordability.

Only scheduled services will be available to minimize wait times, with affordable fares unaffected by traffic or other factors.

03. Build social connections via carpooling with other students.

Exploring nearby locations with other college students to establish connections and enjoy themselves in free time.

Research Overview

We used four different research methods during the discovery phase to understand the problem and identify what the current market is missing in order to provide more feasible carpooling solutions for college students.

Survey↗

110 Responses

To identify market gaps and potential opportunities.

User Interview

25 Students

To delve deeper into and understand the problem.

Role-playing

20 Students

To narrow down use cases, and refine UX-related factors.

Competitive Analysis

3 Products

To reduce the user’s learning curve and increase adaptability.

Research Findings

01

One-way and round-trip ride are necessary.

One-way rides are most common, but 85% of our users find round-trips essential for activities like visiting a museum or grocery shopping.

02

Frustration often occurs when requesting the service.

Over 75% of our users worry about whether the driver or rider will accept the carpooling request.

03

Safety is no longer a major concern for school carpooling.

Affordability and flexibility are now the primary considerations.

Sketches (to quickly visualize and explore design ideas)

After sketching out our ideas, I found various ways to present information on the homepage, with multiple entry points for the next steps.

[As a new campus carpooling platform, is there a way to provide clearer information and a stronger call to action for new users?]

Competitive Analysis (Uber, Lyft & Bolt)

I chose to leverage common design patterns and behaviors from existing platforms by conducting a competitive analysis, aiming to reduce the learning curve for users.

💰 Pricing estimates

Clear display of fare estimates before confirming the ride.

📍 Map indicator

Pickup and drop-off locations shown on a map interface.

🚗 Suggested route

Optimal routes are provided based on current traffic conditions.

Testing & Design Iterations

10 Participants

3 Tasks

3 Key Findings

Finding 1: Two drop-downs are cluttered and increased selection error.

Finding 2: Date pickers should be simple and easy to use.

Finding 3: Information hierarchy should be clearer.

Final Design

Feature 1: Student verification (ensure safe ride)

Feature 2: Request scheduled ride (ensure affordable & flexible ride)

Feature 3: Explore existing trip requests and join  (ensure affordable & flexible ride)

Retro

We received positive feedback from judges at UMSI Expo 2024. We also plan to pitch this idea to universities, introduce a subscription model, and generate revenue through advertising for local shops.

If we have more time, we aim to conduct another round of usability testing with a more diverse group of students to capture broader experiences and perspectives.