How would you design a car sharing platform like Uber for disabled people?

Such questions are essentially to judge your product vision skills.

Firstly, i would get some clarifications.

1. What does a disabled person mean - blind or deaf or both?

2. Car sharing such as Uber means - booking taxi or car pooling?

3. Which country are we planning to release this app?

Now lets modify depending on answer of each of the questions

Design a taxi booking app for the blind people - to be launched in the U.S.

Now the above problem statement is very specific.

Think about the MVP

1. Only 1 type of taxi booking

2. 1 audio command to book taxi

3. 1 audio command to cancel taxi

4. Destination - city name, area name only

5. Payment - Cash only

6. To be built on platform that is popular amongst the blind - lets assume iPad.

Now you have your MVP ready -

1. Authentican through contact number

2. Booking , canceling taxi

 

Next version could include

1. Braille based data entry

2. Adding braille gives flexibility for choosing different taxi services , payments

Trade offs

1. Expensive the build

2. Battery consumption of phone

3. Technological limitations due to unique offering

Firstly, I would like to ask some clarifying questions:

1)  What's the definition of a disabled person? Is the person deaf, or blind or paralyzed? All kind of disabilities
2) Do we need to build a mobile app or a desktop app? Mobile app

3) For which location are we building this? Worldwide

 

The goal of this project is to build a mobile app to be used worldwide for a fully disabled person.

Now I will list who the users are, what are the use cases, prioritize the use cases, find the loopholes in the current design and then suggest my solution for the same.

Users:

1) A fully disabled person

2) A nondisabled person will also use this app along with a disabled person

Use cases:

1) Booking a taxi. (Choosing a pickup and destination location)

2) Cancelling a taxi.

3) Pre-booking the taxi for a specific time. For e.g people going to the airport early in the morning at 4 a.m book the taxi in the night itself.

4) Making a payment via different options like credit card or cash.

5) Making a call to the driver in case if the driver is not able to locate you.

6) To inform the passenger once the taxi is booked or cancelling a taxi

7) To inform the passenger once the booking is done and taxi is about to arrive/arrived.

8) Providing a rating to the driver and the facilities in the car.

9) Getting a refund if the booking is cancelled and the payment is done.

10) File a complaint if the taxi is late in arriving or driver dropped at the wrong destination etc.

Prioritize the use cases:

I will build this app for the basic features which are booking the taxi, cancelling the taxi and making the payment.

 

Problems in the current design:

1)    A disabled person(paralyzed) cannot get inside the car on its own. He/She needs support.

2)    A disabled person (Blind person) cannot see the selection for pick up and drop.

3)    A disabled person (paralyzed by hand or cannot make a selection for payments.

Solution:

Audio Playback and Voice Command:

i)      Opening an app: A voice command should be used for opening the respective app in the mobile and audio playback should tell “App is open”.

ii)    Booking a Taxi: There should be a voice command for making a selection for pickup location and the destination location. Once the pick-up location is selected an audio playback should confirm “Pickup location is XYZ”.  Voice command should direct to the selection of destination location. Once the destination location is selected an audio playback should confirm “Destination location is ABC”.

iii)  Making a Payment: Voice command for making a payment. For e.g, a disabled person can say “Make a payment via XYZ credit card stored in the app”. An audio playback should confirm “The payment method selected”.

iv)   Booking Confirmation: An audio playback telling a person “finding the nearby drivers”.  Repeat the same sentence after 5 mins to let the person know that search is still going on. Once the car is found confirm the person “Car is arriving in 10 mins with the model/type and colour of the car and the number plate of the car”.

v)    Once the car is one min away inform the passenger via the audio playback and once it is arrived inform once again.

vi)   In order for the blind person to notice that the car has reached there can be sensors put in the car so that app can detect which car it is and the sensor can beep.

Cancelling a Taxi: Voice command and audio playback can be used for cancelling a taxi.

CLARIFYING QUESTIONS AND ASSUMPTIONS:

-What type of disability are we looking at here? For the sake of this question, I will chose the blind as my case study.

- Is the app owner an established or a start-up company? We will assume the company is a startup company. 

The following assumptions are taken into consideration:

- Uber-like car sharing - is a car-share app specifically designed for the blinds but also useable by able-body too. 

- Car-share meaning that there could be other car riders in the car during a particular trip.

- The product will be a compatible with a mobile App

- demography - USA
- Age bracket - 18 - 55 years

GOAL: 

The goal for the company is to acquire new users. Is that what you have in mind? 

Interviewer: Yes

Myself: okay

I will go over the user jorney to help with pain points. I have mentioned the user group above as primarily those that are visually impaired. Other able-body are also able to use this product as secondary users. 

User journey experience:

 - Decide to go to a location

- make a plan

- decide what means of transportation to use

- compare cost of Uber and Lyft

- make an order

- plan to meet the car at arrival point based on estimate.

- route, traffic or order changes estimate and time-to-wait increases (may decrease too)

- driver cancels trip or oder last minute and app immediately matches to another driver

- driver arrives and journey starts

- destination

- different rides with different personalities and experiences

PRIORITIZE USER NEEDS BASED ON PRODUCT GOAL

- Make order after comparing cost

- meet-up

- driver arrives

- rider locates reserved seat

Given the prioritized pain points, and remembering that my company is a startuo one, with primary iser as Adult blind, I will provide the following features as solution:

 

Solution – features	Effort	Impact
An App that can take in request via voice	Medium (M)	High (H)
when address is said, the app repeats the app and provides an option to accept/change	Low (L)	H
The App compares prize from Uber and Lyft and matches the lowest rate available (without considering promotion/discount)	H	H
After the order is completed and driver is matched, the app provides the estimated time left and distance to meet point	L	H
The App will continue to vocally update the rider on the progress of the driver to prepare the meet-up	L	H
The meet-up location will be precise as possible, accurate to about 50 feet	H	H
After the driver arrives, the App provides the rider the car orientation, and informs how to get to get to the reserved car seat	H	H
After the driver arrives at destination, a vocal notification from the driver’s App with the name of the rider	L	H

 From above able, all features (since they all have an high impact) will be implemented. The prize comparison feature is important because the goal of this product is to acquire new customers where prize plays a major impact. The meet-up will be very precise by using AI/ML and street cloud technology to communicate between the Apps on the driver and rider and also street information. The car orientation will also rely on this technology. 

The succes of the product will be evalated by the number of people who follow through the following: succesful mobile download, sign-ups, credit card connection and 1st trip search. Engagement will then be the ratio of this number to actual users that succesfully completes at least a trip in the first 3 months. 

In summary, we will have  a product with advanced features for visually impaired people while also giving room for visually-abled people to use the product.    

How would you design a car-sharing platform like Lyft for disabled people?Let’s start with clarifying our main goal 

First of all, let's clarify the scope of this question to make sure that I understand it. I have a few questions to start with.

• First, we should understand what type of disabilities we are focusing on? ( could be seniors, people that move in a wheelchair, people who underwent surgery recently, people with crutches, armless people, blind, deaf, etc)

• As I understand we are talking about a specific scope of Lyft's business - car sharing. When people can order the vehicle which takes a person from point A to point B. We are not focusing on car rental or public transit?

• We also need to identify the platform? Are we talking about mobile-only or also web-based platforms?

• I'm also curious if we are designing a new product or adding this to already existing Lyft?

Our next step would be to choose a goal

When I'm thinking about the mission of Lyft to "Improve peoples life with the best transportation" the mobility spectrum for disabled people looks the most reasonable because this is the problem Lyft is trying to solve, on the other hand, this is the big issue for people that have physical disabilities. Also from the social perspective, this is a good thing to care about people who want get the most of their lives and feel and treated the same as people without disabilities and be independent.

Lyft has a mission to “improve people's lives with the best transportation” and I see the mobility spectrum for people with disabilities the most sensitive problem to solve. It’s imperative that people with disabilities have the same treatment and get the most of their lives as any other individual would. 

We should mention though that cities and municipal transportation are doing their best to improve and develop infrastructure and features for people with mobility issues.

So we are designing mobile app like Lyft car-sharing capability for people who have mobility issues.

Let’s divide our research into User groupsPrimarily we can easily identify 2 main user groups like drivers and passengers. Let's move on with passengers:

• people on wheelchairs, that can navigate the chair, but can't walk (electric, manual)

• people on wheelchairs, that can navigate the chair and  can walk (electric, manual)

• can't navigate the wheelchair. Someone should accompany this person.

I suggest choosing people in a wheelchair, that can move it by themself but can't walk (electric, manual) because of the frequency and bigger reach.

User pains and needsNameimpactability to address

Need to order a suitable vehicle that can carry a wheelchair and disabled person	high	high
The need for someones help to get into the vehicle	medium	high
Safety of transportation	medium	medium
Transfer back	high	low
Cost of transportation	medium	medium
Time to wait	medium	medium

Solutions impactcost

Provide to user ability to chose special car type that has special equipment to load the vehicle and carry it	high	high
The user selects special requirements depending on them app searches for a suitable vehicle and assistance. If the person can do few steps, type of wheelchair. If electric so the car will need some extra space	medium	medium
Equip cars with the special tools (transport rack) that will help to get in and out from the car, drivers have special instructions.	high	medium
Electric wheelchair ride sharing.	low	high
Partner with companies or nurse houses do this already	high	low

 MVP

• Locate special the certified driver by Lyft with a suitable vehicle (Vans, SUVs)
• The user selects your special requirements
• Drivers help person to get in the car, based on requirements and instructions
• Load wheelchair to the car
• Unload wheelchair and help a person to get on the chair

Metrics

 

Primary: Number of completed rides Daily, weekly, monthly with this feature

Secondary

• number of orders with special requirements (Mobility issues) Daily, weekly, monthly

• Number of unsuccessful rides (inability to load person or the vehicle) Daily, weekly, monthly

• Rides rating with special requirements

• Canceled trips before arriving

• The Ratio of request and drivers match

Tradeoffs 

• Not every driver will be able to help

• Drivers should be trained for this job

• Cars should be certified or pre-checked by Lyft

• Additional tools, racks for the cars

• There may be a limited number of suitable vehicles, which may cause a long wait time or inability to find a ride back.

Summary 

For the goal  Design mobile app like Lyft car-sharing capability for people who have mobility disabilities.

We are focusing on the user group:

people in a wheelchair, that can navigate it, but can't walk (electric, manual)

and the core pain point

Need to order a suitable vehicle that can carry a wheelchair and a disabled person

The solution would be:

Partner with companies  that already provide this service (nursing homes, private clinics) and have trained people

North Star metric would be:

Number of completed rides (weekly, monthly)

 

 

 Let me make sure I fully understand the problem we are talking. We would like to design a new car sharing platform similar to Uber, Lyft, or other competitors with a focus on people with health conditions or impairments, is that correct?

Ok, great. To start us off, I would like to ask: do we have any specific group in mind? Answer: not at this moment, it is up to you to define the group. Ok great. Also, when we are talking about this group, can we assume that they are the users requesting rides? Answer: Yes, these users are the ones requesting rides.

Alright, so at this time we are looking to design a car sharing platform similar to Uber and others with a special focus on people with health conditions or impairments. We are being generic at this moment in the specific group, but we know that this group is the one actually using the app to request rides.

I will answer this question by walking my way through four different categories: 1. Understand the company and current market; 2. Understand who our user persona is; 3. Identify their pain-points; 4. Identify solutions to overcome these pain-points.

Is this approach ok for you?

Ok, awesome. Let me take a moment to collect my thoughts here.

So, we are looking to create a new car sharing platform. This market has two big competitors today, Uber, and Lyft. They are the ones driving innovation and the direction of the market today in the United States. Other countries may have some local solutions, but they all behave the same. The user, through their apps, request a ride from place A to place B. They are connected to a designated driver who knows in advance how much they will make on that ride. Uber and others charge a fee of that ride from the driver, making money.

Ok, now that we understand how this market works, we are looking to design a new platform for a specific group of customers. The best north start metric in this case will be user retention, i.e., how many rides have the user booked.

Now, let’s understand our user persona. We can divide our target audience in four groups: 1. User’s physically impaired; user’s visually impaired; Users who have mental health issues;  user’s vocally impaired, i.e., not able to speak.

Looking at this population, I would love to focus on the second group. From my experience and observing the obstacles that some friends have faced in the past, I believe there is a big, not attended market here that other big companies are leaving behind. Is that ok? Alright, great. Let me take a quick moment to reflect on their pain-points.

Ok, so I believe I can summarize their pain-points into three different groups:

1.       Ordering a ride: user may face difficulties in ordering a ride if they are using a new app and are not used to the user experience.

2.       Finding their ride: imagine that you are on the 5th avenue in NYC and are trying to find where your ride is. For us, it is already complicated, imagine for a visually impaired person?

3.       Arriving at your destination: how can these users be sure that they are arriving at the destination they asked for?

There are a few solutions that I can think of to overcome these pain-points:

1.       For ordering a ride, we could develop an easy-voice navigation app where the user can, through voice command, define their pick-up and drop-off location. The app would speak out the final price, estimated time of arrival, and all other details and ask the user to confirm if he or she wanted to continue with booking.

2.       Our company could provide specific devices to be installed in the driver’s vehicle where, through NFC technology, would connect to the user’s phone. The phone, then, could vibrate if he or she walks close or away from the vehicle. Once inside the vehicle, their phone would emit a sound or a different type of vibration to make sure that this is the right driver and vehicle.

3.       Similar to the last feature, once arriving to the destination their phone can emit a sounds or vibration to alert the user that he or she has arrived. On top of that, in terms of security and keeping he or she updated during the whole journey, their phone could vibrate an X amount of time to represent the minutes remaining. For example, the user asks for a ride that is supposed to take 12 minutes. As the ride start it would quickly vibrate 12 times and reduce it every minute that they get closer to the destination.

Going back to our North Star metric, increase user retention, I believe we should focus on my last feature. The reason is that, for the first feature, all our phones already have voice commands that can be well adapted to any given app. Therefore, yes, we may improve user experience but that won’t differentiate us from the competitions. For the second feature, it sounds a great idea, however, we are now talking about a new hardware and software development. On top of that, NFC technology, as of today, requires close proximity to work well. We could use Bluetooth or other technologies, but there is always the possibility of interference, which could ruin the user’s experience and decrease user retention.

The last feature sounds like a way for us to differentiate from the competitors and I would like to expand a little bit on that. It seems like an easy implementation solution that could bring a lot of benefits for the end-user as it would empower them to be the owners of their journey. They would understand from the moment they are inside the car until the moment they are done with the ride what is going on and how long would it still take for them to arrive. It is a discrete solution if we go with the vibration option, which increases security. Talking about security, we could add on top of this feature future add-ons, for example, if the driver, for some reason, goes into a different direction or decides to take a different route, say, for kidnapping or other more concern issues like that, the app could identify that and connect the user to their safety contacts or even the police.

One downside of this solution is that it can be easily copied by competitors. However, today, none of the competitors have this option available. Once we have this app and feature in the market, visually impaired are loyal type of users who dislike changing from app to app because of all its learning curve. As we keep creating adds-on and features to this new app we will differentiate ourselves from the beginning and acquire these loyal users, making it less likely for them to move to competitors. Finally, a last side, however, not last important issue may be on acquisition of drivers. Most of the drivers, on the other hand, are already on all these platforms and have little benefit to migrate to a new one. We would need to focus a big effort in marketing and benefits for them to move to our new platform, however, having the right capital funds I am certain we can find the right user acquisition solution.

In summary, we were looking into designing a new car sharing platform for the disabled people. More specific, we are looking into the visually impaired group. Our North Star metric is user retention, and we are focusing on developing a solution to help this group be the owners of their own ride journey by alerting them at each minute of the ride. They can expect when they will arrive at their locations and will have safety features included in if, for some reason, the driver decides on a negative/dangerous behavior. There are some downsides that we need to be aware of, first, on the competitors copying our solution and secondly on acquiring enough drivers to our new platform. The first is easily solved as this group tends to not move platforms frequently because of the learning curve. The second can be worked on by having the right marketing and funds to promote user acquisition.

 

 

 

 

Clarifying Questions:

1. What do we mean by disabled people? There are various types of disabilities 

• deaf
• blind
• mentally disabled
• physically disabled-->1-hands  2-legs(wheelchair using)

2. Can we assume that this app helps wheelchair using riders and have a smooth experience while riding - yes

3. Which geography do we focus on? – US

 

Pain points

-have to use wheelchair and is hard to put it in cars
-hard to get in a car and get out of a car
-need to arrive exactly on the destination and go into the place (need extra support)
-don't want others to touch them while getting in/out of the car
 

Solutions

-mention type of disability in profile, so we show it to drivers as specific passengers "wheelchair using"
-pricing strategy should be different to encourage drivers accept these passengers
-drivers should put a wheelchair in and out of the car
-drivers should help passengers to get in and out of the car
-drivers have to ensure entering them into their target place
-passengers should rate drivers and check the steps were taken by drivers(mandatory)
-teach drivers how to behave with wheelchair using people
-if there are only a few cars for disabled people, pre-booked cars feature can help them.
-afford cars with a Rear-Entry Ramp and needed space can be an option

#2

Clarifying questions:
- What do we mean by disabled people? There are various types of disabilities 

• deaf
• blind
• mentally disabled
• physically disabled-->1-hands 2-legs (wheelchair using)

- Can we assume that this app helps totally blind riders and have a smooth experience while riding - yes

- Which geography do we focus on? – US

 

Pain points

-how to sign up Uber
-how to book a car
-how to pay
-Maybe need help to get in a car and get out of a car
-need to arrive exactly on the destination and go into the place (need extra support)

Solutions

If the person is not alone, she/he can gets help to sign up and book a car and also pays the exact required cash

But in the case she/he is completely alone:
1-they can use screen reader and voice recognition for the whole signing up and booking process

2-if there is no screen reader and voice recognition

·        they need to call Uber to sign up and book a car every time

·        they can ask support to make some favorite locations for them to just name them in every call or tell the locations in every call

·        support shouldn't hang out till one driver accepts

·        drivers should call and say when they will arrive and again call them when they arrive.

·        drivers need to double-check a destination with passengers

·        If they want to pay by cash, there will be a trust issue and one solution is that drivers take photos with Uber app when passengers pay and when they get rest of the money.

·        The other way to pay is charging your account before

·        drivers have to ensure entering them into their target place

·        support should call passengers to rate drivers and check all steps were taken by drivers

·        teach drivers how to behave with blind people

·        mention type of disability in profile, so we show it to drivers as specific passengers "blind people"

 

·        pricing strategy should be different to encourage drivers accept these passengers