Personalized Route Planning
Community-Sourced Bike Routes
Bike Lanes and Route Display
Location Tracking & Direction
Intro
Citi Bike is a popular bike-sharing system in New York City, providing a sustainable, affordable transportation option to residents and visitors alike. The mobile app, crucial for accessing these services, allows users to locate available bikes, rent them, and plan their routes. However, as a frequent user, I identified several usability issues, including limited route planning and safety provisions, prompting me to leverage my design skills to address these challenges.
Over the course of a 6-week period in 2023, I navigated through various aspects of UX, including research, design, interaction design, prototyping, usability testing, and visual design. Please note, this case study is a personal project and not affiliated with or endorsed by Citi Bike.
Problem Definition
Through an extensive research phase, I discovered recurring user problems and needs that significantly impact user experience with the Citi Bike app. Among them, I focused on the following four:
Suboptimal Map Functionality: The map interface under-delivers on key features such as dedicated bike lanes and shared routes, leading to users overlooking important information. Plus, the lack of map rotation capability constrains users' spatial orientation.
Limited Route Planning: The current app lacks personalized route suggestions, limiting users' ability to devise safe, bike-friendly journeys. The absence of features that allow sharing of routes among users hinders the formation of a user community.
Docking Uncertainties: Users experience anxiety around successful bike docking due to fears of possible additional charges.
Hidden E-Bike Battery Status: The app does not effectively display critical e-bike battery information, resulting in unexpected ride difficulties due to power loss. This underscores the need for more accessible and clear battery status data.
"PROBLEM STATEMENT"
The current Citi Bike app presents multiple challenges, including limited route planning, dependence on other apps for navigation, and insufficient e-bike battery visibility. These issues raise safety concerns and lead to a fragmented user experience, limiting the wider adoption of bike-sharing in NYC. The aim of the redesign is to overcome these obstacles by designing a more intuitive, reliable, and user-friendly biking experience for all users.
Research
During the research stage, I applied a range of methods aimed at uncovering pre-mentioned user problems and needs. Here's a brief overview of these methods:
App Examination: I analyzed the current Citi Bike app, focusing on user flows within the main rider journey. This analysis helped me detect several potential obstacles to a seamless user experience.
* Examination of the current app through user flows within the main rider journey.
Competitive Analysis: I studied both direct competitors, such as Lime, Jump, and Spin, and indirect ones, such as Uber, Lyft, taxis, and the NYC Subway to identify opportunities for the Citi Bike app.
User Reviews: I referred to user reviews to to gather important insights about what users like, the common problems they face, and what makes them satisfied or unsatisfied.
User Personas: Utilizing the collected data, I created user personas that represented key user groups. These personas guided my design process, ensuring the solutions met actual user needs.
Early Design Concepts: My initial plan was to finish the research phase with user interviews. However, I started brainstorming solutions earlier than expected and decided to use the interviews for early validation of these design concepts. I presented initial sketches to the participants, gathering feedback on the ideas. Below are some of those sketches:
* Initial design ideas for the Citi Bike app shared with interview participants for feedback and early validation.
User Interviews: I conducted user interviews with 7 individuals, each representing the core user groups, to capture diverse experiences. Following these interviews, I synthesized the data to identify pain points, needs, and insights. This data was then organized and categorized into an affinity map, which visually presented research findings in a clear and concise manner.
* The Affinity Map categorizes and highlights user pain points, needs, and insights from user interview data.
Final Designs
Given I didn't have access to Citi Bike's original design system, I created a custom UI kit, maintaining consistency across the high-fidelity screen designs and introducing new components as required. Upon finalizing the high-fidelity screens, I converted them into an interactive prototype, demonstrating four key improvements I introduced:
Route Customization: Users can now tailor their routes, choosing from fastest, greenway, or low-stress options. The selection page shows e-bike battery status, ensuring users choose a bike fit for their journey. Dropdowns further simplify route adjustments and ride preferences.
Community-Sourced Bike Routes: After riding, users can suggest bike-friendly paths. Riders are being reassured of successful bike returns and offered rewards for approved route suggestions, enhancing the community's biking experience.
Bike Lanes and Route Display: A new button on the home screen allows users to easily switch bike lane displays on or off. I enhanced the visibility of the lanes and clearly labeled different lane types.
Location Tracking & Direction: Enhanced the map's location pointer for clarity, allowing it to rotate to match the user's direction.
Personalized Route Planning
Community-Sourced Bike Routes
Bike Lanes and Route Display
Location Tracking & Direction
Results
User Testing with 5 participants from the core user groups confirmed that participants have found the redesigned features intuitive, particularly valuing the route customization and bike-friendly suggestions as pivotal improvements.
All participants successfully navigated the tasks presented to them, highlighting the app's improved user-friendliness. They also expressed interest in utilizing the new features if integrated into the Citi Bike app.
The project was a success on all fronts.