According to U.S. News, nearly half (52%) of college students do not have cars on campus. As a student who has never had a car, I rely on public transportation and my university’s strong walking culture to travel around town. However, as a young freshman who got home-sick frequently the lack of a personal vehicle had proven difficult time and time again.
Traxi makes it easy to find rides with quick search and recommended trips
View detailed ride information with options to quick message and book within the app
The Rides tab provides a quick glance of upcoming trips with options to expand for more information
Traxi is a mobile ridesharing application that connects college students looking for a ride, to other students who can provide one. The goal is to create a travel experience where students can book in minutes, split driving costs, and meet new people!
For this project, I used the “Design Thinking” process, as it’s a useful method of tackling complex problems that are ill-defined, and reframes the problem in human-centric ways. In particular, this process allowed me to test assumptions and iterate quickly until a satisfactory output was received.
Takeaways from this competitive analysis include:
It was first important to understand how students currently travel long distances, a competitive analysis was done that analyzed 3 services running from Virginia Tech to IAD Washington Dulles Airport, a common route that students take.
I conducted interviews with 5 individuals who were familiar with the current rideshare community at Virginia Tech, and was interested in understanding how they find rides. This feedback allows us to draw parallels to the shortcomings of the current system.
Based on the feedback collected, there were many shortcomings to the current rideshare system, which comprimises on safety and usability. Although most students have tried other forms of transportation (listed above), they remain using rideshare groups. There were 3 major themes that emerged from the collected insights, detailed below.
From the data collected above, a passenger persona can be synthesized, which represents a larger group of individuals in the ride-sharing community.
After all of the insights had been compiled, I started developing a series of actionable features to address the concerns of the users. An important distinction to make about Traxi that makes it different from other rideshare applications is it’s strict use for college students. Demographic data shows us that students are more receptive to trying different services, but are faster to leave if they experience discomfort. Using this data, I am looking to create features that are streamlined, efficient, and flexible.
Through user feedback and testing, there were many adjustments made to make the design more human-centric such as simplifying screens and displaying more pertinent information.
As my first complete UI/UX Case Study, it was a great experience going through the entire research and design process. As a result, I've gained more confidence in my product design abilities, and I am more passionate than ever to continue learning! 🎉
One of my main takeaways from this project is to avoid rushing the design thinking process. Taking shortcuts on the UX research process only makes it that much harder to create UI designs. Testing and iterations are an inevitable part of the process and should be viewed as beneficial rather than a hinderance.
One of my main takeaways from this project is to avoid rushing the design thinking process. Taking shortcuts on the UX research process only makes it that much harder to create UI designs. Testing and iterations are an inevitable part of the process and should be viewed as beneficial rather than a hinderance.