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Redesign of the Popular Plenty Waka App- UX Case Study

About Plenty Waka

Plentywaka is a bus sharing solution that offers commuters convenience, safety and comfort in their daily rides. They provide a convenient and efficient driving experience, one route at a time. From fully insured licensed drivers to completely secure payments, Plentywaka provides a safe & reliable experience.

Why Plenty Waka?

The app had a mixture of good and bad reviews due to UX problems that made the app frustrating to use. The platform lost a lot of users and credibility. They needed a redesign of their interface to make it easier for users so the product could be more user-centred. Moreover, there were complaints from Plenty Waka users regarding difficulty navigating through the app, security authentication and more. We had to go through Android Play Store for more reviews from users and then researched to fix the pain points.

In Lagos, Nigeria about 9,000,000 people have to hustle for buses daily. Besides the constantly fluctuating cost of boarding a bus, and their availability on almost every route, there’s nothing fantastic about the transport service. The seats are uncomfortable, the buses are in poor conditions, the drivers and conductors are rude, and they drive recklessly. Also, the buses are in a state of disrepair. The list is endless. Plentywaka wants to make getting from A to B simpler and more efficient than jumping danfos, kekes, and okadas.

Project Summary

Redesign a transport app with the core objective of improving process efficiency in the transport system. Also, to solve the problems about users' complaints by making onboarding easier and registration flow for new and existing users by simplifying the necessary steps needed. Also, the inability to contact the driver and know the location of the bus before pickup.

Challenges

The first step was to conduct research for the Plenty Waka transport app and collect information regarding the user experience and reviews through the Google Play Store and App Store. The problems were identified after sorting and analyzing the information gathered. Additionally, it helped understand what the users wanted.

These are a few of the difficulties encountered while performing my analysis:

User Experience: The design elements should evoke emotion and appreciation, as well as being useful, desirable, and usable.
User Interface: Appearance is the first and most important aspect of an application. Sadly, the app has a poorly designed interface
Lack of user engagement/navigation: A user's engagement with an application is closely tied to its appearance, offers, and schemes. By comparison with competitors, the application falls short.

Roles

UX Research
UI Design
Wireframing
Interaction Design

Tools

Figma
FigJam

My Goals

Improve the app's usability and user-friendliness.
Develop and validate design solutions.
Improve usability and make the app more user-friendly.
Increase users' trust in Plenty Waka.
Learn more about transportation in general.
Communicate my design process.

My design process

Competitive Analysis

Plenty Waka is a Nigerian transportation service with multiple competitors. We investigated significant competitors' products, sales, and marketing tactics. By doing so, we developed solid business strategies that outperformed the competition. We also examined each app's features and highlighted opportunities for the Plenty Waka app, such as expert knowledge and a better understanding of their business model.

To provide a more exciting user experience, we identified the overall navigation and onboarding procedure.

Validated User Cases

We created different scenarios description of how users will perform tasks on the transport App to understand various reasons for using the App, the desired outcome and also the goal of the users

"We need to look good on arrival at my face-face interview today. Taking danfo is hectic. My clothes might stink due to sweat from other commuters. I cannot afford to take an Uber. Let me book via Plenty Waka."
"My friend is coming over to visit me. It is so late. Lagos state can be unsafe at night, especially for someone who does not know their way around. The safest way to transport at this time of the night is via Plenty Waka. Let me quickly book a ride for her so she can commute safely. "

User Story

As a user, I want to be able to sign quickly using my phone number
As a user, I want to include my card details securely for bookings
As a user, I want to be able to see the location of the driver before he arrives at my pickup point
As a user, I want to be able to track my journey to know where to know the appropriate bus stop to get off the bus.

Getting Started

We used the LEMERS UX assessment method to garner critical insights. Using the acronym "LEMERS," this strategy describes UX design concepts.

Efficiency - How rapidly can a task be executed? Are there any unique shortcuts?

Memorability - How easy is it to recover competency after a long or short absence of usage?

Errors - How frequently do errors occur, and how are they handled?

Satisfaction - How enjoyable is it to utilise the design? Is the visual design intriguing?

Understanding the users

To understand users’ issues and pain points with the transport app, We needed to see things from their view.

The first step was to recruit participants for our research. The research was carried out using interviews targeting Plenty Waka app users.

We carried out 6 qualitative interviews after identifying the population and then used Judgement sampling of diverse people. We prepared a discussion guide with a list of possible questions to ask our interview participants and conducted a remote moderated interview session with two qualified participants the result of this research is shown below:

The qualitative interview conducted with participants shows that

50% are male while 50% are female.
40% out of the participants I interviewed fall within the range of 18-25years.
55% of them fall within the range of 26–35years, while 5% are 36years and above.
Only 60% of the people interviewed use the app. The remaining 40% do not.
Only 70% of users use Plenty Waka as their main transport app while 30% do not.
30% of participants do not use other transport apps while 70% use other apps because of their seamlessness.
80% of users use the app for safe travels while 20% use it for convenience.

Furthermore, we tried to get feedback based on their overall feel of the app and based on their usage. See the generated pain points below:

The registration process was long.
There was no easy way to reach customer service.
The app loads slowly. It is not easy to navigate
The app is not visually appealing
Perceived favouritism amongst the riders
Reckless driving and attitude of the drivers
Accessibility - Not plying all the routes in Lagos.
Lack of response from support
Feeling Unsafe
Having to commute alongside strangers is uncomfortable.
Feels like a game of luck ordering your service.
Having to wait for buses can be frustrating.
Inability to see the distance of the driver from the pickup location. The app does not update bus locations in real-time.
Inability to order rides
The bus does not recognise bus locations.
It takes too long to find a bus.

Validated user persona

These personas are made based on user research. We systematically studied target users to collect and analyse data that will help inform the product design process to develop products that satisfy users' needs.

Empathy Map

It was important to know the needs of users by carrying out research. Getting into the user, to understand the user's needs and aims of the product.

Ideation

With the pain factors identified, it was required to alter the user flow of the transportation app, beginning with the onboarding phase. Additionally, a two-step authentication was needed to protect users. We chose the important menu items and grouped them in order of priority, laying the groundwork for the design process and assisting in the creation of the user flow.

The solutions (User flow)

User flow

The user flow was designed to help manage users' progress so that consumers could easily adapt to the product's functionality and discover everything they need without much effort.

Sketching the solutions

After defining the flow, it's more crucial that sketching and wireframes are done before designing mockups and prototypes.

Why?

When implementing the wireframes into the design we can limit the design iterations we have to do since we have a clear structure for the application.

Low-Fidelity Wireframe

The skeleton of the page is represented by a low-fidelity wireframe.

Defining the solutions

This app's interfaces are designed to improve users’ satisfaction. User-friendly, intuitive, pleasant, and easy-to-use designs are my goal.

Bottom navigation system

The bottom navigation style makes it easy for the most important tabs to be easily accessible.

High Fidelity Wireframe

During the advanced stages of the design process, a high fidelity wireframe captures the product's look and feel.

In high-fidelity wireframes, actual images, typefaces, colours, and branding elements are included instead of placeholders and lorem-ipsum text that are in low-fidelity wireframes.

Splash Screen

Whenever it is possible, improving the User Experience of everything around one as a UX designer is important, including Plenty Waka. Although UX Designers design mostly internet-based interfaces, their expertise does not end there. The splash screen was made as simple as possible for users. There is a loading screen with the logo at the middle; this leads to a welcome screen that provides a login or sign up option.

Reducing user churn by optimizing the onboarding flow

User onboarding is no longer just about welcoming new customers, rather, it is about showing them around and making sure they have a successful experience. The goal was to ensure there was minimal cognitive load for the user. A product's user flow becomes more complicated with each additional call to action. The app's onboarding sequence also tends to be pared down to what is necessary. A simple and intuitive design with minimal content and interface elements was the most suitable option. For the research, a lot of information was sought to get on the app so users don't feel overwhelmed with all the forms at once. It requires users to enter their phone number, get a one-time password that confirms their account ownership, and create a profile to use on the app.

My preferred login screen is one that feels personal to use and is easy to log into.

Improving information hierarchy on the user and Reducing cognitive overload

The entire dashboard screen was redesigned. The information hierarchy was arranged so a user doesn’t get confused by a busy interface.

1. Created a feedback mechanism between the customer and the drivers.
2. Linking the customers to Plenty Waka admin.
3. Live chat added
4. Ratings for Drivers
5. Create a more functional UI interface - Arrival time, Bus stop names, map views, Easy payment gateways, Language option.

6. Addition of live map to view drivers location, riders navigation and live bus movement

Based on the research carried out:

Long wait time (eTA) variables notification system for each user
The intuitive navigation of the live locations of drivers are poor
Inability to topup
Inability to find a bus quickly

Ticketing: Barcodes were added for seamless authorisation before boarding

Live chat added

Google map enhanced including viewing the trip from start to finish whilst on transit

The app was redesigned to be more visually appealing, intuitive and also for easy navigation.

Interactive Prototype

It was challenging and enjoyable prototyping the design using Figma. Since testing was done with a phone, so the interaction would seem like a real app. Major screens were prototyped, interactions, and micro-interactions of the app, giving the user the feeling of a live application.

Here is the link to the interaction:

Conclusion

Overall, the end-to-end experience was enjoyable and presented insight into how users interact with the app to create better navigation. Many challenges were encountered while developing this app, most notably when prototyping it. As research was done, we discovered different aspects that needed to be improved. As a result, the focus was then on creating a better navigation experience for the app. In addition, I have gained a deeper understanding of the transportation industry as a whole.

Working on this project has been highly rewarding, and I would like to continue to learn about how to create great experiences for users and businesses through my work on Apps.

A business like PlentyWaka should also be cognizant of its customer's experience, and respond quickly to customer complaints about its user interface.

I appreciate you for taking the time to read this far!

*Please note that the redesign of the app was done in collaboration with others*