Uber • A counterintuitive approach to empowering older adults.
UX RESEARCH/CO-DESIGN/ACCESSIBILITY
Background
I am working with Uber's design and research team for my Georgia Tech capstone project to explore and improve the senior adult ride-sharing experience. I am working in a team of three and leading research alongside Autumn Pressley.
Duration
August 2023 — Ongoing
Role
Lead UX Researcher
THE PROBLEM
significance
It is estimated that more than 20% of Americans will be aged 65 + years by 2030, compared with 13% in 2010.
Among older adults in the U.S., ridesharing is the second most crucial mode of transportation.
A 10-year-long study reports that out-of-home mobility of older adults improved their overall quality of life.
target user
secondary research
Understand
We found 7 papers that explain the experiences of older adults when ridesharing to find patterns among their pain points —
Characteristics of ride share services for older adults in the US
E-hail knowledge, use, reliance, and future expectations among older adults
Barriers and facilitators of older adults’ use of ride share services
Social Dependency & Mobile Autonomy–Supporting Older Adults’ Mobility with Ridesharing ICT
Older People Need Rides. Why Aren't They Using Uber and Lyft?
Uber for Seniors?: Exploring Transportation Options for the Future
Compare
We analyzed 7 transit and rideshare services, looking for commonalities, differences, and gaps in order to find what works effectively and what does not. We compared existing web solutions and mobile apps —
AgeWell Atlanta
On The Go (San Diego)
Senior Services North Fulton (ATL)
Rides In Sight
Onward
SilverFleet (Singapore)
SafeRideNow
Following prominent themes emerged from the competitive analysis & literature review:
exploratory survey
We wanted to understand the challenges and experiences of seniors with ridesharing or other forms of transportation. Specifically, we wanted to…
Learn about their daily routines and habits.
Examine their current level of independence.
Guage their knowledge, opinion, and experience of ridesharing services.
Examine comfortability with using technology.
Identify main preferences and pain points with arranging/using different modes of transportation.
survey distribution
We used diverse avenues to distribute and advertise the survey —
SURVEY RESULTS
About 40% of the respondents were between the ages of 60 to 65 years old and fit into the "young old" category.
Greater than 50% of the respondents reported driving every day of the week. This is consistent with the fact that most respondents are young older adults.
88% of the respondents were female and majority of were between 60 to 70 years old.
The top 3 most common forms of transportation respondents use are driving themselves, riding with friends or family, and walking.
28% said they dislike relying on others to get around.
19% prefer not to ride with strangers.
19% reported not having access to public transit near their residence.
15% feel that taxi services and ridesharing are too expensive.
11% are uncomfortable using technology.
Discomfort with technology, inaccessible public transport, vision impairments, and physical mobility concerns are the main issues/reasons why respondents find it difficult or very difficult to arrange transportation.
On the other hand, respondents who found it easy or very easy to arrange transportation have not run into common issues but have voiced concerns regarding the use of technology, vision impairments, and physical mobility issues.
reddit analysis
We posted open-ended questions on some subreddits that did not allow surveys. We analyzed the comments on our post using color coding and discovered below themes. The highlighted themes were the main patterns we uncovered.
approach to user interviews
Independence and Technology were the two prominent themes we found in the survey data. We incorporated specific questions about these topics into our user interview discussion guide.
Independence
Who do you interact with on a day-to-day basis?
What does independence mean to you?
Does your ability to get around affect your independence and quality of life? How so?
If you couldn’t drive, how might you maintain your independence when it comes to getting around?
Technology
Tell me about your relationship with technology.
Do you use a smartphone? Or computer?
How confident are you with using your phone? What kinds of apps do you typically use?
What method/device do you prefer to book transportation — a computer, mobile app, etc.?