Today’s design brief is to redesign the Uber app to boost ride bookings during holiday seasons. This redesign will focus on enhancing user experience, providing holiday-specific features, and optimizing the app’s functionality to handle increased demand.

This is the tenth design brief or practice project for UI and UX designers looking to build a portfolio of credible work. Each detailed client brief is time-boxed, detailed, and crafted realistically enough to give you a hands-on experience of doing a real project. The design brief is meant to help you create realistic work you can add to your portfolio and test if design really is for you.

Designing an app is unique in that there are particular guidelines and best practices already outlined for Android and IOS that are different in some way to web patterns. This challenges the designer to be able to understand how platform constraints affect design.

As is usually the case, I have included the following with each design brief:

Timeline (For this to be realistic each brief has a timeline that is as close to real-world work as possible)
Objectives (What is REQUIRED by the client. This part usually trips designers up as they go off designing what is not required)
Platform(Where your designs will live. Understanding these platforms will give a well-considered solution)
Target audience (Users always come first and the design must accommodate the target audience’s pain points)
References (If you are not sure where to start, clients normally give a set of examples or references they like. The closer the design solution is to the references, the fewer revisions a designer will have to do)
Deliverables (Most importantly how the solution should be delivered. These represent what a well-detailed portfolio case study looks like so hit it out of the park)
Recruiter advice (Portfolio advice from creative directors, CEOs and leading design creatives from the biggest companies)

This will help you build your case study much faster as the project objectives and such are provided.

Let’s begin

Practice Project 10: Redesigning Uber App for Increased Holiday Rides

Client: Uber

Timeline
1–2 weeks. The project is expected to be completed within two weeks.

Objectives

The goal is to redesign the Uber app to boost ride bookings during holiday seasons. This redesign will focus on enhancing user experience, providing holiday-specific features, and optimizing the app’s functionality to handle increased demand.

“The global ride-sharing market is expected to grow from $75.39 billion in 2020 to $117.34 billon in 2021 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 55.6%.” – Grand View Research”By 2030, Urban areas will be home to more than 60% of the world’s population, leading to increased demand for ride-hailing services.” – McKinsey & Company

Requirements:

Festive and engaging user interface with holiday themes
Holiday-specific promotions and discounts
Enhanced ride booking and tracking features
Integration of special holiday services (e.g., ride scheduling, gift deliveries)
Improved communication tools for riders and drivers
Optimized performance for both iOS and Android platforms
Safety features and in-app support

Success Metrics to Consider:

Ride Volume: Increase in the number of rides booked during the holiday season

User Engagement: Increased daily active users and session duration

Promotion Utilization: High usage rate of holiday promotions and discounts

User Satisfaction: Improved user ratings and positive feedback in app stores

Target Audience

Jane Lee, 34 | The Holiday Shopper
NEEDS
Jane is a busy professional who relies on Uber for her holiday shopping trips. She needs reliable and quick transportation to navigate through the holiday traffic, and she appreciates easy access to in-app holiday deals and discounts. However, she often faces long wait times and difficulty finding available rides during peak shopping hours, which adds to her frustration. Managing multiple shopping bags while commuting also poses a challenge for her.

Michael Patel, 40 | The Family Traveler
NEEDS
Michael is a parent who uses Uber to travel with his family during the holidays. He needs safe and spacious rides that can accommodate his entire family, with features like car seats and child safety locks. Scheduling rides in advance for holiday events is crucial for him. Unfortunately, he struggles to find large vehicles that meet his requirements and faces challenges in coordinating multiple pickups and drop-offs for family members, all while ensuring the safety and comfort of his children.

Sarah Lee, 28 | The Festive Party Goer
NEEDS

Sarah is a social butterfly who relies on Uber to attend holiday parties. She seeks affordable and reliable rides, especially during peak party hours, and values the ability to share rides with friends easily. However, she frequently encounters high surge pricing and long wait times during holiday events. Coordinating ride-sharing with friends can also be a hassle, and the uncertainty of ride availability during busy periods adds to her stress.

Requirements

Please test our existing app with users to understand how the current functionality could be improved. Address their biggest pain point. 

User-friendly interface that allows for easy navigation
Ability to personalize music recommendations based on user preferences
Option to create and save playlists
Feature for offline listening as a stronger offering
Integration with social media platforms for easy sharing
Ability to purchase concert tickets through the app

Platform

The app should be compatible with either iOS or Android devices. Pay attention to IOS and Android guidelines.

IOS guidelines
https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guidelines/ios/visual-design/adaptivity-and-layout/

Android guidelines
https://material.io/design/usability/accessibility.html#hierar chy

References

References that our company would like the app to follow in terms of structure and layout. It will be your job to replicate something close to these examples but add your creative flair to it.

Lyft:Lyft

Didi Chuxing:Didi

Specifications / Limitations

App must load quickly hence any large interactions must be kept to a minimum.

Deliverables

Holiday-themed Home Screen: Festive design, quick access to holiday deals and promotions
Ride Booking Screen: Enhanced map interface, holiday-specific ride options, fare estimates with holiday discounts
Ride Tracking Screen: Real-time GPS tracking, driver information, estimated arrival times
Safety and Support Screen: In-app emergency contacts, real-time ride sharing with friends/family, safety tips
Promotions and Deals Screen: Special holiday offers, discount codes, referral bonuses
User Profile and Settings: Personal information, payment methods, ride history, preferences

Testing and Results section

Show your wireframes to 5 people and ask them using your designs what they think about them, what they would improve, and an overall rating.

Take their feedback, iterate the designs, and have a final round of testing with 5 users. See that you improve your overall rating. If not go back to the drawing board and change your designs and retest.