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Revitalizing the Chartered Bike's App -
A UX Case Study in Redesigning User Experience
I had the privilege of being part of a groundbreaking project to redesign the Chartered Bike experience, the first automated public bicycle sharing system in India. The project began in 2017 with the launch of the system in Bhopal, and it has since expanded to include several other cities such as Ranchi, Surat, Kolkata, Srinagar, Moradabad, and Prayagraj.
Being involved in this ambitious endeavor allowed me to contribute to the transformation of the Chartered Bike experience for a rapidly growing startup, which has made its mark as one of the most successful ventures in India.
Brand-
PROJECT TYPE-
Mobile Application
MY ROLE-
UX & Product Design
Design by accretion
In just five years since 2017, Chartered started a Micro-mobility service for 2 Cities in India. By 2023, Chartered delivered over 1 Lakh rides a day in over 7 cities across country.
The Chartered app — designed in 2017, struggled to scale alongside the hyper-growth of the company. Fundamental usability was challenged. Disparate features and experiments competed for focus. App reliability and performance issues increased exponentially.
The previous Chartered app designs:
Trip Summary
Station 9829 (08:18 AM)
Station 9845 (09:07 AM)
info@charteredbike.in
Request Invoice
49 min 23 sec
15
-2.00
Carbon(kg)
700.00
Calories(Kcal)
10.00
Distance(km)
Bike No: 7551008049
Contact Us
Report Problem
Website
charteredbike.in
Paid
Bike No: 7551008049
Duration: 0 mins
25 Jan 2019 t 6:30 PM
15
Paid
Bike No: 7551008049
Duration: 0 mins
25 Jan 2019 t 6:30 PM
15
Unpaid
Bike No: 7551008049
Duration: 0 mins
25 Jan 2019 t 6:30 PM
15
Refunded
My Trips
THE challenge
Revitalize and Amaze - Recreate the Magic in Just 4 Months
The objective of our project was to rekindle the enchantment surrounding Chartered's progress. The initial concept was straightforward: a seamless ride experience at the tap of a button. However, recognising the evolving nature of our business and the diverse range of users, our aspirations extended towards establishing a robust foundation.
At a broader level, our goals were:
Enhancing Accessibility and Efficiency: Our goal was to create a fast and user-friendly Chartered experience for users everywhere, minimizing friction and ensuring a seamless journey.
Empowering Riders: We aimed to give riders more control over their time and finances by offering customizable options and transparent pricing, enabling them to make informed decisions based on their specific needs.
Fostering Innovation and Engagement: Our objective was to build a platform that fostered innovation and deep engagement. This involved nurturing partnerships, supporting third-party integrations, and embracing emerging technologies to continuously enhance the experience for riders.
My Role
I led the experienced design team to recreate an exceptional rider experience. Through effective collaboration with cross-functional teams, we worked together to craft a remarkable journey for our riders, focusing on every detail to ensure their satisfaction.
Kickoff
Picking up the pieces
At the beginning of the project, we lacked a clear mission and specific goals regarding the riders needs. Understanding the importance of gaining insights, I collaborated closely with the chartered team to embark on a comprehensive exploration of how riders were navigating their way.
Early Insights from the Field
We conducted usability testing of the existing Chartered app. Specifically, we tested the app with 2 participants in areas of Surat city. Our primary objectives were to identify the obstacles riders encountered during their journeys and to uncover the solutions or workarounds they employed to overcome these challenges.
Please login to pedal it out and enjoy the ride.
Lack of Onboarding Journey
Users expressed frustration upon downloading the app, as they encountered confusion regarding where to start, which buttons to click, and which activities to engage in.
Horticulture Department
9829
| + Bikes
| Racks
10 mins
Type something
Finding a bike station poses a significant
challenge for users.
Users expressed frustration due to the absence of specific routes to the stations, especially for newly established stations that people were unaware of. The lack of a navigation feature further exacerbated their frustration.
Bike No: 7551008049
Station 9829
Bike is under maintance at the moment.
Please try another bike.
The app fails to provide information on
the availability of bikes.
Frequently, users encountered a situation where they were unable to find bikes at the expected stations. Despite traveling to the station, they would often face the disappointment of bike unavailability.
Reframing the Problem
Inadequately unstructured user journeys lead to difficulties and challenges for users.
The Chartered app aggravates the creation of problematic user journeys, characterized by inaccurate locations, ambiguous information, and inefficient routes, resulting in confusion for users. Consequently, users are compelled to engage in additional communication and exert extra physical effort, leading to frustration and wasted time.
“...how might we help users and Chartered team for a better engagement?”
This raised the question of how we can enhance user engagement and support both users and the Chartered team. Our proposed solution involves integrating Google Maps and implementing a Conditional UI approach to create a user-centric journey.
A map of the user-centric journey broken into two phases: creating the journeys and executing the same in UI.
The Chartered Redesign
Introducing user-centric journey
In a fast-paced era where time is of the essence, Chartered prioritizes efficiency, ease, and tranquility by ensuring quick and effortless travel for short distances.
Just register yourself and we do the rest
Chartered is proud to present its new splash screens, designed to enhance your onboarding experience and guide you through the app's functionalities. With Chartered, you can now save valuable time by entering your details just once, enabling us to provide you with personalized future rides based on your preferences.
Our user-friendly walking instructions have been specifically developed to help you easily navigate and identify your desired station, eliminating the confusion of nonsensical addresses.
Always Moving forward and faster
Sometimes there’s a faster way, that requires walking. Chartered understands these situations and gives you an option to save time.
Flexibility and the final say
Sometimes your situation requires precise control over where to get Bicycle. Chartered gives you complete control when you need it.
How we got there
Perfect the user journey for everyone, everywhere
Three primary questions informed my design strategy:
How do you design for everyone, everywhere?
What contexts need to be considered?
What’s the perfect user-centric journey?
A more inclusive design
The existing Chartered app was poorly designed for users. To move beyond the existing biases, I tried to educate the team with an approach to designing for everyone, everywhere.
I created this additional hierarchy of needs framework to reframe our conversations about quality and features.
A little self-reflection
This project was a good reminder of the importance of use-cases and personas.
Challenges
While not possessing an intimate familiarity with micro-mobility and EV bicycles, I faced certain challenges. To bridge this gap in knowledge, I heavily relied on the expertise and specifications provided by the Chartered team to understand the specific needs of riders. Leveraging my UX knowledge and skills, I then applied my understanding to determine the most appropriate and effective interactions for an optimal user experience.
Lessons
Collecting and extracting objectives from team members who may not have a clear understanding of the contributions made by a UX professional proved to be challenging and time-consuming. This extended the feedback loop and required additional effort to align everyone's perspectives. However, this project served as a valuable reminder of the significance of use-cases and personas in guiding the design process. It highlighted the importance of effectively communicating the value and role of UX in order to foster better collaboration and streamline the feedback gathering process.
HI-FIDELITY
PROTOTYPE
credits
Ux design
Kuldeep
UI design
Kuldeep
Varun
Product design
Kuldeep
Project Manager
Varun