Fetchr UX Case Study
Making a Complex Process Smoother and Simpler
Context
Fetchr is a courier app that enables you to send a package to any person or GPS location using your smartphone. My job was to improve the app’s overall UX & navigation to make sure it was intuitive and user-friendly. Below is how I approached the task. I’ll first be showing you how I thought and a sample of what I did (ex. design trials and experiments), followed by my final design results.
My Approach
1. Use & Observe The App, Talk To Its Users, Identify The Problems
Before I started, I first used the app myself to better understand and observe how it works and how its elements work and interact.
My Observations:
- Sending a package is actually more complex than it sounds and entails a lot of steps; a user has to fill in a lot of info and press a lot of buttons.
- The app uses a vertical scroll along with a button navigation system, which isn’t very practical.
- App’s informational input hierarchy and grouping could be better optimized.
- Apps looks confusing because there’s no clear differentiation between buttons, inputs, titles and elements.
- Aesthetically, the app looks bland.
Old Original App’s Steps To Send a Package
More User Feedback & Discovery:
- I also talked to a number of the app’s current users and got their feedback about the app.
- I tested the app with a number of new users who haven’t used it before to observe how they interacted with it and get any additional feedback they might have.
- I read reviews that users wrote about the app.
Defining The Problem:
I realized that the main UX challenge in our app was the following: the app is a complex one, and sending a package had many mandatory steps and info that needed to be filled without making it seem like a tedious task.
How can we incorporate all the app’s mandatory steps in a way that’s intuitive, user friendly, and not too tedious?
That was the main problem I was going to solve.
2. Research, Experiment, Explore, Prototype
A. Competitor Research
I researched, downloaded and tested many competitor courier services apps and similar apps to see how they did things and get some inspiration.
B. Steps & Grouping Experiments
I started exploring different groupings of screen elements. The question that came up was this: should we group and merge a lot of elements per screen in order to make the total number of screens and steps seem less? Or should we cut up the process into many smaller steps across several screens?
- Option A had logical grouping, but meant that more elements had to be crammed into single screens.
- Option B merged elements screen 2 and 3 into one screen. It meant that the total number of screens was less, but more actions had to be made on screen 2, and more elements had to be crammed in it as well.
- Option C had more screens, but only 1 or 2 actions had to be taken on each screen. Dividing a long process or form into smaller chunks is generally a good practice to make that form seem shorter.
These options were tested with users, and their feedback showed that option C was the preferred way to go.
C. Navigation Experiments
I explored different navigation options and tested them with users. The results showed that a big button navigation on the bottom (Option 4) was the most preferred navigation option.
D. More Prototyping
I designed and tested several other elements (ex. calendar/date picker) and screens (ex. driver arriving screens, package receiver screens, and more). I also made several UI options of the app and got user feedback to see which one was most preferred.
3. Test, Implement, Fix, Release
With all my wireframes and new UI tested and validated, I now had all I needed to create an interactive prototype. I created an interactive mockup and tested it with users in order to further fine tune my design and validate it. I took notes on how users interacted with the app, where they pressed, where they looked, and what they liked and disliked. I adjusted designs based on their feedback and came up with an improved prototype based on their feedback.
The new version of the app was now ready for release. I handed over my design assets to the development team, and they started working on the development of the new revamped app.
4. Success Indicators
- Conversion rate of new users increased by 5%.
- The new app’s UX & UI got a lot of positive feedback from users, most of them saying that the new app was smooth, intuitive & good looking.
Final Result
Here’s the final outcome of the app…