Kater is a service that enables drivers to connect with people who want to be chauffeured in their own car. Due to regulation Vancouver does not have access to ride sharing services like Uber. Kater is an alternative for those who would like to get their time back from driving.
To facilitate this there would need to be an admin system to manage drivers, users, and administrators who would help execute smooth transactions (such as addressing problematic trips, customer support, and being on call for any kind of emergency). In addition to this, there would need to be customer and driver facing apps. This product had a broad scope and a strict deadline. As the only designer in a very small app-development shop, and at intermediate level at the time, this was a significant challenge.
Goals
Deliver designs for an MVP that would address the key three user types: drivers, users who wanted to hire drivers, and administrators
Create a mobile-first experience for the driver and user apps and a web app for administrators
Make use of the existing Kater branding and aesthetic to tie the product together while also considering contemporary mental models and design choices
Regularly meet with the clients directly in order to discuss scope, progress, features
Work closely with development to scope out the product
Create all design and documentation within 2 weeks with development dropping all other priorities and beginning foundational work right after initial scoping was complete
Even with our limitations we aimed to bring an experience that's user first
Approach
Attempt to identify and book group time with key individuals on the team who would be working on this product in order to create and execute an action plan
Research existing products in this space to get a sense of the landscape
Worked with the client to understand the experience of very early members of Kater
Run design workshops as early as possible in the development cycle. My goal was to rapidly create user stories that development could use to identify the technologies and scope of the product (using sticky notes and a white board). This also helped accelerate initial discovery and research into what affordances were required
Attempt to push back on feature creep and solidify product vision within pivoting requirements and goals
Approach the challenge head on and use my growing design knowledge and skills to attempt to mitigate the effects of the extremely short deadline
Requested resources like testing services, user panels, or incentives and space to do in person testing
Tested InVision prototypes with members of the team, friends, and family as resources for formal user testing and analysis did not become available
Used Jira, Confluence, Zeplin, and UXPin to provide documentation to developers and quality assurance team
Leverage existing mental models and design structures to help inform design decisions
We worked together to add touches such as small pieces of animation within the app
iOS shots
Admin panel
Car animation
Despite facing constraints the team and I wanted to make sure there were points of delight in the app. So we came up with this light, infinite, animation of a car driving! This was one of my first ever UI animations that was put into development.
Information architecture
Wireframes (Driver app)
Kater iOS UI
Kater admin panel
Outcome
This project was a great learning experience. The memory of this has given me the courage, knowledge, and foresight needed to speak up when it comes to unreasonable deadlines and to confidently discuss when processes are and are not working.
The work created would have greatly benefitted from user testing, discussion, feedback loops, experimentation, and iteration. Additionally, simply being able to use the app and service before delivery would have been very valuable in identifying improvements to the user experience.
This project gave me a deep understanding of the importance of pre-production, exploration, design experimentation, testing, and play. Projects need room to breathe!
