Product Design
/
Motoring
Product Design
/
Motoring
Midrive is an app that users can use to book driving lessons, practise their driving theory and learn about driving rules and regulations in preparations for their driving test
Upon joining Midrive I was given a mandate to redesign the user experience of learner drivers to increase engagement and revenue. The company had two apps currently in use; the first was the core Learner app, where users could book and manage their driving lessons. The second was the Theory app, where users could practice their driving theory and compete in leaderboards against other learners. The Theory app was currently receiving no support as they company had struggled to find ways to monetise it.
When reviewing both apps and the situation regarding the Theory app, it was easy to see that the company had struggled to create a scalable product strategy. Both apps were developed separately from each other, with no consistent design language. Data from the core Learner app also showed limited engagement where there was no additional content.
Additionally, as the company had no product manager I was put in charge of the management of the product, and formulating a strategy for the apps that could be scalable.
To get started I analyzed data from both apps to get a better idea of the engagement both apps received and technical limitations. It was clear the Theory app had really good engagement, and was trending as one of the most popular Theory apps in the App Store so I felt strongly that to increase engagement, Theory content needed to be front and centre of the updated experience.
The Learner app’s problem as mentioned earlier was its like of engagement outside of booking lessons. With this in mind I made the decision that the best course of action was to combine the apps, creating a single Midrive Learner and Theory app.
The technical discovery also showed that the apps were weighted down with big font files and images. This would have to be dealt with if we were to combine the apps.
The first thing I got started with was to design the architecture of the app to accommodate both sets of functionality. We tested different systems but agreed that a simple 3 point navigation was best. This was simply ‘Home’, ‘Lessons’ and ‘Theory’. We preferred this approach as we wanted to focus on engagement and revenue, so ‘Lessons’ would be the engagement piece and ‘Lessons’ the revenue piece.
As the technical discovery showed a heavy workload due to the number of big assets, I decided to simplify things by using the native font of the device being used. I also remove a lot of unnecessary background images and patterns that cluttered the experience. I also applied a more consistent design language and set of components to help create a visual identity that was scalable.
Engagement was already high on the Theory app, but I felt more was needed to consolidate the experience. The previous app essentially was a leaderboard app and I felt a more gamified approach was required.
When analyzing competitor products, including official DVLA software, I noticed that an emphasis was put on the completion of different subjects. I decided to add completion levels to those in the app and make them match what users would also see in the DVLA app. I then also designed a number of playful badges the user could win when completing certain tasks, to ensure the experience never went dry.
All in, these updates helped improve engagement of the Learner app by 300%. A big win, and evidence that Theory content was critical to the learner driver experience.
As the booking experience was already performing well, I broadly stuck with the same UX, and only updated components to match the new, cleaner style. After release we monitored the lesson booking and noticed that we were now receiving orders for lessons from users who were using only the Theory portion of the app.
This conversion rate was calculated at 7% after 3 months and showed that the strategy to combine both apps was both correct and proving effective.
