So what would you improve in the Uber Apps?

Uber, the company on top of the proverbial totem pole of internet startups in terms of valuation, is planning for IPO this year. Depending on which news source / reporter you trust, the market cap being targeted is a nosebleed 100 - 120 USD billion.

That is insane money. More so because the whole thing has been around for barely 10 years and achieved a value (valuation) of ~ 1 billion USD just 6 years back.

The Uber apps are slick, complemented by great customer service.

On days, it still amazes me that I can hail a cab by tapping on the phone a few times when I remember that it has been barely a decade when I got my first feature phone. < Of course, it is the general feeling of using Uber, Ola, Swiggy, Zomato, OYO, Flipkart, Amazon - the list is pretty exhaustive >

What is a reality now would have felt almost magical a decade back - stuff which you see in the sci-fi movies.

That said, Uber, like many other platforms, can look into improving the customer experience of the already present offerings. I am not talking flying cars or VTOL yet.

As someone who has been using Uber Apps for the last four years, here are a few development opportunities which the Uber team may want to think a bit about.

The scope of the opportunities are limited to Product / UX from the perspective of customer experience, in India.

Uber - Android App:

a) A better post-driver-cancelled ride assignment system:

In the current scenario, if a driver cancels the ride, Uber automatically starts finding another cab and doesn't stop till the time it assigns me another cab.

While this well-meant thought does help in a few scenarios, probably a better method would be to ask the rider if they would want to look for another cab instead of automatically finding another. Currently, the user doesn't even have an option to stop the automatic search.

Countless number of times post the automatic assignment, I have found myself explaining to a new driver that I didn't ask for a cab while I was in an auto-rickshaw.

The blaring noises interferes with the explanation not to mention the uncomfortable conversation of cancelling the unsolicited ride.

Hence, maybe just ask the rider if they need another cab? Also, please do provide the option of stop the automatic-driver-search request at any time.

b) Allowing for an all-category vehicle search:

Let us say that you are trying to book an Uber Go.

Tough luck but it is peak time, hence you don't find one.

But hey, it is also getting late. You wouldn't mind it too much if you get a Sedan or even a Premier. You just want to go to home / that party / Hogwarts as soon as possible.

So, you start browsing through the different categories of vehicles to book whatever is available on the Uber App.

The problem is, you can do the search for only one category at a time. With the vehicles becoming available and unavailable in a wink - it is a bit of a hassle.

In this situation, Uber may think about introducing a combined vehicle availability search across all the categories.

Something which Ola does really well.

They allow for an option of all-category vehicles availability search once the user tried a particular category of cabs and didn't find any available.

c) Option to Pay Later:

Also, can we please have the 'Pay Later' option as well?

Sometimes, we don't know that the wallet / account has run out of the minimum balance.

Sometimes, we don't have cash.

Case in point being that if the user is in a hurry, then let us just provide the option to pay later, in the next subsequent ride.

Someone who takes more than 15 trips a month with a ride history going back to more than 6 months, it is a significant trust marker to let the rider take a couple of rides on the promise of paying later.

Most of the street hawkers / Kirana stores would happily credit on that kind of a purchase history.

Can we please think about it (introduce it)?

d) Other bugs and tweaks:

Communication around payment method expiration -

What can be improved is that Uber can let the rider know that his / her PayTM authentication has expired and that is the reason he / she isn't able to schedule the ride.

The double whammy here is the fact that a significant portion of rides scheduled would cater to railway stations / airport rides. Not to mention the ungodly hours at which the user has to sometimes board the rides with a fair amount of anxiety related to travel.

Better communication from Uber can alleviate that and comfort the user with the feeling that the ride to the station / airport is sorted.

The PayTM failure issue also percolates to the Uber Eats app wherein, you can't even place the order using PayTM. Once the user clicks to place the order, the screen just throws an error without any explanation.

Communication around fares covered Uber Pass -

If you use Uber Pass to travel regularly, sometimes, when the fare goes above the fare cap covered under Uber pass, Uber shows a dialog box to explain the higher fare.

I think it is a well thought feature which brings in transparency.

With that in mind, it is probably better to ask the user if they want to receive this explanation message all the time in the future as well.

I am assuming that a lot of us don't really need to know each time we need to pay INR 120 instead of the flat fare because the actual distance covered or (surge amount + base fare) amount was larger than the distance / maximum amount covered under Uber Pass.

A lot of the other Apps also have this tick box wherein one can just ask not to be reminded again and again.

Uber Eats - Android App:

A reliable delivery service complemented with attractive offers has converted me into a regular Uber Eats customer as well. So much so, that Swiggy / Uber Eats are my go-to-platforms to look for lunch.

Hence, with a fair amount of tinkering and ordering that I have done on Uber Eats, here are some of the developmental avenues for Uber Eats.

a) Option of filtering Veg / Non-veg options!

Yes, the current version of the Uber Eats app doesn't provide this dead simple option of filtering the items listed under the menu of a restaurant.

What is currently provided is an icon for a leaf against a vegetarian meal in some of the menus. But, not a filter.

It leads to skimming through 60-70 items in the menu to figure out that meal. Putting the menu items under a simple filter of Veg only / Veg + Eggs / Non - Veg would save a lot of hassle from the user end.

Not sure how the team at Uber Eats has missed this simple filter which apart from the home-grown apps, almost any decent restaurant in India would show on their physical menus. It would be more interesting to understand the rationale if the team thought about it and didn't introduce it deliberately.

b) A better coupon addition flow - Oh this one needs a major change.

If you need to add a coupon on the Uber Eats order, here is how you do it

I don't understand why did Uber Eats come out with this arcane coupon addition mechanism.

Even the developers (arguably one of the most internet savvy) at the startup I work at (myUpchar.com), found the coupon addition mechanism baffling.

First, you click on the promo code option in the order overview screen (which is fine)

Second, a text box comes up without the list of the coupons that are applicable

Third, you have to type the whole damn thing

Fourth, if the coupon is applicable, the screen shows a confusing and badly-designed screen serving little purpose

Fifth, you have to click on that Close button on the left side of the confusing screen to get back to the order overview page with the coupon applied

Yes, it is not a physically / mentally sweating exercise, obviously. But if we are making a first-world / refined product then the user experience should also mirror that.

And the expectations from Uber is high. As the expectations for discount offers :)

So, why not keep it simple with the list of available coupons easy to choose from? Like a Swiggy does?

c) Home screen carousel

Depending on the geographical location of the user, there are 4-8 different campaigns running on the carousel on the home screen.

Given that it is the prime virtual estate on the App, a user is likely to browse through the options in the carousel before making up the mind on what to eat / where to order.

In that case, there should be the option to go back to the first option in the carousel after looking at the last one.

Check the GIF here - it doesn't lead you to the first option from the third one.

So either you close the App and re-open it to see the first carousel option or you go back to the first option by swiping left all the other options.

Both the methods cry hard for a small improvement tweak.

A small extension to this would be to have the offer banners being regularly updated. While I don't have data for it, I have found the offers in the banners to have expired a few times.

d) Live chat support doesn't have access to solve customer grievances

Uber Eats also has a live chat support team which one needs to fish out deep inside the App.

But incidentally, they don't have the requisite rights to adjust the amount for bad quality of food received or the money which was automatically deducted. Essentially, they don't seem to have the accesses to change / modify a order amount or issue refunds.

One needs to put that information at another place in the app which is being taken care asynchronously (though they are fast with their responses).

So the point is - a live support team needs to have the requisite rights to solve customer grievances and not just help with words in soothing the hungry nerves.

They should be able to reach out to the delivery agent / refund / place another order. Like a Swiggy does.

e) Better UI / UX of the Menu card

The adjacent image is a sample screen of how a typical menu looks like in the Uber Eats App.

a) There is no need to mention the price to two decimal places. I don't suppose that even a casual Uber Eats customer really cares about the prices to two decimal places.

On the contrary, it leads to a higher cognition load to process the price.

Might be a good idea to do away from the decimals.

b) The sectional headers need to be highlighted. Unless you are observant, in the adjacent image, Family Packs (500 Grams) is a section in the menu where the ice-cream is served in packs of 500 grams.

c) The white space can be utilised more efficiently. The phrase of Family Pack (500 Grams) under the name of the flavour is a little redundant.

Both, the header and the section have established that the serving is of 500 grams. Why use more space to fill information which doesn't add much value?

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I guess this is largely it. Thanks for reading! Feedback / thoughts are most welcome.

Uber is a fantastic product with great customer service with a lot of improvements expectedly in the works. Maybe some of the items from above can be thought upon to improve the user experience.

The idea behind this post came while booking cabs / ordering food from Uber / Uber Eats. My ongoing experience and learning in Product Management at myUpchar.com helped putting the pieces in perspective.

P.S. - We are hiring for strong Android, front-end and back-end (RoR) developers at myUpchar.com. As a short brief, we want to solve the problem of healthcare access and awareness in spaces beyond the metros. We have recently launched a health-card, called myUpchar Suraksha Plus, to cater to 360 degree health needs of the patients.

Do give us a look (App, Website) and if you are interested, let me know. Many thanks!