Navigating Cities with Dallouk: A User-Centered Biking Solution

User Researcher

UX Designer

Adobe Illustrator

Figma

In this project, I aim to demonstrate my extensive knowledge and skill set in UX design. From conducting thorough research, creating user personas, crafting intuitive user flows, wireframing, and finally, conducting usability testing, my goal is to deliver a comprehensive and user-centered experience that fulfills the needs of bicycle enthusiasts and promotes outdoor activities in Arabic cities. Through every step, I strive to showcase my dedication to creating impactful and user-friendly designs.

Overview

Introducing Dallouk: A Bicycle Rental App for Nature Lovers

Dallouk is an innovative bicycle rental app designed to cater to nature enthusiasts, students, and employees seeking an exceptional biking experience in Arabic cities of the north. The app's mission is to promote eco-friendly transportation, encourage outdoor adventures, and foster a close-knit biking community. As a passionate UX/UI Designer, I embarked on this journey to create an app that celebrates nature's beauty while providing users with a seamless and delightful biking experience.

Project Objectives: Delivering an Exceptional Biking Experience

The primary objective of Dallouk is to offer users an unparalleled biking experience by providing easy access to bicycles, personalized routes, and social features for an engaging community interaction. By aligning the app's features with the desires and preferences of its target audience, Dallouk aims to become the go-to solution for both nature lovers seeking leisurely rides and commuters searching for an eco-friendly means of transportation.

Role: My Journey as a UX/UI Designer

As the UX/UI Designer for Dallouk, I led the design process, from conducting thorough research to creating intuitive user interfaces and interactive prototypes. Throughout the journey, my focus was on maintaining a user-centric approach, continuously iterating based on user feedback, and ensuring a seamless handoff of design assets to the development team.

Design Process

Understanding the Target Audience - User Research

Empathize: Understanding Users' Desires and Pain Points

During the empathize phase, I immersed myself in the world of potential Dallouk users - nature lovers, students, and employees seeking outdoor adventures and eco-friendly transportation. By conducting user interviews, I listened intently to their biking experiences, preferences, and pain points. Through this process, I gained valuable insights into their motivations, frustrations, and aspirations related to biking and outdoor activities. Empathizing with My users allowed us to identify the key elements that would create an exceptional biking experience.

Conducting User Interviews

In this stage, I conducted one-on-one interviews with potential users, including families seeking vacation trips, students, and employees in Arab cities of the north. The interviews aimed to gain deep insights into their preferences, motivations, and pain points related to cycling, outdoor activities, and transportation.

Interview Insights:

Users expressed a strong passion for biking and nature, seeking an app that aligns with their outdoor interests.

Convenience and ease of renting bikes were critical factors in users' decision-making process.

Social engagement and the ability to connect with friends for biking were highly desired.

Users wanted a feature-rich app with route suggestions, weather updates, and a gamified experience to motivate them to bike more.

Surveys and Data Gathering

I designed and distributed online surveys to reach a broader audience and gather quantitative data on their biking habits, preferences, and expectations from a bicycle rental app. This approach allowed for a comprehensive analysis of user behavior and preferences.

Survey Focus:

Frequency of biking activities and preferred biking routes.

Preferred features and functionality in a bicycle rental app.

Reasons for using or not using bicycle rental apps.

Pain points and challenges experienced with existing apps or bike rental services.

Survey Data and Insights:

The majority of respondents engaged in biking at least once a week for recreational and commuting purposes.

Users valued features such as real-time route suggestions, bike availability information, and the ability to track distance and time spent biking.

Some users expressed concerns about unclear pricing, bike availability during peak hours, and limited social interaction features in existing apps.

Defining User Personas: Understanding the Target Audience

Based on the data gathered from interviews and surveys, I created user personas representing different segments of the target audience. These personas helped us empathize with users, better understand their needs, and guide my decision-making process throughout the design phase.

Affinity Diagram & Insights

The affinity diagram was created to categorize user feedback and identify patterns. The insights informed the app's features, design decisions, and usability improvements, ensuring alignment with user desires.

Synthesizing Research Findings and Solutions:

Users highly value social engagement and community building, which should be integrated into the Dallouk app through friend invitations, group rides, and achievements.

The app should provide real-time route suggestions and weather updates to enhance the biking experience and cater to both recreational and commuting users.

A gamified reward system, where users earn points for each kilometer cycled, can incentivize users to bike more frequently and create a sense of accomplishment.

To address pain points, the app should offer transparent pricing, and an efficient bike availability system during peak hours.

Emphasizing the scenic beauty and adventure aspect of biking will attract nature enthusiasts and outdoor adventurers to the app.

Ideation & Feature Prioritization

Brainstorming Biking Innovations: Ideation Workshop

In the ideation workshop, I facilitated a collaborative brainstorming session, presenting insights from user research, survey data, and user personas to inspire creativity and generate innovative ideas for Dallouk.

Workshop Ideas:

Social Integration: Introduce a feature that allows users to connect with friends and fellow bikers, share biking experiences, and organize group rides.

Eco-Challenges: Incorporate challenges that encourage users to opt for eco-friendly transportation options and reward them for contributing to a greener environment.

Scenic Routes: Implement a feature that suggests picturesque biking routes, highlighting scenic spots and hidden gems in Arabic cities.

Results:The brainstorming session yielded a diverse range of ideas that catered to users' desires for community interaction, eco-consciousness, and discovery. The process sparked excitement and a shared vision for making Dallouk a comprehensive biking app, not only for transportation but also for fostering a biking community and promoting environmental consciousness.

User-Centered Feature Selection: Enhancing Dallouk's Biking Experience

In My pursuit of delivering an exceptional biking experience, I conducted a meticulous feature selection process for Dallouk. This involved a comprehensive evaluation of each proposed feature based on crucial criteria. Here are the key evaluation factors:

User Desirability: I carefully considered how well each feature addresses the desires and pain points of My user personas, Nour and Kareem. Their needs served as guiding principles throughout the selection process.

Technical Feasibility: Ensuring smooth implementation, I assessed whether the features could be integrated seamlessly within Dallouk's development timeline and available resources.

Differentiation: To set Dallouk apart from existing biking apps, I scrutinized whether each feature offered a unique advantage, emphasizing innovation and distinctiveness.

Impact on Biking Experience: I analyzed how the features could significantly enhance the convenience, enjoyment, and social aspects of biking within the app.

I identified and prioritized key features that perfectly aligned with Dallouk's mission. Notably, real-time route suggestions, social integration for community building, and rewards for eco-friendly biking habits emerged as pivotal elements in creating an extraordinary biking experience through Dallouk.

Information Architecture & Wire-framing:

Information Architecture

The main menu includes sections for Home (map view), Stations, QR Code Scanner, Routes (ride history), and Profile (personal stats and settings). Wireframes were designed to depict the app's layout and interactions.

User journey

Highlights the user's goals, actions, emotions, pain points, and touchpoints at each stage, as well as opportunities for improvement and enhancement. The chart provides valuable insights into the user's experience with Dallouk and identifies potential areas for further refinement to ensure a positive and seamless biking experience for users.

User Flow

Before diving into wireframing, I began by mapping out the user flow. I analyzed user interactions with the app, starting from the initial launch to the completion of key tasks like bike rental, QR code friend adding, and accessing route suggestions. Understanding the flow of actions helped identify potential pain points and areas for improvement.

Wire-framing: Low-fidelity wireframes ( sketch)

Wire-framing: High-fidelity wireframes

Usability Testing

Preparing for Usability Testing

Test Objectives for Dallouk:

Evaluate the efficiency and effectiveness of the bike rental process, ensuring users can easily find and rent bikes.

Assess the user-friendliness of the QR code sharing feature, enabling seamless connections with friends within the app's social network.

Measure the usability of the smart route suggestions, examining the ease of finding and navigating scenic biking routes.

Validate the gamification elements, ensuring that users find the reward system motivating and engaging.

Gather feedback on the profile stats visibility, aiming to provide users with clear and relevant information about their biking activities.

Identify any pain points or obstacles users encounter during the usability test, with a focus on problem-solving and enhancing the overall user experience.