JUMP
Case Study
Cycling is a passion of mine, and it inspired me to redesign the main rider journey of an e-bike app called JUMP.
For this case study, I defined a number of constraints to work within, as well as a project scope. I also outlined goals, non-goals, edge-cases, and success metrics that I wanted to think about throughout the process.
Through firsthand observation, and interviews with real JUMP users, a clear picture emerged of the rider’s pain points. To name just a few:
From the problems identified above, I drew up a problem statement:
How might we improve JUMP’s rider experience by making it safer and more intuitive to use?
Normally, usage data plays a big role in identifying problems. For this case study, I relied on other discovery methods, including interviews, a thorough audit of the app itself, competitor research, and user personas.
Here are a few key highlights:
I began by brainstorming ideas on post-its, and clustering them into different problems. I sketched ideas for the four major areas that would be a problem for users, particularly for the persona of Abbie. After brainstorming and sketching, I eliminated ideas that seemed impractical or out of scope.
The ideas from my brainstorm and sketching fell into 5 broad directions. From there, I narrowed down to the 3 most interesting, all of which focused on the native app:
I made a low-fidelity clickable prototype, and had friends and family try it out. I started each person with a goal to “complete a bike ride using the app, from start to finish,” observing how quickly they could do this.
After the first prototype, I made several changes and quickly redesigned and rebuilt the prototype, arriving closer to a Hybrid approach. This approach appeared to work better, as it combined the best elements of the hand-holding direction with the speedy split view direction, to help focus attention during important moments of the journey.
I ran through the prototype many more times, iterating throughout, while also improving transitions between states. Finally I took it all back into Sketch to complete the final visual design work.
Next, I moved on to visual design. JUMP bikes have a cherry-red finish, so I used this as a primary highlight color for the app.
Maps are an inherently noisy surface, so I tried to minimise visual noise in other areas of the interface. This meant using white surfaces, clean, flat buttons, simple icons, and a minimal typescale. Black buttons are default, and red buttons are used to highlight when an important action is about to occur.
Any of the following outcomes would suggest that the redesign was successful:
Firsthand user interviews would also be essential. Everyone I actually spoke to who had used the JUMP app actively disliked it, so I’d be interested to listen for a shift in attitude.
This case study only addressed issues with the main ride journey.
More than one real life user I spoke to described being sometimes unable to reserve a bike due to insufficient or even negative balance. I believe the next best area to tackle would therefore be the checkout / top-up flow.
