Overview

VeloCity is a bike-sharing service that operates in dense urban environments with limited infrastructure. While they had thousands of active users, they also had a high volume of support issues around “How to start a ride,” “Where to return bikes,” and “Payment errors.” Our goal was to improve the onboarding and ride flow so that even a first-time user could start and finish a ride without assistance.

Research & Discovery

Objective: Identify exactly where the ride flow breaks for new users and redesign the experience to minimize confusion.

Methods Used:

• 12 user ride-alongs with new users

• Field study in Lagos and Nairobi across different hotspots

• Shadowed customer support for 2 days and tagged recurring issues

• Clickstream analysis of ride flow

Insights:

• Users didn’t understand the difference between “available” and “active” bikes

• Unlocking with QR codes failed in low light or bad network zones

• Return instructions were not visible during or after the ride

• Users panicked when the app froze or location drifted

UX Process

Key UX Goals:

• Increase clarity of bike status

• Reduce friction in unlocking

• Make ride progress and return steps always visible

Changes Made:

• Introduced real-time map updates using Mapbox SDK

• Bikes are now color-coded as: “Ready,” “In Use,” “Reserved”

• Added flashlight trigger during QR scan

• NFC fallback introduced for poor QR detection areas

• A sticky “Ride Status Bar” stays active across all screens

• Return instructions auto-show when you get close to a geo-fenced return zone

Tech Stack:

• Mapbox for custom maps

• Firebase for event tracking

• React Native for app framework

• NFC hardware API for backup unlock

Testing & Results

• Task success improved: 5/7 users failed to complete a ride before; 6/6 succeeded after redesign

• Heatmaps showed increased engagement with status bar and bike availability filters

• Support tickets dropped by 52%

• User NPS improved from +9 to +41

• 1.2x increase in ride completions per user