Design Rationale

How We Started

As one of the longest-standing brands in the market, the Delivery Hero Rider App was known for its reliability and stability. However, its outdated user experience and visual design posed significant challenges in a competitive landscape where rival apps offered superior functionality, transparency, and usability.

In response to increasing regional requests for an improved delivery flow—coupled with reports that competitors were offering a better UX—the company expanded the Rider App team in 2020 to explore improvements. My role was to lead the proof-of-concept phase, focusing on research, prototyping, and stakeholder alignment to lay the groundwork for a potential full-scale redesign.

Project Goals

The key objectives of the redesign were to:
✅ Enhance delivery efficiency by reducing unnecessary clicks and making the app more task-oriented.
✅ Modernize the app’s features, functionality, and UI to remain competitive.
✅ Improve usability to foster rider engagement and retention.
✅ Reduce rider churn in the long run.

Given the scale of a full redesign, we prioritized the Delivery Flow—the core interaction for riders—to deliver immediate impact and validate our design approach.

Research & Insights

Competitive Analysis & Benchmarking

We conducted a comparative audit of the Rider App and competitor apps, evaluating:
📌 The current user flow and screen architecture.
📌 Feature gaps compared to leading competitors.
📌 Strengths, weaknesses, and key improvement opportunities.

User Research & Testing

We applied a non-linear, iterative design process, balancing business requirements from global stakeholders with user insights. Due to pandemic-related constraints, usability tests were conducted remotely across four key regions: Europe, MENA, APAC, and LATAM.

Key Findings

🚨 The existing app required frequent screen-switching between deliveries and maps, disrupting task flow.
🚨 Riders lacked clear next steps, leading to confusion and inefficiency.
🚨 The interface was cluttered with excessive, poorly structured information.

Proposed Solutions

✔️ A task-oriented interface that guides riders through one action at a time.
✔️ Streamlined screens displaying only relevant delivery details (e.g., map, order info, payment status).
✔️ A more transparent and intuitive information hierarchy for improved readability.

Prototyping & Validation

We developed four prototypes tailored to regional variations and conducted remote usability tests due to COVID-19 restrictions. Despite research challenges—including the lack of direct observation and multilingual barriers—the new design scored 8.5/10 in user satisfaction.

Riders highlighted improvements in:
📌 Transparency – More clarity on order details and next steps.
📌 Efficiency – Faster task completion with reduced cognitive load.
📌 Readability – Bold, high-contrast UI optimized for on-the-go usage.

Business Alignment & Stakeholder Engagement

With a global user base, aligning with regional teams was crucial. We gathered input from 40+ stakeholders, categorizing feedback into:
📌 Immediate integration into wireframes.
📌 Considerations for future design iterations.
📌 Feature requests added to the product backlog.

The validated design was then finalized and prepared for handoff to engineering.

Laying the Foundation for a Scalable Design System

To support long-term scalability, we initiated a token-based design system, ensuring:
✅ Faster developer onboarding.
✅ More efficient scaling across regions.
✅ Accelerated design iterations and implementation.

Key Takeaways

This research-driven proof of concept provided a strategic framework for future enhancements to the Rider App. While I transitioned out of the role before full implementation, the validated insights and structured design system positioned the team for seamless execution and future iterations.