Designing a Mobile App Amid a Pandemic & Successfully Testing a Proof of Concept
Product Design • Rapid Prototyping • Stakeholder Management
Overview
Challenge
The Delivery Hero Rider App was reliable but outdated, lagging behind competitors in UX, functionality, and transparency. Riders faced inefficiencies in the delivery flow, leading to frustration and potential churn.
Approach
We conducted a competitive analysis, gathered stakeholder insights, and developed user-tested prototypes across four global regions. Due to pandemic constraints, research was conducted remotely, focusing on improving task efficiency and information clarity.
Outcome
The redesigned delivery flow scored 8.5/10 in user satisfaction, improving task orientation, transparency, and readability. The project also established a scalable design system, ensuring future enhancements could be efficiently implemented.
My Role
Product Designer
Methods
Desk research, field research, user interviews, root cause analysis, UI-UX audit, service eco system, user journey map, service offering, prototyping
Year
2020 - Delivery Hero
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 However, its outdated user experience and visual design posed significant challenges in a competitive landscape where rival apps offered superior functionality, transparency, and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.