capstone
Case Study
MODE: Rideshare
Introduction: Problem Realities & Solution Strategies
In 2018, Uber released a study with the Urban Institute and National Sexual Violence Resource Center (NSVRC): “Helping Industries to Classify Reports of Sexual Harassment, Sexual Misconduct, and Sexual Assault.” In 2019, the week of writing this case study, Uber released its first safety report, finding nearly 10,000 incidents of various degrees of unwanted sexual contact, and a variety of other issues. This report only covered the U.S.
What can a UX approach do to support solutions to these problems?
While worst-case-scenarios catalyzed some action at end of the decade, re-evaluating the problem from a UX perspective allows for strategies that may stop incidents before they start. User research often showed that incidents progressively escalated from from mild, to uncomfortable, to definitively dangerous.
Solutions that try to respond after the damage has been done miss the fundamental analysis of these worst-case-scenarios: really bad scenarios always start as somewhat bad scenarios, and the most reliable way to stop the worst case is to target its origin. At the same time, seeing the problem only as a series of events misses the larger context: during research, users consistently provided an entire spectrum of ride values, and the risk of harassment or worse is only one aspect.
Maybe the best defense is a good offense
A UX perspective says: instead of just asking “How do we avoid the negative experiences?”, we need to ask “How can we create the positive experiences?”
Once we listen to the user research, changing the question leads to more insights. Creating positive circumstances highly reduces risks for ridesharers, whether driver or rider. Simply targeting negative circumstances means we re-create, or even escalate risks: during research interviews, users often mentioned that trying to confront, report or deter negative behavior often only sparked worse actions.
The strongest solutions for these situations need to begin at the level of systems. Develop tactics that work against the bad, but do better: implement modes for the good, so that the bad stops before it starts.
This study began as a general response to the unpleasantness of being a driver. That quickly showed the extreme priority of rider and passenger safety, and the distinct priority of the issues around gendered experience. Re-anchoring the inquiry within this problem area clarified interconnections between economic & community questions. Not only could we create improved experiences for riders, but also better opportunities for driver earnings via value-added possibilities in comfort & safety design process; implementing these designs necessarily would create more robust tools for corporations to implement solutions for their strategic goals. Leveraging three user positions in synergy—driver, passenger and corporation—showed promise for providing stronger solutions than before.
Research