Mini Case Study: Vehicle Choice Conundrum in GO-BOX
Introduction:
It was 2:00 AM when I was about to sleep, my phone suddenly rang. It was my mom, asking me for a help in using an application that she wanted to try.
She wanted to try GO-JEK’s GO-BOX, a transport service in Indonesia where you can order a truck to transport items. She wanted to clear out items in the house which were packaged in boxes to be sent to the storage. While I was studying abroad in the US, I had to video call her and help her with the process. Despite her curiosity of using a new service, she got confused in navigating the application.
GO-JEK is a startup based in Jakarta, Indonesia which emerges from an app-based motorcycle taxi service (also known as “Ojek” in Indonesian) and later branched into several services such as e-wallet, food delivery, car rides, and even personal massage. GO-BOX is one of GO-JEK’s services that specializes in transporting items.
Problems:
Process:
“Which vehicle should I use?” my mom asked. She thought the vehicles looked very similar and the dimensions didn’t help her much in estimating how her items will fit within the dimensions of the vehicle. I asked her if she already estimated the volume of her items, she forgot where the last time she put the tape measure. After she calculated the volume and finally selected a vehicle, she mentioned that it took her a long time to estimate the volume properly.
Based on the video call, I created a user journey map of my mom’s process with the application. It seems that there are some unpleasant steps that are needed to be redesigned.
Affordances & Signifiers:
An affordance is what an object does. It tells what you can afford with an object. Perceived affordances are what we “thought” objects can do. A signifier is any perceivable cues that indicates what you can do. It acts as a sign that can guide you to interact with an object.
The affordance of this set of buttons is to select a vehicle that can help users to transport their items. The title, image, dimension, and weight are the signifiers of each button. My mother thought the choices looked very similar to each other. This might be the problem which first-timers have also faced.
Spatial Ability:
Spatial Ability is the capacity to understand information about an object’s position or orientation within a space. It requires a good spatial ability and reasoning to estimate an object’s volume. As people have different spatial abilities, we need a standardized tool that can estimate length in an accurate and efficient way. Then, a ruler was invented.
Do all of us need to bring a ruler all the time? Is there a way to make good estimations in a more practical way? Recent technological advancements in Augmented Reality has inspired me to design a feature where users can estimate an item’s volume with Augmented Reality through a mobile device’s camera. I believe this proposed feature could help the process to be a lot easier to use, faster to perform, and more resistant to errors.
Goal:
The goal of the user research is to learn more about the user’s experience of different user groups with the application regarding their spatial ability, frequency of usage, and use cases. The goal of the design is to test my design attempt utilizing augmented reality with minor design tweaks to increase the accessibility, usability, and overall user experience of the application.
Background Research:
Survey:
I created a survey to learn some insights from recent customers of GO-BOX. Since I am a student who is currently studying abroad in the US, it is impossible to find a person who have used GO-BOX before so I created a Google Forms survey which I gave the link to my mom & my sister to be distributed to their friends & acquaintances in Indonesia.
These are some of the important questions with the rationale behind and my expected answers of each question:
“How many times have you used GO-BOX before?”
This question is made to ask the usage frequency of recent GO-BOX users. I want to know the users whether they are first-timers or frequent users.
“What’s the main reason behind the last time you used GO-BOX?”
I want to know the use cases of the GO-BOX service. I expected people to order it mostly for relocation and special events.
“The last time you used GO-BOX, did you calculate the volume of your items before you used the service?”
I want to know whether if they calculated the volume of their items before they ordered the vehicle or not. I would expect people who have used the service for several times have calculated the exact volume of their items while first-timers only did an estimation of the volume.
“If you calculated the volume of your items, what was your method? If you didn’t, what was the reason behind it?”
If they calculated the volume of their items, I think they used a ruler to find the width, length, and height of their items, multiplied them, and later matched the result with the available vehicles’ volume.
If they didn’t calculated the volume, I think they were in a hurry or feel don’t need to calculate the volume. They estimated it instinctively without a proper calculation which some of them ended up with an incorrect order.
“Was your estimation correct?”
This question is made to confirm if their volume estimation were correct. I assumed people who carefully calculate the volume were correct and their estimation might vary for the ones who didn’t calculate the volume.
“Are you familiar with the term Augmented Reality? From a scale from 1 to 5, how much are you interested to use an Augmented Reality feature?”
Since Augmented Reality is an emerging technology, I want to know these respondents’ awareness of this technology in Indonesia. I would expect younger generations are familiar with the concept where they used it or heard it before, while the older generations may have no clue about it. I also included a paragraph that described what Augmented Reality is and their possible applications to familiarize the concept for those who never heard it before.
I concluded the survey with a section where they can add their comments, suggestions, or any problem they have faced using the service. I also included a field where respondents can put their email address if they are interested more about this study.
Survey Results:
I waited for two days and I got 23 respondents. I also compiled the data into one spreadsheet. I didn’t include the first three identity questions (name, age, & occupation), but I will use the summary of the respondent’s age & occupation as a Persona in the Data Analysis section.
Frequency
I was surprised that I found a different range of people with different frequency of usage. I have accumulated first-timers, some frequent users, and business owners who used GO-BOX more than 10 times.
Usage
At first, I thought I already identified all use cases: relocation, large item transport, and special events. I discovered that there are catering service managers who used GO-BOX for their business.
Volume Calculation
Based on the survey, a majority of the respondents didn’t calculate the volume of their items. But, some of them had to reorder the service.
A majority of the respondents were correct with their volume estimation. Respondents who only used their instincts and already know the exact size from their previous orders didn’t estimate the volume on their last order, but they are satisfied with the service. Although, there are some respondents who were incorrect with their estimation.
From the short answer section, I learned that most of the respondents who calculated the volume used the width * length * height formula manually. Common answers from respondents who didn’t calculate the volume and ended up ordering the wrong vehicle include “in a hurry” or “too lazy” to calculate the volume. I will explain more of this in the Data Analysis section.
Familiarity with Augmented Reality:
It wasn’t a surprise that a lot of respondents in Indonesia have never heard of Augmented Reality before, especially the older generations. But, what surprised me is their willingness to try something new. This has also proven that the Indonesian market has a high adoption rate, meaning that people would love to try new things even they aren’t really familiar with them.
Comments from Respondents:
I received comments from four respondents where they addressed the same problem: ordering the wrong vehicle due to not estimating the volume properly. They had to reorder the truck because their items did not fit. It seemed they have underestimated (no pun intended) the importance of estimating the volume of their items. I also found out that these respondents didn’t calculate the volume of their items.
Data Analysis:
Persona:
Based on the survey results, I created three Personas of each user group to categorize their needs and uses. These personas work as a summary of the respondents answers with their identity questions (age & occupation). I identified that users can be categorized into three main groups:
By identifying these user groups, I can see which user group needs a redesign of the application, sorted by their urgency from the most to the least:
Group 3: Need the feature the most.
Group 2: Might need the feature in some occasions.
Group 1: Already satisfied with the application, there is no need to use the new feature.
To confirm the urgency for Group 3, I analyzed the results data and found that six out of seven respondents who are first-timers didn’t calculate the volume, which most of them ended up ordering the wrong vehicle. Based on the short answer section, they are in a hurry or too lazy to find the volume of their items. I have to redesign the experience to make it feel less like a chore.
Design:
It is important to keep the user interface design accessible & usable for all identified user groups to fulfill the user goals that the app has promised. A lot of companies (*cough*Snapchat*cough*) have redesigned their user interface to increase the usability for new users, but they ended up completely redesigning the app which displeased experienced users who have been familiar with the previous version.
Augmented Reality Measuring Tool:
My design is inspired by Google’s ARCore-based Measure app & Apple’s ARKit-based Measure app (yes, they have the same name for the application) which both allow users to calculate the lengths of an object through Augmented Reality. Users can select a starting point and an ending point which shows the length of an object as simple as using a ruler.
In my design, users can calculate the volume of their items by estimating the length, width, and height of the items. After identifying the volume of the items, the system matches the available vehicle by matching their volume that automatically selects the vehicle to simplify the process and reduce order errors.
Later, I found a new method. Instead of placing points on the edge of the items, users can put a scalable box on augmented reality. Simply place a box at the center of the items, then modify the length of each axis by tapping and holding the arrow buttons or entering a value to the user’s needs. I chose this method because it might be easier to learn, has more consistent projected AR environment, and has more accurate calculation compared to the ruler method. Also, since all of the vehicle’s cargo are box-shaped as well, users can visualize how their items can be seen inside the vehicle’s cargo.
Pointers:
These are minor design tweaks on the buttons of the vehicle select screen that can be helpful for all user groups. In computer science, a pointer is a variable which contains the address in memory of another variable. In this context, a pointer is a piece of information that connects users in relation to what they have previously known.
I put suggestions which are popular among users to help illustrate what users usually order. I also put a space where a text will show on the last time a user ordered a specific vehicle. This is helpful for users to get a better picture of the vehicle’s size if they want to order another vehicle where they can estimate smaller or bigger vehicle based on their last order.
Design Language System:
Before I started making the high fidelity prototype, I have to find out if a design system language has already exist in GO-JEK’s service ecosystem. A design system language is a guideline that standardizes a digital ecosystem which includes reusable components such as buttons, forms, and headers, as well as brand identity characteristics such as icon, color, typography, etc.
It turned out that GO-JEK has their own design language system, Asphalt. This is very useful for new designers & developers of the company to make design improvements and tweaks. I got a clear understanding of their color palettes & typography, but I couldn’t access the library files so I follow the guideline as best I could.
Prototype:
Low Fidelity Prototype:
I started from drawing hand-drawn sketches of wireframes. I still retain the vehicle select screen and navigation bar design to be consistent with the original design. This is important to keep experienced users satisfied even though I am adding a completely new feature on the interface.
High Fidelity Prototype:
When building the high fidelity prototype, there are some minor changes from the low fidelity prototype. I used Sketch for designing the prototype. I also used Marvel for creating the interactive prototype and generating a URL to be distributed for gaining feedback. The prototype link can be accessed here.
Conclusion:
I reached out to the previous survey takers, which 16 out of 23 responded back. I showed my prototype on a link and gave them a prompt of the main task. I asked them to rate “how much they would want to use my design on a scale from 1 to 5 (5 being the most)” and provide comments regarding my design. I received great feedback from the respondents.
“I didn’t know what Augmented Reality was, but after I saw this feature, it’s really cool and handy!”
“The AR feature looks nice, but I find the suggestions on the vehicle buttons the most helpful.”
“This is a time-saving feature. I don’t need to use a ruler to calculate the volume of my items anymore!”
“This is a neat feature. Although I won’t be using it because I know the calculations for my catering, it is very simple and efficient for new users.”
It was a shame that I couldn’t perform a think-aloud usability test to all the respondents due to my absence in Indonesia. I decided to perform a think-aloud usability test with the first user I’ve known who had trouble with the application. I asked my mom for a video call and performed a usability test with my design and she found it a lot easier to estimate the volume of her items and find a suitable vehicle.
“Well, this is a lot easier to use than the current app!”
I’ve learned there are multiple user groups with different needs and I tested my design that can potentially increase the accessibility, usability, and overall user experience of the application.
I could’ve done a talk-aloud usability test to all respondents and performed A/B testing on Ruler Method & Box Method which would be built using an AR engine. This might be a small experimental project and the study might be limited due to technical and time constraints, but it shows a lot of potential what augmented reality could be beneficial in our lives.
I hope this mini case study could deliver useful insights for GO-JEK which might accelerate the overall user experience of GO-BOX!
Thanks for reading the second article of my Mini Case Study Series! Please let me know if you have any suggestions. I finally got the time to write another article after I graduated and I’m still waiting for my work permit to arrive…
All illustrations are made by myself (check out @adlanar on Instagram to see more of my drawings). Feel free to follow me on Twitter @adlanarv where I usually tweet about User Experience, Game Design, & AR/VR Experiments and check out my web portfolio on adlanramly.com to see more of my projects!
