Overview

A Fresh Opportunity

Our goal for the project was to launch an MVP in the Apple App Store in 8 months. As frog's largest Ventures project at the time, Alto entailed a full-service product launch where we would need to develop a brand from scratch, build both a consumer-facing app and a driver-facing app, and work with vendors to secure a team of drivers and vehicles.

Our shared goal was to create a company and a product that reflected an elevated ride-hailing experience— to create a consistently exceptional user experience where passengers could feel safe and assured.

My Role

As an intern at the time, I was responsible for developing the front-end of the driver application which functioned as the control center for the in-car experience. I collaborated closely with designers, informing them of technical limitations and acting as a sounding board for design decisions.

Process

Building From the Ground Up

A core tenet of the brand was creating an elevated passenger experience. That experience meant that drivers should feel like concierge staff— a part of a prestige brand, providing a premium experience to riders. Their app should feel easy and familiar to use, be quickly navigable, and reflect the same brand premise as the passenger app.

An earlier team had conducted on-the-ground research to identify what target consumers would value most in a premium ride-hailing service. Key takeaways were:

• Passengers wanted an easier way of identifying their vehicle
• Passengers wanted the option to let the driver know their preferred experience— a silent ride or a lively one

Applying Research

Each vehicle in the Alto fleet is equipped with a Samsung phone with the driver app synced to that particular vehicle. The app was built with self-advancing screens synced with the passenger's trip to minimize the driver's distractions on the road. The app also features integrated hardware features that include the ability to toggle between curated playlists and programmed headlights for passenger wayfinding.

As the sole design technologist on the driver app, I worked with a designers to concept and implement these features into our application, and worked with senior technologists to integrate APIs and hardware features.

The Technology

The app was built in React Native with a GraphQL application layer which pulled from the same database as the passenger app. The crux of the driver app, the pickup to dropoff flow, utilized both the Google Maps API in conjunction with BestMile to optimize for trip efficiency and to offer an easily recognizable, frictionless interface for drivers.

Outcome

Impact and Growth

The development of the driver application was a collaborative joint process between developers, visual and interaction designers, and product managers to ensure that the app was easily navigable for drivers on the go, but also reflected the beauty and simplicity of the brand system we established.

Onwards and Upwards