At BlaBlaCar simplicity is in our blood. We spend our days designing and building a product that’s easy, that’s simple to use.

Content plays a huge part in this. In my role as Product Content Specialist, I hold a large part of the responsibility for making our website and app as simple as possible. When you use BlaBlaCar to find people to share a city-to-city car journey, we need you to understand our words and understand them straight away, with no effort.

There are many ways we do this — keeping each sentence short, sticking to one message, limiting the number of possible actions, using consistent terminology. But the thing that has really made the difference for us, is keeping it obvious.

Being obvious is about being precise, being unambiguous. But most importantly, it’s about not allowing the user to make any assumptions. If you leave them in any doubt, you can easily find them using your product in completely the wrong way.

And I know this all too well. Let me tell you the story of one of our most recent features, and what happened when we didn’t make our content obvious enough.

The feature in question is Govt. ID verification. We recently developed this feature so that BlaBlaCar members could upload an identity document, which is then verified. Their BlaBlaCar profile then shows that they’ve verified their Govt. ID, and increases their trustworthiness in the eyes of other members — an essential attribute for a user of our peer-to-peer ridesharing platform.

On our mobile app, we built a flow to allow members to upload their Govt. ID in three steps. First, we told them what types of Govt. ID they could use. Second, we showed them their name as it appears on their BlaBlaCar profile, and asked them to make sure it matched the name on their ID. Finally, we asked them to take a photo of their ID and submit it for verification. This is what it looked like:

Step 1 — Get your ID

Step 2 — Verify your name

Step 3 — Take a photo

Our users did something we never expected.

So it seems pretty simple, right? But remember, you’ve got the context. I’ve just explained to you the whole purpose of the feature and how it’s supposed to work. The first members who used this feature didn’t have that much detail. And they did something we never expected.

Take a look at the flow again — any idea where and how they went wrong?

Well, they took selfies. Photos of themselves, instead of photos of their Govt. ID, which they then submitted to us. And when you look back at the third step, you can see why. The call-to-action button was asking them to take a photo.

So they did.

By focusing too hard on giving a direct explanation of the next action the user would have to take, we left room for them to make assumptions. And the most common assumption was, “I have to take a photo now, that must mean a photo of me”. And when you consider that most users scan screens at the speed of light, especially in one-screen-one-action flows such as this, it’s hardly surprising they made this assumption.

So how did we fix the problem? Well, we simply changed the wording on the call to action of step 3 to “Upload my ID”.

Making the content more obvious made for a simpler product and a more successful user experience.

Whereas the previous “Take a photo” had led to incorrect assumptions, its replacement “Upload my ID” leaves no doubt. It may not tell the user exactly what’s going to happen next, that they’re going to be taken to a camera functionality, but that doesn’t matter. They’ll realise that when they get there. At least now, they’re in no doubt about what we need them to take a photo of.

And it worked! The number of correctly uploaded IDs increased by 140%. Making the content more obvious made for a simpler product and ultimately a more successful user experience for our members.

You’ve really got to make it obvious. Often far more obvious than you think. If you leave any room for doubt, users make assumptions, and interpret what you’re telling them based on their habits, their intuition, their initial split-second reaction. But if your content is obvious, if it can only be interpreted in one way, your users will get the best possible experience out of your product.

Author

Paul Stairmand is Content Specialist at BlaBlaCar, the peer-to-peer ridesharing platform. He’s a designer… of words. He crafts the words for the BlaBlaCar website and mobile apps, creating the content that makes the UX design work. He believes that good content makes users understand things without knowing there was anything to understand.

This post first appeared on Medium and has been republished with author’s permission.

The post Obvious content, Simple product- An interesting case from BlaBlaCar appeared first on TravHQ.

Internet giant Google India has launched a new smartphone app – Delhi Public Transport App- exclusively for the people of Delhi. This new experimental app will help people get around on public transport with absolute convenience.

‘Delhi Public Transport App’ will be linked to Google Maps. It will collect relevant public transport information from Maps and other Google services and pack them into this app. It will use the same transit data for DMRC Metro, DTC buses, DIMTS buses etc. The travellers & daily commuters can search for metro and bus timetables, directions, check schedules and plan routes through the Google app.

Until now most people have been looking up public transport data on Google Maps but that requires a large volume of data. HERE is good when it comes to offline navigation but you will have to download huge maps for your region first. Delhi Metro has an official app but of course it is limited to Metro and its feeder service only. A standalone app for public transport means that the size is very small (1 MB in this case) and is resource light making it good even for older devices.

The Delhi Transport App is available for Android users from this Google Play Store webpage.

However there are some issues here similar to Google Maps or HERE. While it would suggest a large number of routes, it might miss on the best route at times. For instance, I entered Connaught Place as my starting point and not Rajiv Chowk (which is the name of metro station in that region) and entered Saket as the destination. Instead of the direct metro route between the two spots the app suggested a large number of routes that involved multiple steps.

These issues need to be addressed eventually so that tourists can rely on the app and use it to find their route. That said, it has got other features like timetables that can be very useful while travelling around Delhi. You can easily check the routes of buses with their route numbers.

This app by Google is quite similar to Citymapper and Moovit though they are available only in other countries. As it’s planning to expand its mapping services, it might find itself competing against other Indian apps that provide the same service in Delhi.

According to industry sources, around 2.6 million people travel by Delhi Metro regularly and undisturbed internet connectivity while travelling is still a dream. Keeping this in mind, Google’s ‘Delhi Public Transport App’ might just be a step in the right direction. We will be keenly waiting for its iOS version to launch soon.

The post Google gifts Delhi Public Transport App to Capital’s Commuters appeared first on TravHQ.

Almost every other e-tailing or travel commerce website is paying you to download their app these days. “2,000 off on your first app booking”, “Free app credits”, “Free first order” is pretty much the norm these days. Off course getting the app downloaded has significant advantages for businesses. Instead of one time buyers, they can have repeat customers through the app. They also save on the amount they spend in advertising on Google or Facebook to bring customers to their website.

But paying the customers to download the app doesn’t always make sense, especially if you aren’t able to prevent people from uninstalling the app after using your fancy offer. Here are five points you should keep in mind so that your app isn’t dragged into the uninstall bin.

#1. Make the sign up process frictionless

Unless you are a really out of the world travel startup, it is very likely that you are replaceable. It is important to make the sign up process as simple as possible to prevent users from uninstalling the app right away. Don’t ask too many details at the first launch. Users often prefer the option of a Google search over filling in 10 fields in an app. If I download an app for searching food spots at my destination, I would hate a sign up form before I am presented with any details.

Zomato is a very good example to look at. You can skip the login or sign up process and browse around as much as you want and once the app grows on you, you might consider signing up for some additional features.

#2. Track uninstalls

It is important to know when the users are uninstalling your app. Was it in the first few hours of downloading? Was it after you ended an offer? Was that after your latest UI update? There are tools available for app developers to track user behaviour and uninstall patterns. They can offer meaningful insights that you can use in effectively targeting your potential users and improving the experience of current users.

#3. Add utility

Travel booking apps are very useful for frequent travellers but they might not hold relevance for people who travel once or twice a year. What good is a hotel booking app for someone who will make one booking a year? Sure it is easier said than done but it is important to add features that people will use frequently. Serving content, adding community or hosting occasional contests could work to some extent but there is no ‘one size fits all’ solution here. That said, it is also important to target the perfect balance keeping in mind that you are still serving on a small screen and shouldn’t overload the interface with too many options.

#4. Tailor for the worst

While screen sizes and resolutions are limited on desktop, mobile devices come with all sort of display sizes and hardware specifications. The range is even wider for Android devices as compared to iOS devices. You should keep in mind the less powerful devices with low display resolution while developing your app.

As it is travel app, it is likely that many people will use your app on the go and we all are aware of the state of internet connectivity in our country. It is important that your app uses less data and works well on slow 2G networks as well. To give an example, I use Uber to book cabs whenever I travel but at times when my phone switches to slower network due to lack of 3G coverage, the app takes more than a minute to open. In that case I have to use the alternatives. You don’t want people to look for alternatives because your app is resource hungry, do you?

#5. Present the right details

While it is good to talk out loud about the amazing app you have and all the exciting things it can offer, make sure you aren’t overpromising. Often users will uninstall the app in a short duration because the app failed to live up to their expectations. That is why it is very important to have a proper app description on Google Play Store or Apple App Store. This will ensure that the right people download your app and thus engage with the app on a regular basis.

What else do you think can be done to reduce app uninstalls? Join the discussions on travel marketing and get inputs from the topic experts here.

The post Users abandoning your Travel app? Here is how you can retain them appeared first on TravHQ.