Uber redesigns “complicated” app

The app includes a “trip feed” which allows the rider to do everything from order dinner to check Snapchat without leaving the app.

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Uber has overhauled its app for the first time in four years, with the aim of making the user experience more intuitive.

The new design – which has been carried out in-house – makes the user’s destination the most prominent element of the interface, with the question “where to?”

Instead of displaying individual travel options, it now groups them together under categories such as “economy” (UberPool and UberX) and “premium” (Exec and Lux), as well as providing fare estimates for each option.

Shortcut option

The app displays “shortcut” options based on your most visited destinations, meaning the user won’t have to type in their destination manually.

In the coming weeks app users will also be able to connect their phone calendar with Uber, so that meetings and appointments will automatically appear as shortcuts.

Users can set their destination to a person’s location instead of a specific place, by syncing their phone contacts with the app and searching the name of whoever they are meeting with. This individual can then opt to share their location.

“Trip feed”

Another key feature is the addition of the “trip feed”, which will allow users to access other services and only comes into play once the journey starts.

Currently, riders can quickly access the information on their licensed driver, send a live map of their trip to family and friends or split the uber fare with other users.

But this feature is set to develop further over the coming months, with extra in-app features including UberEats, restaurant reviews via Yelp, music service Pandora, and Snapchat all in the pipeline.

“Complicated and harder to navigate”

Uber senior product manager, Yuhki Yamashita, says: “Since our last redesign in 2012, our app has become complicated and harder to navigate.

“To recapture the clean and simple aesthetic of the original Uber experience –without sacrificing the choice our riders now expect – we rebuilt a faster, smarter rider app completely from the ground up.”

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