While working as an application management engineer at Endava, I was involved in other internal projects, including a Map with Recycling Centers in Bucharest. I prototyped a web platform that aggregates All the running competitions in Romania and the Carpooling app.

The Challenge

According to a TomTom study, Bucharest is the 8th most traffic-congested city in the world and the 1st city with the biggest traffic jams in the EU. Cars with just one passenger while commuting are a common practice. Additionally, the company offices have limited parking space - and that's another challenge. That's why we wanted to challenge this.

Research and Solution

We researched some ideas, and started exploring the one around prototyping an app/context for employees in medium-large companies, to come to work using the same car. Boosting the social relationships between employees and at the same time make an Environmental Impact.

The next stage was validating the ideas and getting insights from the company employees. We used the Design Thinking methodology for this stage, starting with interviewing 15 company employees from different departments. Later, we did 2 focus groups, create the personas Additionally, in validating the app idea, using a user-centered approach helped us reveal some interesting aspects we hadn't considered before.

For example:

• the fact that some users will love to use a carpooling service, but they don’t like to talk a lot in the morning, so having a mood indicator in the app will help them easier choose a carpool group

• or the fact that some of them would be interested in taking their kids to school/kindergarten and doing this one user at a time

• having a social profile where they can write about themselves, basically trying to connect with people who have the same interests (it can be a hobby or programming language).

App benefits

Besides all of those mentioned above, having an app that connects employees on their daily commute has other benefits:

• saving time

• gain comfort

• sharing ideas or simply having a friendly chat

• less stress commuting to and from work

• reduce traffic volume

• save fuel and reduce pollution

• less need for parking spaces

Testing - Usability Findings

In the next stage of the process, we did a testing round, focusing on the Golden Path and any usability issues. This stage also brought some interesting insights that we hadn't thought about before.

For example, initially, we didn’t think a lot about the ride filtering options. However, during the usability study, it became clear that we needed more options. Some users asked if I liked to smoke in the car or listen to loud music, or if I had some luggage with me as a user. So, the conclusion was that we need more filters, not just distance-related ones.

Another insight was that drivers don’t want to change their usual route from/to work a lot. So we’ve added pick-up spots; this way, passengers come to a place closer to the main route, and the driver doesn’t need to do a lot of route changes.