Careem Captain Mobile App - Blocking Experience
Careem is known for being a popular ride hailing app worldwide, and while that is true, the Captain or the rider application is what drives the business and is used by the people who are picking people on a daily basis.
To uphold driver quality standards, Careem has implemented a blocking mechanism for captains who underperform or receive complaints from ride-hailing users.
Problem Statement
Blocked captains are experiencing significant confusion and uncertainty regarding the reasons for their blocks, resulting in frustration and a lack of understanding about the necessary next steps. To enhance transparency and provide clear guidance, we need to completely revamp the blocking experience.
User Research
I conducted primary and secondary research by interviewing Careem Captains and making a mood board to understand what are the current standards for such an experience. The interviews, conducted via Zoom as remote user testing, included participants from Pakistan, Egypt, KSA, and UAE.
Qualitative Interviews
Group Active Users
Group Former Users“The blocking experience that currently exists on the Captain App is the most frustrating thing ever. I am not informed why I am blocked, I am not given any idea how to get unblocked and the customer service cannot help me”
“I was blocked for some unknown reason and after that I tried many times to get unblocked. After many failed attempts, I decided to delete the application and switched to X (Competitor)”
Insights
1 No visibility on blocking reason
There is no reason given why the Captain was blocked, instead a generic blocked screen was shown to Captains
2 Next steps not given
Even if a Captain is blocked, they are not given any steps that they can take to get unblocked
3 Customer care getting
Customer care representatives were receiving numerous calls from captains seeking clarity on why they were blocked, but the representatives lacked the information to explain the reasons for the blocks or the steps for unblocking.
4 Lack of trust on Captains
Captains feel that Careem does not trust them, as customer complaints are taken as the final word without considering the Captains' side of the story, leading to their immediate blocking.
Business Reality and Captains’ Troubles
The reality from business’ side was that it was not just one customer’s complaint that led to the blocking of Captains. There were multiple tiers involved and different types of blockings. The unfortunate scenario that existed currently was that no one other than the company’s employees knew these reasons, they were never communicated to the Captains. What you see on the right side is the screen that was shown to all Captains upon getting blocked.
Illustrations for Context
We got in touch with different stakeholders: Fraud prevention, customer service, operations and other product owners to understand all the reasons why Captains end up getting blocked. We realized there were many different reasons, and all had different steps that could be taken by the Captains to get unblocked. Since our users came from a nice semi-literate background in some regions, we had to ensure the best way to communicate the blocking reason for them. That’s when it hit us, illustrations!
Enhanced User Experience: Illustrations and Context-Rich Text
Once we had our illustrations, we started categorizing the different types of Captain blocks and added more context by giving Next Steps and clear CTAs. For the purposes of getting feedback from other stakeholders, we ran these journeys on Figma in multiple feedback sessions and perfected each and every step and ensured all relevant information was given to Captains.
Final Design
Seeing Results
After the usability testing, we released the app update and pulled in data to use it to make more informed design decisions.
From 18 Hrs to 1 Hr
Unblocking time decreased
10%
Increase in unblocked Captains
From 16.5% to 7%
Decrease in contacting Customer Care Service
Project Learnings
Collaboration is key
Sometimes the answers we need are not found in secondary research or in the secret bases of our competitors, but they live somewhere within the organization. Someone somewhere decided to build a screen with zero context but that does not mean it actually has zero context. This is why collaboration is important