Uber Super App Design Workshop Sharpened Ronas IT’s Analytical and Development Skills
Following Uber’s acquisition of the Postmates app for restaurant-prepared food delivery, Ronas IT agency organized an 8-hour workshop to implement a concept called the Uber Super App.
The purpose of this exercise was to create an expanded (in terms of functionalities) version of the app and rise up to the challenge of it making it better compared to the one currently used by millions of users. This was seen as a good opportunity for the team to develop and sharpen their app design and analytical skills.
The Uber Super App design project involved interface designers who worked on the “introduction of new functionality and identification of food ordering and delivery scenarios.” It also had promo designers identifying the app’s online and offline entry points, analysts conducting interviews with customers and testing the team’s hypotheses. The entire project was coordinated by a product owner.
The Concept App’s Expanded Food Delivery Includes Buying Grocery
In the pursuit of expanding Uber’s regular functionalities for food deliveries, the Ronas IT team was divided into several segments: Home, Food Delivery, Delivery, Marketing and Analytics.
Specifically, the Food Delivery group was required to come up with the menu functionality, search and order flow. These, along with other features like grocery and food recipe stories, all link to the cart option to streamline and accelerate the ordering process.
In essence, Ronas IT has created usability that rarely requires more than three steps from the opening screen of the Uber Super App to the finalization of ordering.
Uber Super App’s Onboarding Section Educates While Boosting the User’s Trust
The app’s onboarding screens – the messages that appear to first-time users – introduce the app’s main features and strengthen the user’s trust in it.
For this purpose, the Uber Super App uses straightforward but effective illustrations, as well as black font for a brief copy at the bottom half of the screen. As the user swipes to the left and goes to the next step, they learn about new features on the same screen.
Some of the explained features include ordering dinner while on the road and splitting the bill between the user and their friends, as well as delivering packages with a drone.
The Uber Super App Interface Delivers Immaculate Readability
Once the user goes past the onboarding screen, the real usability of this concept app is put to the test. The slide-in interface appears from the bottom and consists of ordering options in boxy elements, with the approximate time of delivery. These “boxes” are surrounded by plenty of white space, helping them stand out and become more visible compared to a busier portion of the page below. It reflects how branding agencies use negative space to create a visual breathing room and enhance visual hierarchy.
Sliding down to hide the tab reveals a Google map that shows the progress of your delivery service in real-time.
Meanwhile, the actual food-order service lists all the available restaurants and organizes their menu into different categories based on the type of food they offer. The users can add any item to the cart immediately or click on it to see a large-scale image of the food they want to order.
As on-brand as it comes, the “Order” and “Add to Cart” button stands out in black color against the white background.
Further adding to the Uber Super App’s standout features are the Instagram-like stories that present dinner ideas with a list of ingredients that can be delivered through the app.
Another functionality that follows this simple and effective layout is the added courier delivery for personal packages. The users can even measure the size of the package with their in-app camera and pick a delivery method that suits them the best.
The progress of the delivery can also be monitored inside the app. The user gets the order number and can check if it’s accepted, in the process of packing, for delivery or completed.
The Uber Super App Design Concept Proves the Endless Possibilities in App Development
A total of six designers have created 38 different screens in eight hours during this workshop for Uber Super App.
Using the standard Uber Move Text typography, Ronas IT has put both regular and medium font types into the service of delivering the best possible readability and usability to the conceptual mobile app.
This unorthodox app case study may not yield a mass-market application product, but it showcases how excellent mobile app developers can elevate standard functionalities in delivery apps. It may very well serve as a basis for the next major overhaul of the actual Uber app.
It is this creative, daring work that looks to push the boundaries of app development that earned Ronas IT’s Uber Super App design our Best Design Award for February 2022.
