GoPool App

Summary:

GoPool's redesign wasn't really about making an app look better.

It was about answering a more important question:

How do you design trust into an experience where people are literally sharing a ride with strangers?

The original product had the basic functionality, but the experience wasn't giving users enough confidence to complete a booking. The flow felt confusing, communication was unclear, and important safety considerations weren't visible enough.

For a service designed to make airport travel easier, the experience was creating more uncertainty than relief.

I approached the redesign as a human-centred trust problem rather than simply a UI exercise.

Through user research, journey mapping and usability testing, I identified the moments where riders hesitated, dropped off or felt unsure about what would happen next.

The redesign focused on making those moments clearer.

• Simpler booking flows.

• More visible safety signals.

• Better communication.

• Reassuring microinteractions.

• A more intuitive information hierarchy.

The result was an experience designed to feel clear, safe and human turning ride booking from a process users had to figure out into one they could move through with confidence.

Challenge:

When booking a ride starts creating more anxiety than the journey itself.

The original GoPool app had a functional foundation, but users weren't consistently making it through the booking experience.

The problem wasn't necessarily that there were too many features.

It was that the experience didn't clearly communicate:

• What's happening?

• What happens next?

• Can I trust this?

The booking flow placed too many decisions together, making the process feel confusing rather than guided.

Communication between riders was also unclear, creating additional uncertainty around the shared-ride experience.

And in a product where people are travelling with strangers, safety isn't a secondary feature.

It is part of the product experience itself.

Research highlighted particular concerns around co-passengers, especially among women riders. The existing experience didn't provide enough visible signals to address those concerns or help users feel in control of who they were sharing a ride with.

Beyond functionality, GoPool also lacked a strong visual presence.

The product didn't feel particularly distinctive within the crowded ride-sharing space, and the experience wasn't sufficiently connected to the realities and expectations of its audience.

That led me to frame the redesign around three questions:

• How can ride booking become so intuitive it feels second nature?

• How can trust be built into every interaction visually and functionally?

• How can a transactional service make people feel more cared for and in control?

Solution:

Designing for the moments when users hesitate.

The redesign began with people rather than pixels.

I spoke with riders, mapped their booking journeys and identified the points where uncertainty entered the experience.

The research made one thing clear:

• Users didn't need a prettier app.

• They needed an app that made them feel informed, safe and in control.

• Every major design decision came back to that insight.

1 - Simplify the booking journey

Usability testing showed that users struggled when too many decisions were presented on a single screen.

Instead of asking users to figure out the process themselves, I restructured the flow into a more guided sequence.

• I reduced unnecessary steps.

• Separated decisions.

• Strengthened calls to action.

• Added clearer progress indicators.

• The goal was simple:

• one decision at a time.

The booking experience began to feel less like navigating a form and more like following a clear path.

2 - Design around core UX principles

The redesign was grounded in established usability principles, including Nielsen's heuristics.

In particular, I focused on:

visibility of system status + simplicity + user control + consistency

Every screen was designed to answer the questions that repeatedly came up during testing:

"What's happening right now?" and "What do I do next?"

This shifted the interface away from simply displaying information toward actively guiding the user through the experience.

3 - Make safety part of the product, not a disclaimer

One of the most important findings from user research was the hesitation around sharing rides with unknown co-passengers.

Rather than treating safety as a separate information page, I explored how it could become an integrated part of the booking experience.

This led to the "Pink" toggle an optional filter allowing women riders to choose rides with women co-passengers.

The feature was designed to be discreet rather than disruptive. It gave users an additional layer of control without adding unnecessary friction to the booking flow.

The broader principle was: Trust should be something users experience, not something the brand simply claims.

4 - Turn uncertainty into visible trust signals

Research revealed that vague confirmations and hidden information created anxiety. So I looked for opportunities to make the system more transparent.

I introduced: clear rider profiles + detailed booking confirmations + visible status information + reassuring visual cues

Each element answered an underlying concern:

• Who am I riding with?

• What did I book?

• Is my booking confirmed?

• What's happening now?

These details may seem small individually, but together they change how reliable a service feels.

5 - Use microinteractions as reassurance

One of the less obvious problems was silence. When users completed an action and nothing visibly happened, they weren't sure whether the app had registered it.

I used lightweight microinteractions and toast confirmations to provide immediate feedback.

• A tap creates a response.

• A booking creates confirmation.

• An action creates acknowledgement.

These interactions weren't designed to be decorative. They were designed to communicate:

"We heard you."

That small shift helped make the interface feel more responsive and reassuring.

6 - Build a scalable UI system

The redesign also needed to work beyond the screens presented in the case study. I created a Figma-based UI library with reusable components, spacing rules and type hierarchies.

This created a consistent foundation for: new features + future screens + developer collaboration + ongoing iteration

Rather than solving every screen independently, the system established rules that could continue to guide the product as it evolved.

7 - Design the experience around control

Across the redesign, one principle kept appearing: Users feel more comfortable when they understand what is happening and have meaningful control over what happens next.

That influenced everything from the booking flow to safety features and confirmations. The experience wasn't designed to remove every decision. It was designed to make the important decisions clearer and easier to make.

WHY THIS APPROACH WORKS

GoPool demonstrates that good UX isn't simply about reducing clicks. Sometimes it's about reducing uncertainty.

1. Can the booking flow feel intuitive?

Yes - the experience was reorganised into clearer steps with stronger hierarchy and more focused actions.

2. Can safety become part of the UX?

Yes - safety considerations were integrated directly into the booking experience rather than treated as an afterthought.

3. Can an interface communicate trust?

Yes - rider profiles, confirmations, system status and responsive feedback made the experience more transparent.

4. Can microinteractions serve a strategic purpose?

Yes - feedback animations and confirmations were used to reassure users rather than simply add visual polish.

5. Can the system scale beyond the redesign?

Yes - a reusable Figma UI library created a foundation for future features and more consistent development.

The result wasn't simply a visual facelift. It was a shift from transaction to experience.

From:

"Did my booking go through?"

to:

"I know what's happening."

From:

"Who am I riding with?"

to:

"I have the information and control I need."

From:

"What do I do next?"

to:

"The app is guiding me."

GoPool became an exploration of what happens when trust is treated as a design problem. Because for a service built around sharing a journey with strangers, the real experience doesn't begin when the car arrives.

It begins the moment someone decides they feel safe enough to book.