UniCar
ShareCart is a shared ordering system that connects households to buy bulk from producers at lower prices, letting each household only take what they need to minimise excess food waste. It is designed to help small households access bulk-purchase prices without overbuying, waste, and complicated logistics. By pooling orders with others nearby, users only buy what they need - reducing cost-driven overconsumption and preventing food waste. This project was completed over 12 weeks as a team of five on our chosen brief on food-waste reduction.
Project Overview
TIMEFRAME
8 Weeks
Team Size: 4
MY ROLE
Figma, VoiceFlow, ChatGPT API, Miro, Google Drive (Docs and Forms), Google Maps API
TOOLS
Figma, VoiceFlow, ChatGPT API, Miro, Google Drive (Docs and Forms), Google Maps API
Problem Formulation
CLIENT MOTIVATIONS AND PROBLEM STATEMENT
Transportation plays a vital role in connecting students to university life, especially those living far from campus. This makes reliable, safe, and accessible travel essential for their academic success, wellbeing, and sense of belonging. Research we conducted shows that student face mainly the following unmet transportation needs:
● Limited access to reliable and affordable transport options.
● Safety concerns, especially during late hours or in unfamiliar areas.
● A lack of social engagement with peers, contributing to a lower sense of belonging.
● Barriers to participation in campus life and academic activities due to long or complicated commutes, or disabilities.
INITIAL IDEAS AND "HOW MIGHT WE" QUESTIONS
Following these insights, our decision process began with a collaborative brainstorming session. This involved visually mapping out student scenarios based on the four personas as well as a more generalised perspective. These scenarios produced the starting point for generating a wide range of "How Might We” questions to help reframe challenges as opportunities for service innovation. These highlighted a variety of themes that our service would prioritise:
1. Accessibility for both digital and non-digital touch points: “How might we ensure the transport is accessible for those who require special assistance, e.g. wheelchair users”
2. Safety: “How might we create a familiar and reliable travel experience (to reduce anxiety for students navigating unfamiliar routes and
crowded public transport)?”
3. Convenience: “How might we reduce commute length for students?”
4. Eco-conscious: “How might we encourage environmentally conscious students to choose carpooling over solo driving?”
5. Cost aspects, including for both student passengers and student drivers: “How might we make driving more affordable for students by enabling cost-sharing”
6. Social aspects: “How might we create a more social experience through this shared transport?”
These considerations, along with the problem statement formualted above formed the backbone of our service proposal.
Ideation
In designing a shared transport service for students, our focus was on creating a solution that is safe, accessible, and socially engaging. Through user feedback and idea progression, we identified key features that personalize the experience and foster community connections.
ORIGINAL AND UPDATED SKETCHES
Feedback
The following is some of the main feedback we received from others for our original sketches, this:
POSITIVE
-
Personalised categories for each user was well received as it allowed for a more tailored user
experience for customers wants and needs -
Filters for the accessibility makes it easier for students with specific needs to find a suitable ride option
SUGGESTED ADDITIONS
-
Add an ETA (Estimated Time of Arrival) so students can plan ahead based on how much time it would take them to get there
-
Some sort of rating system for the driver and the
passengers
FURTHER DEVELOPMENT
-
Expand on the social aspect, to meet new people and make new friends on trips
-
Some added functionality to the "Events on Campus" section so students can see events they can attend on the university campus
Solution
UNICAR
Throughout the development of the UniCar shared transport service, our design evolved from solving basic mobility needs to creating a personalised, safe, and socially connected commuting experience for students. From the feedback and testing, our final service would be developed to have the following features.
Establishing Core Needs
Key Features
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Eco-Friendly Filter
-
Accessibility Filters
-
Personalised Ride Categories
Design Intent
Helps students tailor UniCar to their values, needs, and commute preferences.
PRIORITISING Safety & Comfort
Key Features
-
Live Location Tracking
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Add Driver as Friend
-
Invite Friends
-
ETA Estimates
-
Scheduled Trips
Design Intent
Promotes secure, predictable travel and reduces student anxiety.
STRENGTHENING Social Connection
Features Added:
-
Rating System
-
Friend Recommendations
-
Events & Clubs Integration
Design Intent
Transform travel into a space for community building, not just a way to get from A to B.
Storyboard
UNICAR
After the original ideation, we reviewed feedback, analysed our ideas further, and created storyboards to visualise the user journey. This process helped us define our service design based on the user’s needs and highlighted areas for improvement.
This storyboard shows our initial concept, focusing on personalisation, safety and social connection.
This is the updated storyboard that reflects improvements based on user feedback. These include better accessibility, clearer tracking features and understanding arrival times, and more emphasis on building social networks.
Customer Journey Map
MAPPING OUT
TOUCHPOINTS
We then created a customer journey map to capture the full end-to-end student experience across all digital and real-world touchpoints. It includes discovering UniCar to booking, travelling, and post-ride interactions. This allowed us to visualise the channels involved, such as the app, notifications, location services, physical pick-up points, and in-ride moments, while also embedding accessibility considerations at each stage, ensuring that mobility, visual, hearing, and cognitive needs were supported throughout the journey.
Chatbot Project Introduction
CONVERSATIONAL UX DESIGN
Building on the original UniCar proposal, this project involved designing a conversational chatbot to improve key user interactions such as booking rides, checking ETAs, and accessing campus information. Created using Voiceflow for rapid conversational prototyping, the chatbot, called Hoppa (Helping Our Peers Plan Ahead) delivers a human-centred, low–cognitive load experience with a friendly persona and multimodal inputs to support diverse student needs. By integrating inclusive design principles with conversational UI, the prototype streamlines the UniCar journey, builds trust, and enhances accessibility across the service.
