Drovo Full App Redesign

The relaunched app helped Drovo significantly increase the discovery-to-download rate and decrease churn during the onboarding stage. It also sparked interest and encouraged more than 40% of previously inactive users to come back. Additionally, the commercial side improved significantly due to properly structured data collected from our drivers.

Drovo and the app

Drovo (formerly Adverttu) is an AdTech startup where drivers sign up via the App and offer their vehicles for advertisement placement. During campaign launches, advertisers may request specific cities or areas, a certain number and type of vehicles, and occasionally specific vehicle characteristics such as color or fuel type (e.g., electric only).

Goals

The project had two main goals: ensuring Driver satisfaction and engagement with the App, and improving the Advertiser experience by expanding the pool of available drivers and offering a wider range of vehicle types and service areas.

Challenges

We had several top level challenges in mind:

  • Lack of market reputation leading to a limited number of ongoing campaigns, resulting in low conversion and retention rates for Drivers.

  • Company’s resource limitations demanded careful consideration of deliverables within the capacity of the Dev team.

  • Alignment of the new app with the interests of the Operations and Sales teams was crucial, aiming to enhance the offline experience for Drivers while providing structured data to create better offers for Advertisers.

My Role

Working in close collaboration with the product team lead and product manager, I took the lead in various key project stages. This included conducting research, developing personas, creating wireframes, prototyping, conducting user testing, establishing a new design system following the Drovo rebrand, and designing the UI and communications map. Additionally, I had the opportunity to work directly with a UX/UI design intern, providing them with hands-on experience and supporting their growth throughout the project.

The outcome

B2C: improved trust, retention and acquisition rates.

Enhanced driver satisfaction and engagement improved Drovo's reputation and attracted more advertisers. Better driver retention facilitated smooth campaign delivery and fulfilled contracts, while improved support and communication resulted in returning advertisers for repeat campaigns.

B2B: +50% new campaigns signed in the next 2 months since the app launch following growing user base and MAU.

Thanks to overall Users satisfaction and simpler Onboarding process, our Drivers started to provide more accurate information about their vehicles and driving patterns. This transparency helped Drovo gain trust by Advertisers on the Offering stage. Which, in return, will hopefully lead to more campaigns and will finally solve the main complaint by Driver Users - not enough campaigns to join.

The return rate of Inactive users after the new features announcement, based on response to newsletter announcement.

~40%

Thanks to risky, yet effective solution of splitting the app in 2 parts, complains about the battery drainage dropped to nearly

0

Average app lifespan on user devices has extended

from 2 to 5 months

Thanks to increased transparency and updates within the app, as well as improved communication channels, the Support Team load dropped by approx

60%

Project stages

1 Research: Old app revision

2 User Personas

3 Ideation and Prioritizing Features

4 User flows and app logic

5 Sketches, Wireframes and Tests

6 UI & Interaction

7 Handover & Comms map

STAGE 1

Old app revision

In-person Interviews and Surveys

Provide first-hand experiences and insights into the patience, goals, frustrations, and expectations of the Drivers.

Google Analytics

Used to analyze website behavior, providing insights into how Drivers interpret information, which buttons they click, and how much time they are willing to spend on the product.

Data from Support team

Provides statistics on customer complaints, which is crucial to consider for the future success of the app.

Data from Partner Marketing Agency

Offers insights on the effectiveness of visuals and slogans used in PPC campaigns, highlighting which ads generated more interest and led to higher conversions.


Research results

Key problems

Lack of campaigns
The app is not generating enough profit for Drivers due to a shortage of campaigns.

Onboarding and privacy issues
The onboarding process is too complicated, requiring too much personal information and leading to a 70% churn rate.

Short user lifespan
The average user only stays for around a month before giving up on earning any profits.

Lack of transparency and support
Drivers often encounter rejection without clear reasons, and those participating in campaigns complain about lack of support and clarity.

Battery drainage
The previous version of the app consumed a lot of battery power due to the inclusion of all features, even when running in the background while the user is driving.

Visual and informational complexity
Drivers don’t spend time to read instructions or how everything works - we should guide them step by step. Even if we can’t completely cut the explanatory materials, we shouldn’t expect Drivers to read them carefully, so the crucial moments should be communicated in different ways.

STAGE 2

User Personas

At this stage, we have developed a set of Personas that represent not only our existing Users but also potential Users we would like to target.

The development of User Personas serves multiple purposes. It is not only valuable for the app but also contributes to our future rebranding project. Additionally, it serves as the foundation for improving the offline experience and enhancing our marketing strategies.

Example of User Persona

STAGE 3

Ideation and Prioritizing Features

Key initial brainstorming topics:

  1. Acquisition and onboarding success

  2. Retention and engagement improvement even in case where we don’t have campaigns

  3. Automatization of communication where possible to decrease the load of Support team

  4. Showing information in portions, relevant to the situation

First ideation board was Association and Inspiration based:

Specific brainstorm on gamification and incentives with enlarged fragment

Another approach - based on general User Flow stages:

Initial Ideation stage: all ideas together

Results

MVP features

Remembering our key challenges (resources limitations and giving back to the team with this app), we went down from huge list of ideas to key features list for the MVP. In the end, we used the classic sorting scheme based on Value versus Complexity.

* List of features versus the old app will be listed later in this case study

Prioritized features

Risky decision

Splitting one app in two

We have made the decision to split the app into two parts. The main part, which includes the impressions/miles tracker, will be a native app for Android and iOS. It will be super-lightweight. The second part, consisting of gamification, progression, profile, and photos, will be web-based. This approach is aimed at addressing the battery drainage issue, optimizing acquisition from website traffic, and making better use of our Dev team's resources.

However, we also face the challenge of ensuring a smooth transition between these two apps to avoid confusing our users.

STAGE 4

User flows and app logic

The primary user flow revolves around the process of browsing and applying for campaigns, being assigned to a campaign, and completing it.

However, it is crucial to carefully consider other features like Onboarding and Gamification to ensure they integrate smoothly and do not interfere with the primary flow.

Fragment of the User flow - Available campaigns & application part

Details

Onboarding part

Planning smooth onboarding no matter the entry point: it might be the native app, web app, or even the website landing or PPC campaign.

Thanks to having the web part, we could easily send potential users straight to web onboarding instead of asking to download the app first.

Part of the User Flow featuring Sign up

Details

Flows to wireframes

Outside of classic logic blocks, we used the blocks representing the ‘physical’ future screens (orange ones) with a brief description of functional elements, which helped us to quicker move to the stage of wireframing right after finalizing wireframes.

We also tried to indicate communication points straight away as well - this made the communication map planning quicker and more transparent when we needed to go back and double check the reasoning with the flow.

Ready list of wireframes based on designed User Flow

STAGE 5

Sketches, Wireframes and Tests

While I won't be showcasing the complete array of sketches and wireframes we generated, I'd like to highlight some process insights and the moments of decision-making. Here, I'll share some examples of the improvements we developed through brainstorming and testing sessions. Here is an example of the thought process behind the evolution of the Home screen.

First Home screen wireframes after discussion within a team

Some concepts evolved or were removed along the way, based on the consideration of initial tests and previous research:

Monthly Rating simplified

You can find it on first sketches, but in the end it was just another thing we needed to explain to user alongside with AIR (impressions). To keep track of recent activity we decided to just count the same impressions within the last 30 days, which is reflected in final screens.

No Streak challenges for now

Testing sessions showed that streaks annoy users more than they encourage them. Also, overall impression of the Home screen seemed to be “overwhelmed and heavy” so we ditched Streaks for now.

Less focus on gamification

That’s what we planned considering that we need to make up for lack of campaigns. But it’s not the main purpose of the app and Drivers got confused, so some Gamification features were removed from the Home screen.

Automatic tracking

Originally the plan was to hit the “Start Driving” button every time when starting driving with the app, but the survey showed that Drivers will likely forget to do it, so in the end the tracking starts automatically. We only highlight if there’s a problem to fix, or the app was killed.


Homepage adjustments

The homepage was initially confusing and overloaded, with users struggling to understand the connection between progress bars, elements, color coding, and the meaning of 'License' (which we later renamed to 'Level' for better clarity). After conducting testing, we developed a new variant to address these issues:

*At this stage the company was not yet rebranded to Drovo

Based on these considerations, we went through several more iterations and reached the high-fidelity mockup stage. Here's an example of the changes we implemented following a testing round.

Example of UX & UI changes after testing session: Home Screen

STAGE 6

UI & design system

Here are finalized Drovo app screens from different sections: Home screen, Campaign Application, In-Campaign flow, Levels and Perks, Wallet and couple of examples of service pop ups.

Interaction Example

Applying to Campaign

Previously this process was completely un-trackable and the only way for Driver to get an update was to wait for the phone call or email. Now, it’s all visible within the app, which should decrease frustration and improve involvement and commitment at this stage.

* Time delay shown in this animation represents longer period (usually 1-2 weeks)

Interaction Example

Completing Levels

Aiming to gamify the Calibration stage (where Drivers drive with the app before they are able to join campaigns), we added rewards for completing Levels. Rewards are kept secret until the Driver makes enough progress.

STAGE 7

Handover & Comms map

Communication map

Enhancing Users' awareness, reducing frustration, and alleviating the workload on the Support team

Improving communication was one of our key goals. In addition to delivering the app, we made the decision to carefully strategize our user communication and automate it to the fullest extent possible, taking into account the limited resources of our support team.

To achieve this, we constructed a communication map by integrating relevant elements from previously designed User Flows. This map incorporates actual screens and unique trigger IDs, serving as a reference for the UX writer and the Dev team during implementation.

Overall view of communication map

Anatomie of the message cards:

I developed a little bit unusual type of map, representing each message as an item, visually connected to parts of the User Flow.

Fragment of communication map with explanation of item anatomy

RESULTS

Transformed App:

Comparative Overview

This section shows the comparison of the new app to the old app, highlighting the major changes and improvements that have been implemented in response to user feedback and Drovo’s business goals.

Old App. Campaigns screen
New App. Campaigns screen: Straightforward compatibility, filters available, CTA' to apply for campaign straight from the list view

New App

Sign up

with just the phone number in < 1 min.

Calibration stage

Every level requires some actions apart from driving: adding some information bit by bit since we do not require it during onboarding. But for doing so we offer incentives and perks with each new level.

Incentives

Generic perks. Loyalty system: each level unlocks more valuable perks. Planned for next stage: Internal points and a store to spend those coins on high value deals.

Campaign participation

Tracking updates via App - it updates at every state and informs the driver what info is missing or why they were rejected in negative case.
Drivers are still able to apply to other campaigns outside of already booked dates, in-app updates at each stage of campaign and possible/required actions highlighted.

Tracking app

Dedicated part of the app just for tracking - lightweight and not battery consuming. Highlighting technical issues - most common is that the user did not give the Motion Sence permission.

Support

In app chat, immediate emails and in-app messages in case of technical issues or important updates, in-app FAQ + dedicated explanatory onboarding and in-app hints.

Old App

Sign up

Full registration process 5-7 min.

Calibration stage

Driving more to reach Top Driver level with no additional incentives.

Incentives

Campaign earnings, some generic perks for anyone registered.

Campaign participation

Tapping “apply” button and waiting for Drovo to contact them
Unable to apply to other campaigns, no in-app updates

Tracking app

Full app in one: battery drainage, technical issues not communicated.

Support

Phone, custom emails, in app chat.

REVIEWS

21 January 2023
dthan1089:

“Great app, straightforward and easy to use. A big improvement from the previous app”

23 January 2023
Maria with a van:

“Couldn’t be happier with the flexibility and support from the staff.”

Thank you!

End of the Case Study

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End of the Case Study -

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Expanding Acquisition Channels and Visual Communication: A Revamp of the Drovo Website