drivemy
DRIVEMY
100% Capital Saved on launch of high-risk business model
How UX research exposed fundamental flaws in a chauffeur service's business model, saving the client significant capital.
Overview
I was hired to lead the end-to-end design of DriveMy, an on-demand chauffeur service app where vehicle owners could hire drivers to drive their own cars. While the initial mandate was to build a low-friction booking interface, my role rapidly shifted into strategic consultancy. After conducting target user research, I identified a critical behavioral barrier that rendered the core business model high-risk. By exposing that the assumed "primary use case" (post-alcohol transit) was fundamentally incompatible with standard human behavior, I guided the client to a necessary strategic pivot, preventing a costly and flawed market entry.
Goals:
Map the Service Blueprint: Design the complete logistics flow from booking request to driver dispatch and journey confirmation
Validate Use Cases: Conduct user research to confirm the primary behavioral drivers for hiring a personal chauffeur.
Establish High-Trust UI: Create a visual language focused on transparency to mitigate the anxiety of allowing a stranger to drive a user's personal vehicle.
ROLE
Product Designer & Strategist
RESPONSIBILITIES
UX Research, Mobile UI Design, Brand Identity, Business Model Analysis
COLLABORATORS
Client (Founder)
YEAR
2021
Redesign
After delivering the functional requirements for the original DriveMy client project, I felt there was untapped potential to elevate the visual storytelling of the brand. This redesign was not a client request or a technical necessity; it was a personal initiative to explore how a more high-fidelity, editorial-style UI could better reflect the "premium" nature of a private chauffeur service.
EDITORIAL COMPOSITION
Used organic, overlapping image masks and floating badges to create a sense of depth and luxury.
ASPIRATIONAL MESSAGING
Refined the copy to focus on "Effortless Rides," shifting the focus from the "app" to the "experience."
HIGH-CONTRAST INTERACTION
Implemented a bold, lime-accented "Get Started" button to create a clear, high-velocity conversion point against the dark mode canvas.
VISUAL VERIFICATION
Integrated explicit "Seamless," "Premium," and "Reliable" labels directly into the imagery to reinforce brand trust instantly.
The Challenge
The client’s vision was based on a common scenario: a user drives their car to an event, consumes alcohol, and needs a way to get both themselves and their car back home safely. The challenge was multifaceted: we had to design a premium, high-trust mobile experience and validate that this behavior was a viable foundation for a business.
BUSINESS NEED
Design a viable platform to enter the competitive on-demand transit market.
USER NEED
A fast, reliable booking experience that requires minimal effort and provides maximum logistical clarity.
"Schedule a Pick Up" design
Discovery Phase
I conducted a series of deep-dive stakeholder interviews with the founder to extract the core vision for DriveMy. I focused on high-touch qualitative discovery to understand the origin of the service and the manual workflows the founder had already established. This allowed me to map a service blueprint that felt like a premium chauffeur experience from day one.
We identified three pillars to anchor the functional prototype:
INTAKE
Streamline the booking request through an intuitive, minimalist interface that captures luxury requirements without overwhelming the user.
LOGISTICS
Systematize the backend matching process of professional drivers to specific user requests, transitioning from a manual founder-led process to a digital-first workflow.
CONFIRMATION
Deliver high-trust status updates and real-time tracking to maintain the "premium" promise and ensure user peace of mind.
PROBLEM TO SOLVE
The user problem appeared simple: users needed an easy way to hire a chauffeur for their own car. Traditional chauffeur bookings were bogged down by outdated interfaces, and users felt anxious about the logistical complexity. The hidden and more dangerous problem, however, was the high risk of product-market fit. The underlying assumption about why users would engage in this behavior was fundamentally untested.
Research
Gathering Insights
I conducted market analysis and user interviews with the client’s target demographic; affluent car owners. Competitive analysis of high-end concierge and ride-share platforms helped baseline expectations. My deep dive into user behavior revealed that safety wasn't the biggest concern; logistics and standard behavior were the primary killers of the model.
Emerging Themes
THE LOGISITCAL DEAD-END
Users stated that if they knew they might drink, standard behavior was to not take their own car in the first place. The hassle of planning for a chauffeur arrival is greater than the convenience of having their own car at the destination.
COMPETITIVE DOMINANCE
Uber/Lyft dominate the "post-alcohol" use case because they solve for zero planning. Hiring a DriveMy chauffeur requires prior vehicle logistics and future scheduling that users found too restrictive.
THE HIGH-RISK ASSUMPTION
The core business model relied on a rare "failure mode" of user planning (i.e., unplanned drinking), not a predictable behavioral pattern.
Dryver (competitor) screenshot
HOW MIGHT WE
How might we leverage intuitive design patterns to simplify the logistics of hiring a personal chauffeur, while verifying that the assumed behavioral patterns for using this service are sound?
User Testing
Testing the Solution
I designed and validated the complete 0-to-1 mobile experience. These tests focused on usability to validate flow clarity and navigational discoverability. While initial tests focused on button placement and UI alignment, the most critical test wasn't about the UI; it was a behavioral validation of the core use case.
Platform Flow Learnings
DRIVER INTAKING IA
Insight: Users found the initial multi-page driver intake to be tedious and distracting.
Action: Added a single "Favorite Drivers" profile system to accelerate repeat bookings.
NAVIGATIONAL DISCOVERABILITY
Insight: Users struggled to locate primary account actions within the legacy menu, leading to a "dead-end" feeling after opening the side panel.
Action: Redesigned the menu hierarchy to prioritize the profile and "Favorite Drivers" sections, ensuring the most frequent user actions were immediately accessible.
v1
v2
Impact
The Results
While we designed a functional, component-based mobile interface and brand system, the primary impact of this project was strategic cost avoidance. By presenting my research findings to the client, I exposed the fundamental incompatibility of the business model with standard user behavior. The client realized the assumed post-alcohol transit case was flawed, preventing a significant capital investment into a product that was high-risk for market entry. I successfully navigated the tension of leading design execution while simultaneously analyzing business-level risk.
100%
CAPITAL SAVED ON LAUNCH OF HIGH-RISK BUSINESS MODEL
0-to-1
BRAND SYSTEM AND MOBILE FLOW SUCCESSFULLY DELIVERED AND VALIDATED
Successful Client Pivot
DIRECTLY INFLUENCED BY RESEARCH FINDINGS
What I Learned From This Project
DESIGNER AS BUSINESS PARTNER
In on-demand services, UX is business strategy. Designing a "frictionless flow" is useless if the initial intent (the behavioral use case) is fundamentally flawed.
VALIDATE INTENTIONS, NOT JUST BUTTONS
Testing shouldn't only focus on usability (can the user complete the flow?), but on validity (will they want to complete the flow in the real world?).
NAVIGATION THE "FRICTION" TENSION
Leading a project's design execution while simultaneously scrutinizing its business model requires intellectual sparring. The greatest value is sometimes the research that prevents a feature from being built at all.
PORTFOLIO
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