Rides 🚖 for Kids 🎒

8 min readJun 7, 2021

Creating a new feature called “Free Now for kids” where children could use the Free Now app without their parents to go to different places.

Ground rules

Care takers: assuming this is a mobile app, care takers and kids have a shared account. When registering, a care taker will fill out their profile (name, address, phone number) and indicate the childs name. For security purposes, the relationship between the care taker and child will be needed. As well as, emergency contact info and medical health info. For example, if an accident were to happen being able to get urgent medical care will be important. During the sign-up process, photos will be required to complete the profile to help identify drivers with riders. This will maximize security. The driver will also be uploading a photo. Care takers will be able to screen profiles of drivers that match their timings for pick up/drop off.

Drivers: when drivers are signing up to drive kids, they’ll be a rigid screening process. Drivers will have to upload their driving history as well as insurance history. They’ll be a background check. Along with that, drivers professional work history may be required. If a driver has past experience with kids, that will be a plus. Parents/care takers are likely to trust drivers that has prior (good) experience with kids. Also, the kind of car the driver drives will be a factor. For example, motorcycles will not be permitted.

Scheduling a ride

For this part of the user journey, scheduling rides will be limited to care takers only and not children. Care takers, will be able to schedule rides in advance and ad hoc. Ideally, care takers can meet the driver beforehand (if possible). The kid will not have permissions to schedule the ride for safety reasons. There will be an option to schedule weekly rides (assuming the driver has the availibiility). We’ll prioritize having the same driver drive the kid as this will build a relationship between drivers and care takers. The motivation behind weekly rides will be if the kid has soccer every Monday night or band practice. Location sharing will be available to both drivers and care takers. Care takers will be notified when their kid is picked up and dropped off automatically through the app. The child will be able to rate their ride.

During the ride

When the driver arrives for pick up, to confirm the passenger, facial recognition can be used to maximize security. This helps ensure the driver is transporting the right kids. Locations will be live throughout the ride for the care taker. To provide a safety precaution, kid will be able to send a SOS signal to their care taker if anything feels uncomfortable. At that moment, the platform will also be notified and suspend the ride. The care taker will be informed and will be asked to meet the kid and the driver. During the ride, the driver will follow a check-list for when picking up the kid.

Safety

Checking whether the kid has its seat belt on, whether the location they’re going to is the same as the desired location, and ensuring the child has its care takers permission to take the ride (that’s a given but sometimes kids take their parents phone and use it for their own purposes).

After the ride care taker will be notified when their kid is dropped off. A picture can be taken as the kid leaves the vehicle and the kid will rate their experience. The driver will notify the care taker about how the ride went and provide details regarding drop off. Where they dropped the kid off. Care taker will be able to rate the quality of feedback the driver provides for other customers.

Extension we can build a partnership between drivers and care takers. For example, sign up for a monthly program where the same driver drives the kid to soccer practice every week. This will help build a trusting relationship.

To summarize safety will be the number one aspect of the app. Providing a way to track location and safety of the passenger is important. The service will help identify types of drivers and will screen drivers beforehand. The app will only be available to care takers to schedule rides but for the kids, they’ll have a different UI to communicate with their care taker. For example, being able to send their care taker a message when they’ve reached their destination or communicate that they’re in danger.

Background

First I asked clarifying questions such as:

Will parents/care takers be booking rides for a child? Yes
Do the kids taking the rides have access to a smartphone? Yes
Is this a new service or an extension of the existing app? New service
How old are the ‘kids’? I’m going to assume the ages from 14–18 so no booster seats are needed.

I’m going to assume I’m designing with the consumer perspective in mind and not the driver. My solutions will reflect the user experience from the riders perspective.

Identifying the customer

Understand who I’m designing for:

Single parents who have a hard time balancing pick ups/drop offs for kids.
Grandparents who don’t drive but may be baby sitting kids.
Parents who have a busy schedule and would like to have a pick up/drop off service for children activities.
Teenagers who need a ride to their friends place or to a soccer practice.

Essentially, there’s people of all ages who will use the app to book rides. So I will keep that in mind when designing the app. And, only kids will be taking the ride.

Understanding the users

In my process, I took a deep dive into understanding the users (Tom and his parents) by forming user stories and articulating Tom’s journey and thus the app requirements.

When Tom runs out from school, he is:

Full of energy but easily distracted.
In need of a comforting yet secure environment.
Concerned about keeping in touch with his parents.
Ready for playful activities.
Hungry.
Happy to get on social media.
Curious about the driver.

Tom’s priorities are:

Having a simple and efficient way to select his favourite destination.
Choosing a cool and playful ride.
Keeping in touch with his family.
Rating his driver.

Tom’s pain points are:

Waiting alone for his driver.
Moving to a different location as initially indicated.
Not being aware of the vehicle mode.

Context

After finishing school, Tom wants to go visit his grandmother without having to ask his parents. He is looking for an enjoyable ride and wants to ride for free.

Tom’s goals:

Reach a preferred destination.
Enjoy a playful ride.
Keep in touch with the parents during the ride.

Tom’s tasks:

Search for a destination via favourites destinations list.
Select vehicle, driver and on board options.
Switch to the messenger interface.

User Needs

As a parent or care giver, I want to ensure my child is transported from A to B safely. I want to know when they’ve reached their destination.
As a parent or care giver, I want to know who is transportting my child.
As a rider (Tom), I want to be safely transported.
As a rider (Tom), I want to have a fun ride with games and/or books.
As a parent or care giver, I want to know whether the driver has a bad driving history OR alternatively can be written as “I want to ensure my kids driver is a safe driver”.
As a parent or care giver, I want to be able to schedule rides easily and pre-schedule rides.

To prioritize the user needs, I think 1, 2, 5, and 6 should be prioritized.

User stories

User stories helped to understand context, motivations and the desired outcome.

When out from school, I want to easily and quickly select my driver so I can have peace of mind and reach to my loved ones.
When my driver is selected, I want to have fun along the way and be able to enjoy a few snacks.

Tom’s journey

What steps Tom takes before, during and after his involvement with the app?

Tom finishes school.
He runs outside.
He pulls out his phone.
He selects his driver and preferred options.
Then views his driver estimated arrival time.
Tom gets in the car and app notifies parents of current status.
He can then get drinks, snacks, candies and chat with his parents.
Tom has arrived to destination and accept ride fare.
After a security check is conducted by driver, Tom gets out of the car.
Tom is asked to rate his driver.

App requirements

Based on Tom’s goals and needs, the feature should be:

Reliable

Display accurate driver informations and verified security requirements.
Be transparent about destinations, people involved (eg. driver’s name, parents online status, current location).
Easy interaction between kid and parents. Connectivity quality is of the utmost importance.

Usable

Understanding of user scenarios and goals.
Timely and non-distracting. Help user get from A to B efficiently.

Profitable

Setting new business opportunities for the platform to partner with brands or food industries.
Offering drivers new “younger” customers.

Assumptions

The following assumptions were made for this project:

Tom has access to cellular data so we can assume that he has no problems accessing the app.
Tom is using the app for the first time.
Tom and his family are familiar with messenger apps.
Tom knows his parents are car riders too.
Driver is able to help/advise Tom on the platform.
Driver is prepared with the required options and will provide food, movies etc.
Tom’s journey runs from A to B. No stops in between, no switch to a different transport.

Constraints and trade-offs

The following were introduced for this project to allow for the focus to be one linear flow and the achievement of one particular goal:

This feature is not available for everyone but kids only.
This feature is non transactional.
This feature is based on security check requirements which means drivers should be pre-approved by the platform.
This feature will be switching the driver app to a “kid mode”.
Only nearby drivers are allowed to accept the ride to reduce time of waiting.
The feature will notify parents as child gets in and out of the car.
Ride should be prepaid so children only have to accept fare.
No co-rider or hailing passenger can get in the car when Tom is in.
No other child can get on the ride with Tom ; except if pre-approved before (guest list).
No more than two youngsters on the backseat. Driver will charge for second passenger.