Case study: Uber One & Promo Experience

Problem Analysis
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1. Attempt to Cancel Subscription

I subscribed to Uber One subscription, but I didn't want it anymore, so I decided to cancel it. However, I couldn't find a straightforward way to do so even after navigating through the Uber One section of the app. It was surprising to me that Uber has a page where we can manage subscriptions, but it didn't help me in this case.I followed the guidelines set out in the policy and contacted Uber's support team via live chat to request a cancellation. Unfortunately, the agent who responded gave me an automated message saying they couldn't help me via live chat and told me to wait for a response.This increased frustration, prompting me to try contacting live chat support multiple times, hoping for a different outcome. However, both times, I received the same automated response, which only added to my confusion about how to cancel my subscription.

As I was using the app, I noticed that cancelling a subscription was complex and confusing, almost like it was designed to make it difficult for users to leave.I felt frustrated and disappointed with the support team's lack of help; their automated responses were repetitive and unhelpful, and they purposely delayed my cancellation to keep me subscribed for longer.The experience was frustrating, and I felt I was being taken advantage of. Despite this, I persisted and eventually managed to cancelled my subscription.

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2. Fake Promotional Ads

I remember when I opened the Uber app and wanted to book a ride from my house to another location around Wellington City. I navigated to the 'Suggestions' section, which appeared in a green promo banner. At first, it indicates a green coloured promotional label ad whereby I can get a promotional charge instead of the regular price. However, there was no promotional price when I clicked the ride button. To my dismay, I felt upset by this manipulative and dishonest design choice. They come in all shapes and sizes, and this ad are made to trick a user and opt you into a service by default. Obviously, they ultimately prioritise business wants over user needs.Honesty is always the best policy in design, and sound design means setting the priorities of users ahead. Honesty should always be at the centre of designer work and should guide designer decision-making process as they work to achieve business evolving product goals.

Honesty is a habit that must adapt to changing situations. Trust is a valuable commodity, and once it's broken, it's difficult to regain. Therefore, it's crucial to maintain honesty in all aspects of your work to build and maintain trust.It is unethical to design when Uber does this approach of design, and design should be human-centred, but now it's business-centred.  This is the kind of shortcut designers use to get users to accept things, and it's not the user's fault. Still, it's the user's responsibility when they click that button; the user will bear any consequences. Uber has an ethical product tone, but now it contradicts their claim. They want the user to have a thriving customer journey, but I wonder if Uber follows their ethical product tone in their app.
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Findings

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1. Design Value
   
   Let’s begin with two undervalued designs occur and make me question why such a user-unfriendly exists in such value:
   
   Honesty: Dishonesty in promotional banners would weaken your brand’s credibility.
   
   A dishonest approach to design can be dangerous to the brand as it results in numerous criticisms, upset and embarrassment, proving the importance of being honest in communicating.
   
   Transparency: Lack of transparency in their membership would cost Uber unloyal customers in future.The complexity approach in their Uber One membership will build a customer base from trusting the creative persuasion to a doubtful deceptive manipulation in their app.

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2. Dark Pattern
   
   This undervalued design leads to a dark pattern lingering around the Uber App. There’s a reason why there’s no such thing as ‘business-centred design’ - Happy users make happy businesses, not the other way around. Being deceived creates a negative user experience and weakens Uber brand’s credibility. The dark pattern here revolves around the app's intentional confusion of the cancellation process:
   
   Hard to cancel: It appeared designed to complicate things and discourage users from cancelling their subscriptions and
   
   Nagging support: The automated responses they gave me were repetitive and unhelpful. Despite directing me to contact support for cancellation, the live chat support system felt more like a barrier than a helpful resource.  
   
   Disguised Ads: Users mistakenly believe and click the card button that there's a promotional price, but there isn't.
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Consequences

The cancellation process was not transparent and lacked support, which resulted in a time-consuming and frustrating experience. Practices like these can harm a company's reputation and reduce customer trust. Therefore, it is crucial for companies to prioritize ethical design and user-friendly practices to build long-lasting trust and goodwill with their users.

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Ethical Design Value

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1. Design Requirement
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   After conducting thorough research and analysis to understand users' requirements for honesty and transparency, I have identified various crucial objectives that my proposed solutions must focus on.
   
   The solution should:
   
   a. Assist users in quickly navigating and managing their app preferences, particularly regarding their membership.
   
   b. Ensure that Uber promotional advertisements are transparent and accurately based on their ethical, removing the banner if there are no current deals.
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Visual Solution

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1. ‍Suggestion 1
   
   Satisfaction and Productive Time:
   The user-friendly pattern removed layers of complexity that were entirely unnecessary. I suggest including an ethical product tone in Uber, which is straightforward and clear. For instance, placing the FAQs to the user's concern and adding the 'cancel membership' button on the manage membership page would be concise for a user to decide their preference.
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2. Suggestion 2
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   Meet the user expectation on deals
   When a user clicks to see a deal on Uber, it might be better to display a promo label at that point rather than placing a banner without the promo first. This could avoid any negative feelings from the user if the user felt tricked and trapped by these no-impact ads.

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Key Takeaway

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1. Impact to Business
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   Unethical design value and practices, such as dark patterns, can harm a company's image and diminish the confidence of its customers. Therefore, companies must emphasize ethical and user-friendly design approaches to establish a long-lasting relationship of trust and loyalty with their users.
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2. Impact to Team
   
   ‍Practising design transparency and honesty results in the appropriate stakeholders involved in product development. We can do this by showing them and conveying the design procedure, choices, and principles to avoid dark patterns and undervaluing the product. It aims to establish mutual understanding, build confidence, and enhance cooperation between designers, developers, managers, and users.