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CGT 17208 Aidan Janes

Project 2 Gabby Willard
2/17/2022 Aidan Sun

Project 2 Documentation
Team 7 Members: Gabby Willard, Aidan Janes, & Aidan Sun

What is the issue?

Lyft’s current rating system is flawed and encourages users to rate 5/5 regardless of the
passengers’ experience is positive or negative.

What are we solving?

How can we inherently make every ride a positive one, while also providing a more in-
depth yet short evaluation of the driver?

Who is our User Group?

Before critiquing, our user group was targeted toward individuals 25 and above going to
and from airports. It was decided that this group was too difficult to cater to.
We switched to tailoring towards international students in college as it was determined
we can edit Lyft to give them a positive experience every time they use the app.
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CGT 17208 Aidan Janes
Project 2 Gabby Willard
2/17/2022 Aidan Sun
Investigation
We needed to Investigate issues related to rating systems (both generally, and specific
to Lyft).

● “The first thing to know is the Lyft rating system works both ways. At the end of each trip,
drivers are given the opportunity to rate their passengers, and passengers can rate their
drivers a score of one to five stars.” (Helling, 2022).
The Lyft Rating system currently allows both the driver and passenger to rate each
other out of 5.

● “In the event that a rider or driver gives a rating of three stars or less, they will not be
paired with the person again for future rides. You also have the ability to add feedback
and comments to give Lyft an idea of what the driver or passenger did well or didn’t do
well.” (Helling, 2022).
If they rate each other low they will not be paired, comments are anonymous.

● “These often come up as selectable options like “polite,” “clean,” “good conversation,”
etc. Like the ratings, comments from both parties are only ever shared with Lyft and not
disclosed to drivers or riders” (Helling, 2022).
These comments are only displayed if they choose to write out a comment, which is
unlikely.

● “Lyft ratings are calculated on a one to five-star scale rating system, with five being the
best. Your driver will rate you after each ride, which is then added to your cumulative
average rating” (Helling, 2022).
The score is an average over time, ratings do not refresh. The five-star rating system is
flawed.

● “Generally, drivers who dip below 4.5 are subject to review by the Lyft community,
resulting in deactivation.” (Helling, 2022).
Drivers who drop below 4.5 are subject to review, giving passengers who know this an
incentive to rate high to maintain no guilt with rating low and risking others' jobs.

Take Away from Research

After researching Lyft’s rating system, we have found that it is deeply flawed. We have
some initial edits before finding a user group to cater to.
● Create a sliding system instead of a five out of five-star rating.
● Edit how low the rating goes before the driver is suspended (maybe a warning
before termination to see if the driver corrects their behaviors).
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CGT 17208 Aidan Janes
Project 2 Gabby Willard
2/17/2022 Aidan Sun
● The ratings on the driver’s profile page should reflect the most recently recorded
ratings. Only one hundred of their most recent ratings are factored into their
overall ratings displayed on their profile page.
● Have presets to rate by (these cannot be edited).

Interviews
Interview Questions:
1. How often do you use Lyft or Uber?
2. Have you had a negative experience while using Lyft or Uber? (if not elaborate)
3. What is the most positive experience with a passenger or driver?
4. How often do you rate your drivers? (how often do you rate 5/5) (what is the
process of rating)
5. Would you feel comfortable with a driver you've been matched with based on
your needs?
6. International student: If one speaks another language, would it be better if your
driver spoke that language?

Interview Takeaways
After conducting two interviews, one with a Lyft driver, the other with an international
student fluent in both English and Spanish, we have gained a better understanding of
our user group and the drivers who will be using these changes.

Interview 1 with Becky:

Becky, who is from Canada, stated that having the driver and the passenger matched based on
the preset preferences would make her experience more positive. She often just rates five out of
five when she uses Lyft herself, she doesn’t usually think too much about it. By providing
presets to quickly slide positive or negative she reported she would put more thought into her
experience.

Interview 2 with Danalee:

Danalee, an international student from Mexico, stated having a negative experience when
speaking to her sister in Spanish which is her native language. She said the preference page
may help deter this experience in the future.

After reviewing both these responses we feel confident our system would help both the drivers
and passengers.
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CGT 17208 Aidan Janes
Project 2 Gabby Willard
2/17/2022 Aidan Sun
Sketches & Wireframes
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CGT 17208 Aidan Janes
Project 2 Gabby Willard
2/17/2022 Aidan Sun
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CGT 17208 Aidan Janes
Project 2 Gabby Willard
2/17/2022 Aidan Sun
Usability Testing
After conducting a usability test, we found the readability of our design was difficult, it
felt crowded and overexplained.
● The icon of the do not disturb button was edited to give a more universal do not disturb
feeling which is a crescent moon.
● The preference page was spaced out to make it more readable.
● The do not disturb button was moved to under the passenger’s profile picture and name
at the top to easily show the driver if the passenger has turned that feature on.
● The current reviews of the driver had been removed from the rate your driver page
because we do not want the passenger to be super influenced by the previous ratings
when making their own.
● The ability to add a comment underneath the driver’s profile has been moved to the
rating page because it would make more sense to be able to leave a comment when
rating the driver rather than leave a comment on the driver’s page whenever.

Final Design
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CGT 17208 Aidan Janes
Project 2 Gabby Willard
2/17/2022 Aidan Sun

Conclusions & Final Thoughts

Aidan Janes:
This project was difficult and had added pressure to do better after we have done it once before.
Now that I know what to expect I feel pressure to surpass what I did in Project one. I have had a
wonderful group for this project, and I believe the solution we came up with is a successful one.
I am nervous we did not have a Sheppard to review our work as closely, but I believe our
documentation is alright. The thing I think I struggled with the most was the video, being
restricted to using only paper props was difficult to emulate everything we wanted to articulate.
Especially, as a computer animation major, it was hard not to go to what I know. However,
paper, has more weight to what we add to it, as it is not as easy to edit as a digital copy would
be.

Gabby Willard:
This project allowed a lot of creative freedom for coming up with unique solutions to the five-star
rating system. It was fun brainstorming ideas of what could make the rating system better. After
sketching lots of ideas, the feedback from other people helped with improving the overall
concept of our solution. The interview also helped with input for attending to our specific user
group. Something that I struggled with the most was making sure that all the final design
drawings were perfect in terms of sketching and designing them. This project taught me that
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CGT 17208 Aidan Janes
Project 2 Gabby Willard
2/17/2022 Aidan Sun
there are always so many solutions to a simple problem and the thing that helped the most with
editing designs was feedback from other people.

Aidan Sun:
Compared to the first project, I was expecting this to be a bit easier to do considering I now
finally had some experience under my belt. However, this project was more difficult than the
previous one we had done. I feel I could have helped a little more with this project in certain
areas such as research. Overall though I think I learned some valuable things from this project.

Sources
Lyft, (2022, January 1 ) Drivers who drop below 4.5 are subject for review. Lyft
https://www.lyft.com/

Hettling, Brett, (2022, January 19) In the event that a rider or driver gives a rating of three stars
or less, they will not be paired with the person again for future rides. What is my Lyft Passenger
rating, https://www.ridester.com/lyft-passenger-ratings/