September 2: the first day of school. I hailed the first Lyft Line of the challenge. Although I didn't have a carpool, I had a much clearer understanding of how Line worked.

I launched Lyft's app at 7 am, an hour before my 8 am class started. The passenger request screen immediately prompted after (Image 2). As a Lyft rider, this is a familiar screen with the addition of the Line option on the top of the screen. Toggling between Lyft's services: Line (Carpool), Lyft (Lift), and Plus (SUV), the map below gives me live data of available cars around me. In my case, I selected Line.

The First Step

The first step of setting a pickup is entering my destination. [In version 2.5.2], the map zooms out to the city of San Francisco, with my frequent locations, ‘Home’ and ‘Work,’ already pinned on the map (image 3). In my case of commuting to California College of the Arts, it is already pinned as 'Work.' After entering my destination, Lyft gave me an upfront fixed cost of $9 for one person (image 4).

By selecting 'Request Line,' the system begins 'matching' my ride (image 5). While waiting, a nifty bit of animation begins scrolling by at the bottom showing people’s profile pictures. After a minute or so, my start point (green pin) and end point (red pin) are connected with a potential route, with a driver on his way to pick me up. Image 6 shows Nic with a Gold Honda Accord who is expected to arrive in 6 mins.

By 7:06, I received a text message from Lyft, stating ‘Nic is arriving soon’ and reminded me to wait outside. By 7:09, I was heading to school. I arrived at school by 7:28, I gave Nic a fist bump and thanked him. The next thing to show up on the app is a rating of my driver, from 1-5 stars. I gave Nic a five star. Our conversation was fun and he offered me water and mints. I even downloaded an album he recommended. When I checked the time, I was shocked. I had 32 minutes to spare before class. I remember thinking, this was the most stress-free commute I’ve ever had, ever. I could totally get used to it.

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By Day 3, I was sold.

What was fascinating to me is how well Lyft designed its experience to directly dictate its philosophy. Lyft is illustrated as a flowing pink balloon, which is an obvious representation of getting lifted. The visual for requesting a lift is front and center, it is Lyft’s way of saying that requesting a lyft is the main priority. By clearly entering my start and end points, Lyft Line is potentially drawing a real time bus route – combining and hybridizing riders' destinations. When matching and finding a ride, the nifty animation of people’s friendly faces illustrate Lyft is friendly and community driven.

By the end of week 1, I was fully embedded in the culture that Lyft had cultivated.

Lyft’s casual branding identity is perfectly suited for car-sharing. Lyft drivers’ cars are marked with a pink mustache on their grilles, and when you get in, you are supposed to sit in the front seat, not the back. You are greeted with a fist bump, an implicit invitation to chat, and sometimes goodies. Sometimes drivers display their other jobs/passions/hobbies with brochures and decoration. Albeit sometimes campy, it made me excited to see what my next driver was interested in.

About half of my trips were carpooled!

The experience feels less awkward than people might think, as if I was engaged with a friend or neighbor rather than a chauffeur and a stranger. I’d never thought about it before, but it was exactly the kind of atmosphere I wanted in a daily carpool. Some of my shared Lyft Line passengers were actually my neighbors whom I had never met before.

She even gave me a slice of her homemade banana bread!

The Negatives beginning to come to light

The Watch

I realized everyone using any on-demand car service are running late. As a result, drivers are stressed out. Additionally, I was very annoyed with the nifty matching animation, especially because it appeared so variable and arbitrary. It is very frustrating to find out my matched driver could be 30 minutes away.

The Scroll

Price fluctuates every minute during Prime Time

Reliability is the key to anybody’s morning commute.

When a Lyft is set to pick up a rider, the expectation is that the rider will be at their front door and ready to go. The reason is pretty obvious; any shared ride service is dependent upon being on time, otherwise everyone’s late, frustrated and grumpy. Thus, Lyft drivers are only set to wait harshly for a minute, before it will move on to the next stop. This will also result in charging riders a $5 cancellation fee. That happened to me once, as I was still in my apartment elevator.

The end of the challenge. I was surprised that I spent less than expected.

I spent $145 on Lyft. I was even more surprised to find out I spent $67 on Uber, for 1/4 of the rides that I got on Lyft Line!

Uberpool offers a noticeably larger quantity of drivers without snooze time.

Without snooze time however, it led to the failure of Uberpool in pairing potential carpool. Not unexpectedly, I was charged more using Uberpool. Lyft Line gives me a fixed discount rate up front, giving me, the rider, more rider confidence and not skeptical with the money making mindset.

One persistent criticism of ride-sharing apps is that they don’t actually do much to reduce the number of cars on the road. With the launch and success of Lyft Line, Lyft had potentially changed our independent culture. Lyft Line has created an entirely new culture of trust and community that had never existed in history. In the past 30 days, I had introduced myself every ride, met really cool people by chance, and felt my social interaction skills become even better. It’s hard to believe, but my daily commute is now seamless, and also responsible for improving my social interaction skills.

Please read my first post, for challenge details 🙂

Over the course of 30 days

I noticed Lyft is consistently troubleshooting and improving their system. There were times when I was matched with three riders, and there were times, when my rate was extra low. Many UX improvements were done with update 2.5.2 with added ‘Set Pickups,’ which gave on upfront cost before hailing. The pairing and matching period was also extended during the ETA to pick up the first rider. However, the system stops matching once a rider is on board. The system is currently capped at two trips, four stops, I would like to see Lyft expanding their cap in pursuit of their ambition of a sustainable future.

Improve snooze time by scheduling at least 15 minutes ahead

Now that I have completed my challenge, I have a few suggestions in improving Lyft Line. First, is being able to improve their snooze time. Perhaps, being able to schedule a Lyft Line ahead of time would be the best feature for it to become a dependable and dedicated service for commuters, instead of those who are only running late. A schedule based on when I need to be there, or when I need to leave would be simple and stress-free. The system would have more time to match potential carpools, while riders can better plan their mornings around the set time. This could also give flexibility and 'predictability' to the drivers, drivers can now accept an hour worth of pick ups and drop off in a way that accommodate all seats.

Perhaps to make it more flexible, giving riders choices for pick-up times could be another feature.

Improve on microinteracitons

Other helpful micro-interactions to delineate my experience versus the other riders would be enforcing color indicators. For instance, my route could always be marked as pink while others are marked as green.

Lyft Bus Line?

Finally, Lyft Line has the potential to scale into a larger system, a Lyft Bus Line that draws on-demand bus routes.