Giving Uber Carshare Borrowers One Clear Price, From First Search to Checkout

Overview

As the sole designer on Uber Carshare’s borrower squad, I looked into why new borrowers hesitated to book. User testing showed the price in search results, before any dates were entered, was misleading.

A car advertised from $8 an hour cost $15.79 once fees and cover were added, a 97% jump. I redesigned the search flow so borrowers see a price that stays the same from search to checkout.

Impact

Making dates required closed the gap between the advertised price and the final price, and gave borrowers one clear path from search to checkout. It also meant removing an option that had been in the app for 10 years.

• 4.7%

  increase in conversion on the app

• 1.3%

  increase in conversion on web

• 100%

  of searches now include dates

How pricing works with Uber Carshare

With traditional car rental companies, borrowers usually pay a flat daily fee that includes unlimited kilometres, and they’re responsible for refuelling the car at their own expense at the end of the trip.

Uber Carshare takes a different approach. Pricing is split into two parts:

• Pre-trip costs which are paid at checkout when the booking is made, and
• Post-trip costs which are calculated and charged after the trip ends.

The “from” price made new borrowers expect a cheaper trip.

User testing revealed friction points around how borrowers interpreted trip pricing. The main issue stemmed from how pricing was displayed when no dates were applied - this was referred to as the “from” pricing.

In these cases, the “from” price often misled borrowers into thinking, for example, that hiring the Hyundai Kona shown below cost only $8 for one hour or $29 for an entire day, inclusive of all fees.

However, all trips also incur a booking fee and mandatory Basic Cover, typically calculated at around 10% of the time cost.

When these additional costs are factored in:

Through interviews - primarily with users who had never borrowed a car on Uber Carshare - the feedback was consistently negative, particularly regarding how pricing is displayed when no dates are applied.

• 🙁

  “The pricing doesn’t feel very transparent”

• 🙁

  “I don’t feel confident making a booking.”

• 🙁

  “What other hidden fees are there going to be?”

• 🙁

  “Why did the price increase in the checkout?”

With dates applied, the price stays the same through checkout.

When trip dates are entered, the displayed price is all-inclusive, covering:

• Time costs
• Booking fee
• Basic Cover

With the same group of users, I asked them to compare the search experience with and without dates applied. Overall, they found the process of applying dates familiar, the pricing clearer, and ultimately felt more confident proceeding with a booking.

• 😄

  “I like that the price is consistent throughout”

• 😄

  “I feel much more confident booking now.”

• 😄

  “Pricing is clearer when dates are applied”

• 😄

  “This booking flow is more what I’m used to.”

THE PROBLEM STATEMENT

If pricing lacks transparency without dates applied, how might we encourage users to apply dates to every search?

Two ways to get dates on every search.

The most straightforward solution was to remove the option for borrowers to search without dates. I also proposed refinements such as rounding prices to the nearest dollar and removing the “incl. fuel and fees” label to reduce cognitive load.

CURRENT

PROPOSED

Based on user data, 75% of borrowers were already searching with dates applied, making this approach a relatively low-risk solution. Additionally, removing the option to skip dates would create a more linear flow from search to checkout.

Internal stakeholders raised feedback that removing the ability to “skip dates” would represent a significant departure from the Uber Carshare search experience, as this option had been available for the past 10 years.

I explored an alternative that would retain the “skip dates” option while applying a 3-hour hire period based on each car’s next availability. The 3-hour duration was chosen based on user data indicating typical trip lengths, and the concept was inspired by Airbnb’s approach, where a trip period is applied to all search results even if users do not enter specific dates.

After discussing this concept with engineering, concerns were raised about the significant effort required to implement it. Consequently, the solution was simplified: if a borrower chooses to skip applying dates and times, a blanket 3-hour hire period would apply, without factoring in each car’s individual availability.

INITIAL CONCEPT

REVISED CONCEPT

Users preferred mandatory dates.

New and existing borrowers were recruited for moderated user testing and presented with high-fidelity prototypes for each option:

• Mandatory dates: Users must enter dates and times to progress their search.
• Skip dates: Users can skip entering dates; however, a 3-hour period is still applied.

MANDATORY DATES

SKIP DATES

During user testing, the majority of users experienced pain points with the skip dates option. When asked which version they preferred, users overwhelmingly chose the mandatory dates version, citing that it gave them more control over the search parameters and caused less confusion compared with the skip dates option.

• “I didn’t notice that a default 3 hour period has been applied to all the cars.”
• “I didn’t think these were available outside of these dates and times.”
• “I thought the prices shown were for a 24 hour hire period.”
• “I thought the cars had to be hired for a minimum of 3 hours.”

Mandatory dates shipped, and conversion went up.

Based on user preference for the mandatory dates option, the decision was made to proceed with this approach. Additional changes in the final release included rounding prices up to the nearest dollar and removing the copy “incl. fuel and fees” to provide greater clarity.

BEFORE

AFTER

As of June 2024, all borrowers across Uber Carshare app and web are now required to enter dates and times in order to progress through the search funnel. Due to this simplified and streamlined search process, conversion has also increased by 4.7% on app, and 1.3% on web.