RyderGyde
Get Roadside Assistance fast, right when you need it — plus locations, fuel rates, and maintenance.
A stranded driver doesn’t have time to figure out an app.
The Research
Process
Empathy Map
An empathy map helps us establish our personas by finding their voices, feelings, and motivations.
Empathy map of our target user, in four quadrants:
- Says
- “I like Ryder trucks but I’m in them because I’m paid to be in them.”
- “If I’m on the side of the road I’m not fiddling with an app. I’m calling — it works.”
- Thinks
- When I am in trouble I need to talk to a real person.
- I don’t fully trust an app to help me on the side of the road.
- Does
- When drivers need Roadside Assistance, they call the phone number.
- Feels
- Annoyed at the thought of downloading “an app for everything.”
- Apprehensive about trusting an app for this service.
User Pain Points
1. “Calling Gets Results”
For decades drivers have been calling for Roadside Assistance and it has worked. Being stranded on the side of the road is not the time to experiment with an app.
2. “I Don’t Want Another App”
Many drivers believe there are already too many useless apps on their phones. They won’t download a native app unless it is absolutely necessary.
3. “I Didn’t Know This Existed”
Despite various attempts to promote the app and its features, many drivers still didn’t know that they could use RyderGyde to get Roadside Assistance.
Our User
Randy, Truck Driver
“When I’m driving, I’m focused on the destination. If something happens, then I’ll manage.”
Randy’s primary focus on every trip is to get the payload to point B efficiently. With over 20 years of experience, he’s no stranger to persevering through obstacles.
Goals
- Get the payload to Point B as fast as possible
- Get Roadside Assistance to his vehicle quickly if an event occurs
Frustrations
- Being stranded on the side of the road filled with uncertainty
- Starting a Roadside Assistance case from scratch on the phone
- Having to interact with an unfamiliar app during an emergency
Randy’s User Journey
Primary task: Find a way to quickly get Roadside Assistance to his distressed Ryder vehicle.
The journey has 5 phases. For each one: what the user does, how they feel, and the design opportunities it points to.
Phase 1: Pick Up Truck
- Actions
- Arrives at rental location and starts process
- Completes on-site inspection
- Drives toward destination
- Feeling
- Focused, or ready to go for another day on the road
- Opportunities
- Promote Roadside Assistance around location
- Promote Roadside Assistance in vehicle driver cab
Phase 2: Truck Malfunctions
- Actions
- Emergency occurs
- Driver pulls vehicle over into a safe location
- Looks for a way to get assistance
- Feeling
- Furious or shocked
- Opportunities
- Advertise app during phone call hold time
- Have “in case of emergency” instructions posted around truck
Phase 3: Interacts with App
- Actions
- Scans QR code
- Fills out form
- Completes transaction and submits report
- Feeling
- Anxious or at ease
- Opportunities
- QR code allows users to easily access web application
- Make form as minimal as possible
Phase 4: Waits for Help
- Actions
- Driver is alerted that help is being arranged
- Driver receives ETA that help will be there soon
- Driver stays posted through app
- Feeling
- Anxious or relieved
- Opportunities
- Keep driver informed
Phase 5: Help Arrives
- Actions
- Assistance arrives
- Issue is resolved
- Driver continues to destination
- Feeling
- Excited
- Opportunities
- Use testimonials to promote
The Story
To understand what to design, we illustrated a roadside emergency involving Randy, a truck driver.
Ideate: Exploring Opportunities
My team and I assembled an affinity map to organize the results of our competitive analysis into gaps left by the competition and opportunities presented by these gaps.
Affinity Map
An affinity map is a great way to organize the results of the competitive analysis into opportunities left by the competition.
Sticky notes sorted into three columns: the competitors we analyzed, the gaps we found in their products, and the opportunities those gaps opened up.
- Competitors
- AAA Roadside Request
- Allstate Roadside Assistance
- Postmates (indirect)
- Gaps
- Competitor products require registration
- Competitor services cost money
- Competitors don’t have home field advantage
- Opportunities
- QR code in driver cab
- Use a web app in the browser over a native app
- Offer a phone option in case internet is not available
- Emergency sticker located on windshield
- Real-time tracking of help
- Quick form process
- Don’t register drivers. Register vehicles.
- Advertise in rental locations
- Get customers’ thoughts upon repair
Top Opportunities
1. Register vehicles, not drivers — to streamline registration process
2. Emergency sticker located on windshield with unique QR Code
3. Real-time GPS tracking of assistance vehicle
4. Streamline form process to 3 steps
From Ideas to Sketches to Wireframes
With opportunities identified, we sketched, iterated, and refined wireframes for each step of the flow. Drivers need help wherever they break down, and 91% of Americans owned a smartphone in 2024, so we designed for phones first.
Ideas to Implement
1. Use QR Codes in Cabs
All windshields on vehicles have an emergency sticker with a QR code that opens a short web address preloaded with the vehicle’s information.
2. Web Over Native Apps
Offering this as a web app instead of a native download speeds up adoption and works on any phone.
3. Eliminate Registering
Registering is the biggest hurdle with new users. If we create profiles for vehicles by their vehicle number, then the driver’s name is all that is needed at check-in for a complete profile.
Sketches
Complete information
Assistance Dispatched
Assistance Arrived
Low-Fidelity Prototype & Testing
Observing users interacting with prospective designs is crucial to finding out whether the designs work in practice.
Summary
After assembling a lo-fi prototype to demonstrate a truck driver’s journey to secure help from Roadside Assistance, I conducted live usability studies with 12 truck drivers at an actual Ryder truck facility, 30 minutes each.
Tasks
- Scan the QR Code
- Complete the simple form
- Receive assistance
Results
Based on live usability studies with 12 truck drivers at an actual Ryder facility, 30 minutes each, asking each to scan the QR code, complete the form, and receive assistance.
100% successfully received Roadside Assistance
“Better than being put on hold”
100% found the app useful
“Saves so much time”
100% reacted positively
“I wish I knew about this before today”
92% would use it in the future
“I just want help as fast as possible”
Results were overwhelmingly positive on the first round, so no retest was needed — the team moved straight to high-fidelity mockups.
High-Fidelity Mockups
After validating our solutions with users, the next step was to finalize our screens and bring them to life.
Step 1
Step 2
Step 3
Complete
Final Prototype
The final step before handing off our designs to the development team was to take our high-fidelity mockups and create a working prototype. It anchored stakeholder presentations, helped us verify final details with testers, and gave developers a visual reference to build from.
Beyond Roadside Assistance
Roadside Assistance wasn’t the only friction point drivers dealt with on the road. Fuel expense reconciliation was entirely manual — drivers turned in paper receipts, and accountants had to sort, match, and enter each one by hand before fuel taxes could be reported correctly across states. It was slow, error-prone, and pulled accounting time away from higher-value work.
I designed a mobile flow letting drivers photograph and submit fuel receipts directly from the road. Each receipt is logged digitally and organized for International Fuel Tax Agreement (IFTA) reporting, replacing the physical stack of paper receipts accountants previously reconciled by hand.
Lessons Learned
1. Technology has its time
In a pre-pandemic world, QR codes were a forgotten craze even though native camera apps can scan them. But now that people don’t want to touch anything, they’ve become commonplace, proving that integration and usefulness are necessary for technology to be accepted.
2. Web apps are powerful
A Progressive Web Application (PWA) is a quick and cost-effective way to provide a simple experience for any user across platforms through a browser. For this project, its simplicity helped with user adoption and convenience.
3. No more registering
A huge hurdle for new users is getting them to register. Not only is it a hassle, signing up for yet another app, but it can be a deal breaker. By eliminating this hurdle for drivers, we can quickly get them the assistance they desperately need and possibly win over a new user for the native app.