SharePlus – A car-sharing concept designed to meet the needs of people living in less central areas.

Content Competitor analysis to provide an overview and understanding of the different Car-Sharing models.

Visual analysis focusing on the appearance of each Car-Sharing provider’s app.

Then there is free-floating, which is mainly offered in large cities. With free-floating, there is a defined zone where cars can be parked freely. Transferring this model to Dibbesdorf in a simplified way. Namely, the number of cars compared to the population density, then compared to a large city, many fewer cars would be distributed over a much larger radius. The cars would again be so far away from many people on foot that only a very small proportion of them would be able to use them effectively. In addition, you never know where the car will be parked next.

So the question is: what makes SharePlus different? The concept combines free-floating and station-based approaches. Residents of each street share a dedicated fleet, making the street itself the “station”. Within the street, cars can be parked freely, blending flexibility with a localized sharing model.

In short: the needs and usage data of households on a street are collected, evaluated, and aggregated to determine how many and which types of vehicles are required. Based on this analysis, the appropriate vehicle models and numbers are made available on the street, ready to be booked through the app.

Task Flows –  In order to get a better understanding of what actions take place in a defined process and what screens need to be designed based on that, different task flows have been created.

This task flow visualizes the general structure of SharePlus. It starts with: Households receive a letter and ends with the individual functions of the application. It is intended to give a general overview of what the service offers and how an exemplary installation process would take place in a street.

First screen designs (testing base) – To test the application, the wireframes were transferred from wireframe status to screen design.

Five people from Dibbesdorf participated in the usability test. Each person had access to at least one car per household. Three had owned their own car, while two participants shared a car in their household. Age ranged from early twenties to early sixties. 

Only one person had previous experience with Car-Sharing apps. Another respondent stated that they had already booked an e-scooter through a sharing app.

All test subjects went through the same scenario: booking a car while driving to a specific shopping market to go shopping.  A Figma prototype was used on the iPhone 11 Pro Max. After a short introduction, they were observed using the app in the given scenario. They commented aloud on everything that went through your mind while using the app. After the test, there was a short feedback and question session to discuss any concerns, suggestions for improvement, and behavioral patterns.

Headlight button – Especially when several vehicles are parked close together or you have to search for the booked vehicle in the dark, the flashing function makes it much easier to find the car. Since license plates no longer need to be checked. This feature was not previously included in the designs and was added on request.

Pins –  Instead of static looking pins, more dynamic pins are used to illustrate that the cars are not permanently parked at the spots, but can be booked flexibly and parked on the street. This is made clear by car icon and the circle at the end of the pin.

Naming –  Four out of five respondents were in favor of naming the vehicles. According to them, this gives the vehicles a personal touch and recognition value. However, according to an article by TÜV NORD GROUP, only one in seven people name their car, and one person was present during the test against naming. So there will be an option in the Profile tab under Settings to display the model name instead of the name.

The same goes for walking minutes. According to the feedback, there was a wish to be able to hide this information because the routes within a street are not always very far and are also known. However, since this information can have a very individual value depending on the distance, street shape, or personal attitude, there will also be an option to show or hide the display in the Profile tab, Settings.

Warning Messages –  If the rental period is exceeded, a warning message is displayed. However, according to the test results, it should light up in orange instead of red. Red made the testers too unsure. In general, it turned out that messages of any kind should be displayed in color contrasts.

Main color palette –  Despite the many different elements, the goal was to achieve a harmonious, not too colorful overall effect. This is achieved by using different shades of blue. While the backgrounds are colored in a reduced way, different blue accent colors provide a visual hierarchy within the screens.

From the moment the map is displayed, the navigation is deliberately changed. The background colors also change. Background Primary becomes Background Secondary and Background Secondary becomes Background Primary. This maintains a clear hierarchy and keeps the screen clean and uncluttered. In general, primary colors highlight the most important elements and secondary colors complement them.

Font –  The choice of font in this application context fell on the Noto Sans and the Noto Sans Display. On the one hand because of their aesthetics and reduced appearance. 

On the other hand, the Noto fonts were for the whole world. Besides the many possible styles, it allows “typographically correct and aesthetically pleasing global communication in over 1,000 languages and over 150 fonts”. (Google Fonts)  This feature is particularly suited to the app’s concept of being able to quickly reduce emissions globally.

Elements –  A small overview of the elements used. Most of the icons shown are Apple’s SF Symbols. These were chosen because of their clean look and the large, flexible and coordinated selection of icons. However, not all SF Symbols were convincing in the respective context. Therefore, some self-designed icons were added. In addition illustrations of the vehicles have been drawn.

App logo –  The logo represents a parking zone, the so-called home zone. The rotated arrangement is meant to symbolize flexibility and dynamism. Due to the smaller space in the App logo representation, the written plus becomes a + sign.