Lyft Accessibility Design: Making Ride Hailing Work for Blind Riders

You are a product manager at Lyft, asked to design how the Lyft app should work for riders who are blind. Decide what the experience needs to do for them, find where today's ride-hailing flow lets them down, propose and prioritize improvements, and explain how you would measure success. ```hint Take the trip without the screen Walk through one trip, from deciding to ride to stepping out at the destination, and note every point where the app or the pickup assumes the rider can see. ``` ### Clarifying Questions - Should this be a change to the existing Lyft app, a separate app, or another channel such as a phone line? - Are we designing for riders who are fully blind only, or also for riders with low vision and riders traveling with a guide dog? - Is the goal more trips by blind riders, a safer and more independent experience on each trip, or both? - Is the driver's app in scope, or only the rider's? ### What a Strong Answer Covers - A defined scope, covering which riders, which form the product takes and which apps are in scope, and a stated goal - The trip broken into steps, with the points where sight is assumed identified and ranked against the stated goal - Solutions weighed by impact and cost with a first version defined, including how the driver's part of the pickup and ride is handled, whichever apps are in scope - Rider safety, privacy and trust handled throughout the trip - Success metrics with guardrails, and how the design is validated before a wide launch ### Follow-up Questions - How would you handle a pickup where the driver cannot stop at the rider's exact location? - Some drivers may cancel when they learn a rider has a guide dog. How would the product detect and discourage that? - How would you test the design before launch, and with whom?