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User flow Design
Designing a clearer ride booking experience for older adults
B-Link is Bloomington Transit’s ride-booking experience, designed to help riders request and manage rides. While the service is available to a wider rider base, its experience is especially important for older adults and users who may need additional clarity, accessibility, and reassurance while completing bookings.
Company
Bloomington Transit, B-Link
Project Duration
4 weeks
Skills
UX audit, pattern analysis, usability testing
Project Focus
This project focused on redesigning the onboarding and ride booking flow. The existing journey had usability and accessibility issues that made it difficult for riders to understand what to do, where they were in the process, and what would happen next.
My Role
My role was to evaluate the current flow, identify breakdowns through audit and testing, study comparable patterns within similar technical ecosystems, and redesign a cleaner, more accessible booking journey that could realistically be implemented.
Problem Statement
Booking a ride should feel reassuring, not confusing
For older adults, booking transportation is not a casual digital task. It is a functional, often high-stakes activity connected to independence, mobility, and confidence. In B-Link, the current ride booking experience created friction at the exact moments where riders needed clarity most. Onboarding was unclear, the booking flow lacked structure, and important actions or information were easy to miss. Rather than feeling guided, riders had to interpret the interface on their own.
The existing B-Link experience made ride booking harder than it needed to be. Unclear onboarding, weak hierarchy, missing UI cues, and accessibility gaps created uncertainty across the journey, making it difficult for older adults to confidently complete ride requests.
Constraints of the Existing Platform
The redesign was not happening on a blank canvas. B-Link relied on a parent platform’s API and backend structure, which meant the product could only support certain interaction models, data structures, and operational constraints. Because of this, the challenge was not just to improve the experience, but to do so in a way that remained technically realistic.
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Business Impact
Retaining refunds in the MMT wallet ensures users remain within the MMT ecosystem, encouraging faster rebooking.
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Operational Cost
Reducing third-party payment reversals saves on processing fees
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User Satisfaction
A clearer, benefits-driven refund experience can lead to greater trust in the brand and fewer support calls.
Business and Design Goals
How might we redesign the refund experience so that users feel confident choosing the "My wallet" button leading to faster refunds for them and increased retention for the business?
Solution : Driving user retention through behavioural UX
I redesigned the refund decision-making screen after the conclusion that this was more than a UI issue, it was more of a behavioural decision making problem. I approached the solution by focusing on information clarity, visual distinction, and persuasive design
Discovery & research
This was a quick project with high urgency, so I prioritized research that directly informs design instead of long discovery.
User Behavior Insight
Here the idea was to identify why users ignored the my wallet refund option despite its benefits.
Problem Validation
This was to determine if the problem we are solving is a UI issue, a trust issue, or a more systemic design flaw.
What I did was a lightweight but effective research
I quickly validated the issue through:
Behavior signals so if the adoption is low then users are defaulting selecting to original payment mode option
Operations teams input through interview highlighted the patterns in refund-related calls and user complaints about refund getting delayed
UX audit of the existing screen highlighted content hierarchy, accessibility/scanning, persuasion gaps.
Actionable Insights
Content Overload
Users found the screen text-heavy and overwhelming. They skipped important details, including the wallet benefits, due to lack of visual hierarchy.
Default Bias
Users assumed the pre-selected refund-to-original-mode was the recommended or safer option. The lack of contrast between options reinforced passive behavior.
User lack awarness and trust
Several users didn’t know what the MMT wallet was or felt uncertain about how soon they would get the money back. This unfamiliarity caused hesitation and a strong preference for their usual payment method.
Invisible Benefits
The advantages of using the MMT wallet were not noticeable., users overlooked paragraphs of dense text.
Project Constraints
While working on this project, there were several constraints that shaped the design approach I took and also synced with timelines
Time Constraint (2-week sprint cycle)
The project had to be designed, tested, and shipped within a narrow sprint window. This limited the depth of testing and iteration cycles, requiring fast but effective decisions based on available data.
GCC Regional Scope Only
The scope of this rollout was restricted to the GCC region due to localization priorities, meaning the solution couldn’t be tested globally despite its broader relevance.
Existing Component Library
MakeMyTrip’s mobile platform used a shared component system across booking, cancellation, and refund flows. Any major redesign needed to fit within this system to avoid engineering complexity.
Business Rules
Some backend refund policies (e.g., eligibility for wallet based on payment mode) were hardcoded and could not be changed during the scope of this redesign, limiting flexibility in default behavior or automation.
Design process was iterative and feedback driven
Design process for this project was tight looped quick decision making followed by iterative designing. The designs went through a several stakeholder reviews , and through the process I was highly collaborative and sorted the feedback early.
Design Ideas Explorations and Iterations
Final Design focused on Discoverability, User Persuasion and Clarity of content
Challenges during the project
Balancing User Freedom vs. Business Nudging
One of the key tensions in this project was encouraging users to select the wallet refund option without making it feel forced. While the business needed higher wallet adoption, my role as a designer was to respect user autonomy.
Iterating in a Fast-Moving, PM-Led Environment
At MakeMyTrip, PMs often drive roadmaps with aggressive targets. As the only designer on this feature, I had to present strong rationale for design decisions quickly, often backed by behavioral research or user testing insights.
What I learned from this project ?
Validate every problem, no matter who defines it: I learned to question the brief and back decisions with real user insights. Instead of relying solely on the PM’s framing, I validated the drop in wallet refunds through qualitative and quantitative methods.
Behavioral design is powerful when applied with intention: Defaults, layout hierarchy, and copy all influence user decisions. Nudging done right can align user needs with business goals ethically.
Microcopy is not an afterthought—it's strategic: By rewriting how refund options were explained, we helped users understand and trust the wallet option.
Working cross-functionally improves results: Collaborating with PMs and developers helped me balance ideal UX with engineering feasibility. I also practiced presenting to non-design stakeholders and defending design choices using data and user insights.
Copyright ©2026. All right reserved Ananya Vashist
