Grab, a leading ride-hailing platform commanding 80% of the Southeast Asian market, faces challenges in ensuring a positive experience for its driver community. This has raised concerns about driver acquisition rates, particularly as the company faces a substantial bounce rate within its driver acquisition journey.
My Role
I worked as the designer & researcher for the project alongside Guri (Researcher), Tejas (Senior Product Manager), and the Grab team (Global & Malaysia)
Impact
Drop-off rates
reduced by 32%
within the next 6 months, 7% more than what was originally planned.
User engagement rate
increased by 24%
within 3 months, 4% more than the original goal.
Satisfaction rate
86% based on likert scale rating
when testing the new designs.
Before diving deeper into the problem, we had to understand what success looked like
While the impact on the user's experience became very evident, the impact on business was significant too. Every drop-off represented lost revenue, delayed activation, and increased support costs. So we asked Grab what success would look like for them after 3-6 months.
Drop-off rates
should decrease by 25%
within the next 6 months.
User engagement rate
should decrease by 20%
within 3 months.
We knew the drivers were dropping off, but it was important to learn WHY, WHERE, and HOW BAD IT WAS
Grab's driver information page was a major roadblock. Alarmingly, 60% of potential drivers were dropping out at the very first step. Those who managed to navigate to the info page often didn't finish the sign-up.
We needed to find out why?
After seeing the numbers we knew we had to go beyond surface-level fixes. But to understand why the experience was failing, we had to audit the entire flow ourselves.
THIS IS WHERE WE HIT OUR FIRST ROADBLOCK!!!
To test the onboarding flow, we needed a Malaysian phone number to receive a one-time password. Without that, we couldn’t even see the screens beyond sign-up i.e., no form structure, no document upload flow, no copy to analyze. We couldn’t prepare a usability script because we had no idea what we were about to encounter.
But the silver lining? It gave us an opportunity to conduct live exploratory sessions, asking participants to walk us through their journey, show us screenshots, and narrate what confused or frustrated them. It was raw, messy, and honestly, more illuminating than any pre-planned test could have been.
Key Research Insights
Critical details were buried, poorly organized, or missing entirely, making it hard for users to make informed decisions about signing up.
Redirects between tools and multi-step flows led to confusion and early exits.
Sessions timed out without warning, forcing users to restart, costing time and trust.
No visual indicators or confirmation messages made it unclear what was complete, what was left
Opportunity
How might we design an onboarding experience that builds trust and reduces drop-offs by making key information easy to find and act on, especially for first-time drivers navigating a complex flow?
Design Decision 1
We restructured the driver info page to make decision-making easier
Driver Information Page
01
Anchor Navigation Added quick-access links to make essential sections at the bottom more accessible, minimizing the need for extensive scrolling.
02
Consistent Design Elements Implemented a uniform design system across the page to enhance visual coherence, usability, and ensure a seamless user experience.
03
Content Consolidation Redesigned the page layout to group related content categories together, simplifying navigation and improving information consumption.
When we proposed to rearrange the key information, marketing initially pushed back, concerned it would disrupt their campaign flow.
Instead of debating design details, we reframed the conversation. We backed it up with scroll depth data and user quotes.
33% of users don't even scroll to the bottom of the page. Since it's a page with a long scroll, information that's either at the bottom or nested within pages often gets overlooked.
Since different teams were involved for different parts of the driver acquisition flow (Marketing for information, Product for Login/Signup, and Legal & Regional Ops for Onboarding), we proposed phased solutions that respected constraints but still improved the experience incrementally.
Design Decision 2
Removed hidden blockers in the login/signup step
Login & Sign-Up Page
01
Simplified Sign-Up Removed the mandatory step of linking a Gmail or apple account and made signing up with a social profile optional.
Instant Error Feedback Integrated immediate feedback directly below input fields for incorrect credentials improving experience by allowing quick correction of entry errors.
02
Design Decision 3
Redesigned elements of the onboarding flow to prevent frustration and loss of progress
Onboarding Flow
01
Session Continuity Features Integrated features to save progress and continue sessions, reducing user frustrations and minimizing dropout rates.
02
Clear Visual Cues for Documents Provided distinct visual indicators for successfully submitted documents, enhancing clarity and user confidence during the onboarding process.
03
Preventive Alerts Implemented alerts to confirm user actions before exiting unsaved changes, safeguarding the data.
Key Learnings
01
Adaptability helped us uncover what a script couldn’t When we couldn’t access the onboarding flow directly, we shifted to live exploratory testing with real users. This approach gave us honest, unscripted insights that a structured test might have missed.
02
Framing design decisions around business impact built trust We faced initial pushback from the marketing team when proposing layout changes. By showing how the scroll depth was affecting content visibility, we tied our decisions to their goals, and got buy-in faster.
