increase in applications starting from ramp week
Redesigned the Lyft Direct - an instant payment mobile app for the U.S. market, for our client Lyft.
It boosted retention, expanded the user base, and drove significant revenue growth.
Client
Services
• Mobile Application Design
• User Interface Design
• User Experience Design
• User Research & User Flows
• Wireframing
• Branding
Context
Lyft was our first client when Payfare was founded, and the product, Lyft Direct — a mobile banking application for instant payments to US-based Lyft drivers — launched in 2019. The app allows drivers to instantly receive their earnings after each ride to their Lyft Direct card, manage their finances, and earn cashback rewards.
After 4 years, the app had become outdated. To strengthen our partnership with Lyft, we identified an opportunity to a complete redesign and relaunch of the app for both iOS and Android, giving it a fresh look and enhancing the user experience. The redesign aimed to improve retention, grow the user base, and drive revenue growth.
My Contribution
As a Product Designer, I led the complete redesign and relaunch of Lyft Direct. I addressed key challenges by creating branding guidelines to give it a modern look, optimizing user flows for a smoother experience, and overseeing the development of new features to better serve drivers’ needs.
With a tight deadline, I prioritized features and delivery timelines, collaborating closely with internal and external teams to ensure alignment with the app’s goals. After the launch, I continued to refine the product and played a key role in launching several new features.
Impact
With the Lyft Direct redesign rollout,
33%
950
daily sign-ups maintained post-forced upgrade
-3h
time to add to Apple/Google Pay
Additionally, we observed a trend of increased daily driving hours, with a 2% reduction in drivers who were driving only one hour a day.
PROCESS
Understanding the Goal
The goal of this app redesign was to increase retention, grow the user base, and drive revenue by aligning the app with Lyft’s branding, improving the overall user experience, and adding or modifying key features to keep the app competitive and aligned with current trends.
Auditing the Current App
To inform the redesign, I worked closely with our product managers and customer support team to gather insights on the areas of the app with the most user complaints and pain points. I also focused on understanding how users interact with the app, then began making changes to the areas that required improvement.
Planning the Redesign Strategy
After identifying the key pain points, I collaborated closely with Lyft’s product manager and design team to understand their brand guidelines and integrated their branding into our design library. I then reviewed the current app to identify the most commonly used components and defined the colors, spacing, sizes, and variables necessary to move forward. Additionally, due to the tight deadline, I collaborated closely with our manager to outline a timeline for delivering the new designs, ensuring we stay on track for on-time delivery.
Establish Branding Guidelines and Estimate the Timeline
Create High-Fidelity Mockups
Due to the tight deadline and the foundation of our existing app, I skipped the low-fidelity wireframe phase and began developing high-fidelity mockups that reflected the app’s final visual design. This included updated branding, color schemes, typography, and imagery. My focus was on maintaining brand consistency while ensuring the app was visually appealing and up-to-date.
Onboarding
Dashboard
Manage Card
More Menu
Profile Settings
More Menu
ATM Finder
Collaborate with Internal Team
During the entire redesign process, I collaborated closely with our product, mobile engineering and QA teams, conducting regular design reviews to ensure the screens were developed in line with the design files. This helped maintain high-quality standards and ensured the final product met our expectations.
Collaborate with the Lyft Team
Throughout the redesign process, we delivered updated designs and user experience improvements bi-weekly. I managed to meet all the deadlines as planned. We also held weekly meetings with Lyft’s Product and Design teams to review the latest app screens. During these meetings, I demoed the updates, guided them through the user experience, and addressed any questions. They were very pleased with the new design.
RESULTS
My Impact
I led the Lyft Direct redesign and relaunch, driving the entire process—from creating new brand guidelines and optimizing key user flows to overseeing the launch of new features. By collaborating with product, engineering, and the external team to gather and incorporate their feedback, I successfully delivered an optimized mobile app experience within an aggressive timeline.
Throughout the redesign, I significantly enhanced both the app’s user experience and visual design. The new branding streamlined the overall user journey, making it more intuitive and engaging, ultimately elevating the app’s impact and usability.
Most importantly, the redesign led to an increase in new application sign-ups and made onboarding for users much smoother. This improvement not only helped secure a long-term partnership extension with our client but also contributed to the client achieving their goals of better user retention.
Direct manager quotes
"Coming off of UPC you jumped straight into Lyft and not only executed extremely quickly and thoroughly, you also ensured that the work was integrated into the design library. You continued to hit all the tight deadlines all while collaborating with product and engineering to incorporate feedback to delivered designs. I couldn’t have asked for any more from you in the first half of this year."
— Andrew Novak, Sr. Design Manager
"Ke has set really high standards when it comes to Product Design, raising the bar and continually driving improvements across our products. She built a very strong understanding of our product which allows her to do justice to complex payment features. Her design skills are top notch and there’s a reason why Lyft Direct, and DasherDirect was rated one of the best apps."
— Sahil Gera, Chief Product Officer
Direct verbatims from Lyft Direct users
App Reviews and In-App Feedback
💡 Reflection
At the beginning of the project, I felt overwhelmed by the scope and tight deadline of the redesign, with so many elements involved. It was a challenge to focus on updates like branding, improving performance, and enhancing accessibility, while also ensuring the delivery of an optimized, seamless mobile app experience—all while communicating and collaborating with both internal and external teams.
Instead of worrying about everything at once, I broke the project down into smaller tasks, providing regular design updates and holding walkthroughs with the Lyft team. This experience was a great opportunity that taught me how to stay focused under pressure while remaining collaborative. I also learned that even the smallest details can have a significant impact on the user experience, and the process helped me further develop my skills in communication, user analysis, and problem-solving.