Intelligent Trip Classification: Leveraging AI to Optimize User Experience

Intelligent Trip
Classification: Leveraging AI to Optimize User Experience

Intelligent Trip Classification: Leveraging AI to Optimize User Experience

Motus is the industry leader in the vehicle reimbursement space, accountable for tracking 290M miles per month and disbursing $1.4B in reimbursement per year. The Motus app is designed to track mileage for employees who use their personal vehicles for work.

PROBLEM STATEMENT & GOALS

PROBLEM STATEMENT & GOALS

PROBLEM STATEMENT & GOALS

Drivers do more than complete business trips during their business day. They may drop off and pick up their kids from school, run an errand, or grab lunch on the road. While drivers should be tracked and reimbursed for just business purposes, these personal trips may be picked up by the Motus application.


Today, the Motus app has no mechanism to distinguish between business and personal trips. Without the ability to sort trips, mileage log review can be long and tedious for both drivers and approvers.

RESEARCH

RESEARCH

RESEARCH

User Interviews
To better understand the current experience of our users, I conducted exploratory user interviews with drivers from various industries spanning heath care to construction. The goal of these interviews was to determine how often they are making personal trips throughout their work day and how they interact with the current state of the app when that event occurs. 

Key Findings

  1. Personal Trip Validity: Users are making personal trips throughout their business day and the current state of the app requires users to spend additional time managing their mileage or using workarounds to minimize time spent editing their trip data (i.e. manually enterred trips account for 14% of total trip types)

  2. Trip Order: The current trip order is unintuitive and contributes to cognitive load for the user

  3. Time Spent Reviewing: Users only spend around 5-10 minutes reviewing mileage before submitting to their employers and only 30% of users check their app weekly 

Key Findings

01. Personal Trip Validity: Users are making personal trips throughout their business day and the current state of the app requires users to spend additional time managing their mileage or using workarounds to minimize time spent editing their trip data (i.e. manually enterred trips account for 14% of total trip types)

02. Trip Order: The current trip order is unintuitive and contributes to cognitive load for the user

03. Time Spent Reviewing: Users only spend around 5-10 minutes reviewing mileage before submitting to their employers and only 30% of users check their app weekly 

DESIGN PROCESS

DESIGN PROCESS

DESIGN PROCESS

Following the research conducted, our team decided to incorporate Trip Classification functionality to address the observed pain points and align with industry standards. However, our approach distinguishes itself through the implementation of Auto-Classification which will empower drivers to automatically assign business and personal classifications to their frequent locations. By eliminating the tedious and manual experience, the app will continue to align with the Motus "set and forget" branding.


Initiatives
To facilitate the design and execution of the 2024 roadmap, we divided the work into three distinct initiatives:

01. Location Manager: new interface empowering users to manage both their favorite and company-provided locations. Within Location Manager users can associate classifications at the location level, which the app will utilize for the Auto-Classification of trips.

02. Auto Trip Classification: feature enabling users to classify trips as business or personal and Auto-Classify trips based on the classification of their favorite locations.

03. Needs Review Feed: dedicated section in the app designed to prompt users to update trips that require review. I

Following the research conducted, our team decided to incorporate Trip Classification functionality to address the observed pain points and align with industry standards. However, our approach distinguishes itself through the implementation of Auto-Classification which will empower drivers to automatically assign business and personal classifications to their frequent locations. By eliminating the tedious and manual experience, the app will continue to align with the Motus "set and forget" branding.


Initiatives
To facilitate the design and execution of the 2024 roadmap, we divided the work into three distinct initiatives:

01. Location Manager: new interface empowering users to manage both their favorite and company-provided locations. Within Location Manager users can associate classifications at the location level, which the app will utilize for the Auto-Classification of trips.

02. Auto Trip Classification: feature enabling users to classify trips as business or personal and Auto-Classify trips based on the classification of their favorite locations.

03. Needs Review Feed: dedicated section in the app designed to prompt users to update trips that require review.


Following the research conducted, our team decided to incorporate Trip Classification functionality to address the observed pain points and align with industry standards. However, our approach distinguishes itself through the implementation of Auto-Classification which will empower drivers to automatically assign business and personal classifications to their frequent locations. By eliminating the tedious and manual experience, the app will continue to align with the Motus "set and forget" branding.


Initiatives
To facilitate the design and execution of the 2024 roadmap, we divided the work into three distinct initiatives:

01. Location Manager: new interface empowering users to manage both their favorite and company-provided locations. Within Location Manager users can associate classifications at the location level, which the app will utilize for the Auto-Classification of trips.

02. Auto Trip Classification: feature enabling users to classify trips as business or personal and Auto-Classify trips based on the classification of their favorite locations.

03. Needs Review Feed: dedicated section in the app designed to prompt users to update trips that require review.

Initiative 01. Location Manager

Our initial focus of development was on Location Manager interface, chosen for its ability to deliver standalone value as quickly as possible. This work was not only a dependency for future work, but also served as valuable training for upcoming functionality. Users will have the ability to manage their frequent locations and assign a classification (Business or Personal). Prior to this interface, users no control over this data that could only be updated in the back-end. 

Enhanced Button Placement: Implemented a strategically placed plus button at the bottom right of the screen. This decision was made to enhance affordance, as the plus sign on the top right of existing screens may not be as visible to users. Additionally, it will be easier for right-handed users.
Notification for Successful Actions: Introduced a notification when a location is successfully added or updated. This notification is part of a broader strategy to implement across the app to highlight and acknowledge successful user actions like editing or adding a manual trip. 

Auto Trip Classification: Most importantly, manaaging these locations will enable the system to get smarter progressively and reduce the need for user intervention over time and increasing submission accuracy.

Initiative 01. Location Manager

Our initial focus of development was on Location Manager interface, chosen for its ability to deliver standalone value as quickly as possible. This work was not only a dependency for future work, but also served as valuable training for upcoming functionality. Users will have the ability to manage their frequent locations and assign a classification (Business or Personal). Prior to this interface, users no control over this data that could only be updated in the back-end. 

Enhanced Button Placement: Implemented a strategically placed plus button at the bottom right of the screen. This decision was made to enhance affordance, as the plus sign on the top right of existing screens may not be as visible to users. Additionally, it will be easier for right-handed users.
Notification for Successful Actions: Introduced a notification when a location is successfully added or updated. This notification is part of a broader strategy to implement across the app to highlight and acknowledge successful user actions like editing or adding a manual trip. 

Auto Trip Classification: Most importantly, manaaging these locations will enable the system to get smarter progressively and reduce the need for user intervention over time and increasing submission accuracy.

Initiative 01. Location Manager

Our initial focus of development was on Location Manager interface, chosen for its ability to deliver standalone value as quickly as possible. This work was not only a dependency for future work, but also served as valuable training for upcoming functionality. Users will have the ability to manage their frequent locations and assign a classification (Business or Personal). Prior to this interface, users no control over this data that could only be updated in the back-end. 


Initiative 02. Auto Trip Classification
The introduction of Auto Trip Classification provided an opportunity to redesign the trip card based on user feedback, making it more intuitive, logically ordered, and enhancing the scannability of trip data.

Trip Card V1

Initiative 02. Auto Trip Classification
The introduction of Auto Trip Classification presented a great opportunity to redesign the trip card based on user feedback.

Trip Card V1

Optimized Trip Order: Reorganized the trip order, intuitively positioning the first location as the start and the second location as the end. This enhancement aims to provide users with a more intuitive and logical flow when reviewing their trips.
Introduction of Toggle: Implemented a toggle on the trip card, to introduce T rip Classification. This nudging mechanism ensures users are aware of the new functionality and prompts them to actively engage with the new feature.

Trip Card V1

Trip Card V2

Streamlined Auto-Classified Trip Card: Recognizing that users won’t need to frequently update the classification of auto-classified trips, we optimized the user interface by removing the classification toggle. This maintains functionality while minimizing visual clutter as users can efficiently toggle the classification by simply clicking on the icon.
Enhanced Toggle: To ensure users know they can still update the classification of a trip, we opted for a smaller Business and Personal toggle when a trip gets auto-classified.

Initiative 03. Needs Review Feed

When a user arrives at a new address that is not stored in Location Manager, the app will not be able to auto-classify the trip, requiring users to manually classify the trip. As a result, we needed to introduce a dedicated section in the app to draw attention to trips requiring user action. The visibility of this feed is essential for adoption of Auto Trip Classification and more accurate submission.

Trip Card V2

Option 1: Add New Section to Side Nav

Dedicated Feed: Our initial approach was to create a distinct feed, completely separate from the current home screen, to prominently feature trips that require user action.
Badge: Finally, we implemented an indicator with a badge to clearly convey the count of trips requiring user review. This badge was added to the header, and an identical one was incorporated into the sidebar, ensuring users are aware of the need for review and the corresponding quantity.

Initiative 03. Needs Review Feed

When a user arrives at a new address that is not stored in Location Manager, the app will not be able to auto-classify the trip, requiring users to manually classify the trip. As a result, we needed to introduce a dedicated section in the app to draw attention to trips requiring user action. The visibility of this feed is essential for adoption of Auto Trip Classification and more accurate submission.

Landing Page: The final option involved setting up a landing page dashboard as the default screen when a user opens their app. This page provides a summary of all trip types, allowing users to navigate to filtered views. Additionally, the introduction of a dashboard would offer the flexibility to showcase any important functionality in the future. 
Separate Feed: Clicking on Needs Review takes the user to a separate section where they can see all trips that need classification.
Completed Views: Once all trips are reviewed, the Needs Review section will disappear, and users will be prompted to explore all trips in either the Business or Personal feed.


Option 1: Add New Section to Side Nav

Dedicated Feed: Our initial approach was to create a distinct feed, completely separate from the current home screen, to prominently feature trips that require user action.
Badge: Finally, we implemented an indicator with a badge to clearly convey the count of trips requiring user review. This badge was added to the header, and an identical one was incorporated into the sidebar, ensuring users are aware of the need for review and the corresponding quantity.

Option 2: Segmented Controls

Segmented Control: Introduced new option where users can access a filtered view of the three trip types - Needs Review (Unclassified), Business, and Personal.
Needs Review Indicator: When an unclassified trip is tracked, the Needs Review tab will display an orange indicator which exists in the app for other action-required sections.

Initiative 03. Needs Review Feed

When a user arrives at a new address that is not stored in Location Manager, the app will not be able to auto-classify the trip, requiring users to manually classify the trip. As a result, we needed to introduce a dedicated section in the app to draw attention to trips requiring user action. The visibility of this feed is essential for adoption of Auto Trip Classification and more accurate submission.

Option 1: Add New Section to Side Nav

Dedicated Feed: Our initial approach was to create a distinct feed, completely separate from the current home screen, to prominently feature trips that require user action.
Badge: Finally, we implemented an indicator with a badge to clearly convey the count of trips requiring user review. This badge was added to the header, and an identical one was incorporated into the sidebar, ensuring users are aware of the need for review and the corresponding quantity.

Option 3: Landing Page


Option 3: Landing Page

Landing Page: The final option involved setting up a landing page dashboard as the default screen when a user opens their app. This page provides a summary of all trip types, allowing users to navigate to filtered views. Additionally, the introduction of a dashboard would offer the flexibility to showcase any important functionality in the future. 
Separate Feed: Clicking on Needs Review takes the user to a separate section where they can see all trips that need classification.
Completed Views: Once all trips are reviewed, the Needs Review section will disappear, and users will be prompted to explore all trips in either the Business or Personal feed.

EXPERIMENTATION

EXPERIMENTATION

EXPERIMENTATION

Preference Testing
To ensure we make the best decision for our 300k users, we conducted a quantitative user test to evaluate the usability of three prototypes. Using Maze, we had users perform classification tasks and choose their top preference among the 3 prototypes. We surveyed our largest revenue clients across a wide range of industries and observed the best results with segmented controls.

KEY RESULTS

KEY RESULTS

KEY RESULTS

SAY ANNYEONG!