When you want to catch an Uber, the first thing that greets you in the service’s app has been a map. But starting today, Uber is beginning to roll out a radical new home screen that ditches the map and instead presents a grid of all the services the company offers—just in case you’ve forgotten about Uber Eats amongst the host of startups angling to deliver your dinner.
For now, this new screen will include Uber’s ride-hailing service and its food delivery service, though the design can adapt to showcase the company’s other services, like bikes and scooters as well. Early design mockups also reveal how the company could expand beyond these core services and add anything from chopper rides to perhaps grocery delivery or even travel planning to its new app interface—though Uber stresses that these services showing up in mockups doesn’t necessarily mean it plans to introduce them (it is, however, working on helicopters).
“Most people today know Uber as a ridesharing app: they open the app when they want to go from A to B,” the primary designer of the new app’s home screen, Joost van der Ree, told me via email. “How do we help widen that intent from just ridesharing to other modes of transport and daily needs?”[Animation: courtesy of Uber]The new landing page for the app has a grid-like design, with large icons that depict cars and food delivery bags. A black arrow beneath each icon indicates where you should tap to be taken to the more traditional map interface for each service. At the bottom of the screen, the new design has quick links for ride destinations and food that you order often.
As of March 2019, Uber Eats has about 25% market share (a close third behind GrubHub and DoorDash), with flat growth over the last year. Becoming part of the core Uber app could give the service a crucial edge over its slightly more popular competitors. Uber has already started integrating Uber Eats into its app with small reminders, primarily for promotions. The company’s CEO Dara Khosrowshahi told The Verge earlier this year that when customers use both Uber Rides and Uber Eats, their overall engagement with the company “more than doubles.”
… The redesign appears to be the biggest step Uber has taken so far to convince more ride-hailing users to use its food delivery service—but such a large departure posed problems.