Tafika
Freelance Product Designer
2022
-
2023
Tafika Tickets is a start-up tech company established to digitise intercity travel in Zambia through our online bus ticketing application.
Advocated for a change in direction from an uber like application to a bus app that I believed will help serve more people and make most of Zambia accessible.
I designed the app from the ground up borrowing some inspiration from apps like Wanderu and Airbnb two apps I love because of their simplicity and ease of use. The app ease of use was one of the viral components that helped the app take off and put of on the radar of major Zambian bus operators.
Tools used
Concepts App
Figma
FlutterFlow
skills
UI/UX design
branding
Graphic design
problem solving
Design thinking
Animation
Collaboration
Sales
Highlight
Designed a viral app that became popular in Lusaka because of its ease of use which led to major bus operators reaching out to work with us.
Download in just a few weeks
Our users became more aware of other parts of the country
App praised over tiktok and instagram by users
My User Experience (UX) Design Process
Understand current app design and user flow
Brainstorming to uncover the right solution
Handoff design to the App & Flow team
Talk to founders and understand their goals
High fidelity prototype to validate idea and generate user feedback
Get feedback from founders and refine features based on usage
UX Audit
When I started working with Tafika, the founders aimed to build a local Uber competitor in Zambia.
While the idea sounded, I pitched them an alternative—an app that would enable online ticket purchases for intra-city travel, which I believed could have a greater impact on locals in Zambia.
The founders were highly receptive and saw significant potential in the concept. They were motivated to create a solution that would drive meaningful change back home.
Haggai Kaunda
Co-founder at Tafika
We want to build a startup that will allow people to easily travel around Zambia, first within Lusaka and hopefully soon from city to city. Our idea right now is a uber competitor that will help empower local driver to earn extra income by gaining access to more travelers via our app.
Client interview
My main point of contact at Tafika was the co-founder and CTO Haggai, but I have also been invited on calls with bus operator to best understand their needs.
Booking a trip
We wanted to make the booking experience as frictionless as possible with the least amounts of steps as possible. I took a lot of inspiration from Wanderu which I use a lot myself to book buses and train to travel around California. The UX of the app is very approachable which I believe a lot of users in Zambia will greatly appreciate.
Pain points we were trying to address
Fast and intuitive booking experience that people that are not tech savy can easily understand
Integrate local mobile money payment method which more locals use.
Managing tickets
Managing ticket is very easy and straightforward. With a 3 tab navigation system, getting to tickets is immediately apparent. The tab itself is also self explanatory with 3 categories: Upcoming trips, Past trips, and Cancelled trips.
Pain points we were trying to address
Ability to easily find tickets as showing tickets is required before boarding the bus.
Simple way to view trip details directly on the trips tab
Simple way to view Past and Canceled trips
Discovering Zambia
Zambia like many African countries has so many amazing places to visit, one of my goals while designing the app, was to also help unlock more tourism by helping travelers discover other parts of they country they may not otherwise be aware of.
I used Airbnb as my inspiration here to help create a clean experience that put destination in focus with a beautiful imagery.
Pain points we were trying to address
Most locals are not familiars with sourrouding cities and tend to stay most of their lives in the city they were born into.
Managing tickets
Managing ticket is very easy and straightforward. With a 3 tab navigation system, getting to tickets is immediately apparent. The tab itself is also self explanatory with 3 categories: Upcoming trips, Past trips, and Cancelled trips.
Pain points we were trying to address
Ability to easily find tickets as showing tickets is required before boarding the bus.
Simple way to view trip details directly on the trips tab
Simple way to view Past and Canceled trips
POS for bus operators
To streamline purchasing further we were contracted to design a point of sale sytem that will connect to our app to show available ticket in real time
Pain points we were trying to address
Online sales are not linked to in person ticket sales which makes ticket sale chaotic at times
Traditional POS system are too complicated to update and maintain, bus operators need something as intuitive as the Tafika app
Overview
Movie ticket purchase
After the incredible success of the bus app, Tafika started seeing some interest from the largest movie theaters in Lusaka, Manda Hill Mall Theather, and Nu Metro Arcades Cinema
Pain points we were trying to address
Most locals are not familiars with sourrouding cities and tend to stay most of their lives in the city they were born into.
Preparing for Handoff
Once designs were ready, I would usually jump on a call with Charles, who the founder of App & Flow, walk him through the design and make sure all assets are available and easy to export.
I would also create lottie for screens that required splash animation and share them them with so they could be implemented
Note
Charles was my main point of contact at App & Flow. I only communicated with him although the team had a handful of engineers.
Key takeaways
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