Tag Archive for: app

ride-hailing apps

Sticking to what works in ride-hailing apps

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What places eCabs Technologies’ rider, driver, and management apps and platforms amongst the best in the world today?

In the fast-paced world of ride-hailing, it’s easy to get caught up in chasing flashy new features or trends. But at eCabs Technologies, we’ve learned that success doesn’t always mean reinventing the wheel—it’s about refining what works and delivering a seamless user experience that riders and drivers can rely on. 

Our approach prioritizes familiarity, consistency, and simplicity—key elements that build trust and keep users coming back. Let’s dive into why sticking to what works is more relevant than ever, and how thoughtful design choices are shaping the future of ride-hailing. 

eCabs Technologies' ride-hailing apps

Seamless and intuitive experience

When it comes to digital platforms, familiarity breeds comfort. People gravitate towards systems they intuitively understand, which is why we design our app to feel natural and effortless for all users. 

  • Recognizable Design Patterns: Borrowing from Jakob’s Law, we use industry-standard design elements like intuitive icons, predictable navigation, and streamlined booking flows. This ensures that users—whether locals or tourists—can easily interact with the app. 
  • Built for Both First-timers and Regulars: New users find the app simple to navigate, while regular riders enjoy a sense of ease and speed. 

By prioritizing familiar design principles, we create a platform that requires no steep learning curve, empowering users to focus on the ride, not the app. 

Consistent movement and action

In ride-hailing, trust is critical. Riders and drivers alike need to feel confident that the app will deliver a reliable experience every time. Consistency isn’t just about aesthetics; it’s about ensuring functionality remains predictable and dependable. 

  • Unified Visual and Functional Design: Every part of the app—from fare estimates to live ride tracking—maintains a cohesive look and feel. 
  • Reliable Features: Predictable performance, even during peak demand times, ensures riders and drivers know what to expect. 

By adhering to these principles, we strengthen the bond between users and the app, making eCabs the go-to choice in a competitive market. 

Reduced cognitive load

In the world of ride-hailing, speed is everything. A rider booking a last-minute trip doesn’t have time for unnecessary steps or complicated features. That’s where simplicity comes in. 

  • Reducing Cognitive Load: Riders shouldn’t have to think twice about how to book a ride. By minimizing steps and keeping interfaces clean, we make the process fast and easy. 
  • Pre-saved Preferences: Frequently used destinations, like “Home” or “Work,” are automatically available, allowing users to book rides in seconds. 
  • Smart Call-to-Actions: Clearly placed buttons and intuitive prompts keep users moving through the process with minimal effort. 

Simplicity isn’t just about making the app easy to use—it’s about ensuring riders can get where they need to go without distraction or delay. 

Why Sticking to What Works Still Works 

At its core, the ride-hailing experience is about trust, ease, and reliability. By focusing on these essentials, we’ve created an app that meets users’ needs without overcomplicating things. But sticking to what works doesn’t mean standing still—it means refining and improving the fundamentals so they work even better. 

Refinement Over Reinvention 

At eCabs Technologies, we’ve proven that you don’t have to reinvent the wheel to create a great ride-hailing app. By sticking to what works—familiarity, consistency, and simplicity—we deliver an experience that feels effortless yet innovative. It’s this balance of reliability and refinement that keeps riders and drivers choosing eCabs, ride after ride. 

By eCabs Technologies’ UX/UI Designer Kristen Jim Albuquerque

Take your taxi or ride-hailing service to the next level with eCabs Technologies’ white-label solutions. Click here to see how we can help. 

It takes experience to fix the user experience

It takes experience to fix the user experience

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When it comes to learning the ropes, nothing really beats hands-on experience.

But what if you grab that experience and couple it with innovative tech, and a team of gifted engineers? That’s where the magic happens.

To me, that’s what sets eCabs Technologies apart from other ride-hailing and taxi platforms.

It’s a technology company that also has years of real-world, hands-on industry expertise.

eCabs Technologies embraced the power of emerging technology and built on more than a decade of real-life experience.

“You just can’t fake that kind of experience”

Thirteen years ago, when I was in my early 20s, one of my first part-time jobs was driving cabs – with eCabs.

And I cut my teeth working at our first operations centre smack in the middle of St Julian’s, Malta’s busiest urban centre.

Picking up customers, dropping them off, taking booking reservations, and working around traffic flows and people’s lifestyles.

It taught me a lot about the realities of this industry.

I learnt what it means to get stuck in traffic because you aren’t sure about the best route.

Or how peak passenger numbers change depending on a whole range of factors – like is it the middle of summer? Are you on the West or East coast? Is the area you’re driving through urban or suburban?

This was at a time when mobile data was prohibitively expensive and mapping apps were practically inexistent.

And I’m not alone.

Key members of the eCabs Technologies leadership teams were also there at the beginning of this journey.

You just can’t fake that kind of experience.

Because when it comes down to it, you need to know how something works if you’re going to have any chance of fixing it.

Our job is to continuously refine our tech offering, making our product smarter, faster, and more user-friendly for all our users – whether that’s riders, drivers, and now also our city partners.

eCabs Technologies Head of Product Marvin Briffa

As an aside, eCabs Technologies is also the kind of company that believes in personal growth.

Over the years I furthered my education, studying business administration at prestigious European universities – this was possible in no small part to the support and encouragement I received from eCabs.

Going global

Today, as Head of Product, I work with a team of business analysts, product owners, product managers, UI UX designers, talented engineers and gifted data crunchers.

Our job is to continuously refine our tech offering, making our product smarter, faster, and more user-friendly for all our users – whether that’s riders, drivers, and now also our city partners.

And when we’re not fine-tuning our existing offering, we’re creating new products to enrich our suite too.

Taking our tech solutions and industry know-how to new jurisdictions is the next step in this journey.

At eCabs Technologies , we know how to help traditional taxi operations transition and embrace the solutions that tech offers the mobility sector.

We know this because we’ve already done it.

We know the teething problems and growing pains – like the resistance to embrace new technology or the fear that that tech is out to get them.

We’ve been there.

We’ve also learnt what it’s like to re-educate a market. One that’s used to thinking of mobility and transport in set ways.

But those ways are increasingly less compatible with contemporary lifestyles.

And another thing: This isn’t one-size-fits-all.

Each city has its own requirements – its own particular reality.

That’s why our team includes product owners and development teams from diverse backgrounds and cultures that are dedicated to creating new city-specific features.

We’re taking our tech global, and we’re pumped!

By Marvin Briffa, Head of Product and Operations, eCabs Technologies

The thrill of ‘breaking stuff’ in software testing

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As a manual tester, Maria Mifsud’s role is directly related to the quality assurance stage of the software development of the eCabs Technologies’ product.

This involves the execution of manual tests with the objective of ensuring that the software which is ought to be delivered to customers meets the respective requirements.

Maria’s primary responsibility constitutes the analysis of software so that any foreseeable issues are identified and prevented.

“A good software quality assurance analyst must be capable of putting themselves in the shoes of the person who will be making use of the software in question,” Maria explains. “Even though this might sound pretty straightforward due to the fact that I am one of these users, one must keep in mind that the consumer aspect of this ride-hailing technology is just one piece of the puzzle.”

For instance, there is the driver’s aspect which works hand-in-hand with the consumer’s, the business-to-business aspect and so on.

“The mixture of these kinds of personas and scenarios is what makes the nature of this industry challenging enough to keep the testing strategies required interesting. The complexity of the processes involved from the minute the booking is created to when the booking is completed, not to mention the payment infrastructure that proceeds this, creates ample room for creative test cases designs. The trick is to learn how each piece links to and affects the others.”

Challenges and strategies in software testing

During her first few days at eCabs Technologies, Maria was involved with the general testing of the main mobile apps (the consumer app and the driver app).

However, her main focus during the past few months has been the B2B portal which was recently launched for both Malta and Blue in Romania.

This portal gives businesses the opportunity to register, and make use, of the eCabs Business to Business feature.

A good software quality assurance analyst must be capable of putting themselves in the shoes of the person who will be making use of the software in question.

eCabs Technologies’ Manual Tester Maria Mifsud

Given that Maria has a lot of experience in web testing, she says that this project was as fun to test as much as it was interesting; it is just a shame that, since she did not start working on this project since day one, she was not involved in the requirements gathering process.

“This posed the challenge of having to go through a lot of documentation. And having to ask a lot of questions on the business logic and the user flow. Having said that, my Quality Assurance team colleagues and the product owners of this project were always extremely helpful. I have always felt welcomed to voice my concerns and advice on user experience improvement and product stability.”

Enhancing software quality through clear communication

Maria is an avid advocate for good communication. She says that a tester must always have a clear vision of what the requirements and business logic are.

“For this to be possible, there must be clear communication between the QA team and the product owners. In this regard, communication must be a two-way street, as it is our duty to voice our opinion when we think that a better approach can be taken. Given that bug reporting is part and parcel of our daily life, we need to have clear and constant communication with the development team to indicate any issues observed during testing.”

Seeing is believing

Maria says that the most rewarding feeling about working at eCabs Technologies is the fact that the work that she and her team does is tangible and can be observed in action on a day-to-day basis. Either by seeing an eCabs driver driving past or when using the customer app itself.

She believes that she still have a lot to learn on the possibilities that the mobility sector has to offer. And she hopes that she can implement such knowledge in a way that compliments the major advancements of the technology in this sector.

“From my experience, I can say that there are two types of people in the tech industry – those who like to build things and those who like to break things. Software quality assurance requires a reverse engineering mindset with the objective to break the software being tested so as to enhance its quality. Breaking stuff is cool and fun. Come join the party!”

Would you like to join Maria in the eCabs Technologies family? Check out our openings here.