At a glance

What it is: An account for senior adults. One acceptance turns on a simpler app (Simple Mode), pickup preferences the driver sees, and an optional note that tells the driver the rider is a senior. A relative can book, pay for and follow trips through the Family profile.

My role: Design lead, on the rider and the driver side. The only product designer on the Product Inclusion team from 2024. I co-designed Simple Mode with one other product designer.

Results: More riders aged 65+ completed sign-up. More took a first trip. Fewer pickup cancellations and support contacts. Families who used the profile for teens added parents and grandparents. Direction only; the figures are internal.

Live: Announced on 4 June 2025 across the United States and in cities in nine other markets; also available in Canada. Expanded on 15 September 2026.

The difference I made

• I proposed one acceptance in place of one decision per feature. A design review in 2026 called the one-step opt-in much better than the earlier version, which asked feature by feature.

• I extended the Family profile, built for teens, to seniors, and aligned with the payments team so a relative can pay with the senior’s own health benefit card.

• I designed the 2026 expansion, in which seniors create and manage the account on their own.

• I presented the designs to executive product leadership.

What it changed at Uber

• The Family team took the approach into payment delegation and saved places.

• Simple Mode was adopted by riders who are not seniors.

• Seniors became the main focus of the Product Inclusion team and a growth priority for the company, with a marketing launch of their own.

The problem

In the United States, about a quarter of adults over 50 had ever used a ride-hailing app, half the rate of adults under 30 (Pew Research Center, 2019). In research with seniors and caregivers in several countries, run by Uber’s research team, people said they did not see Uber as made for them, found the screens dense, and often asked a relative to book for them. I contributed to the research plan.

The hard decision: how much the family controls

Family support makes seniors feel safe. They also want independence, and relatives told us they felt the weight of caring.

• An account the family creates and controls: the fastest to set up, but the senior becomes a passenger in their own account.

• A fully independent account: respects autonomy, but leaves out people who cannot get through sign-up alone.

• What we shipped: a relative sends an invitation, the senior accepts, and the account is theirs. The family can book, pay and follow trips, and the senior always knows. In 2026 we added accounts that seniors create on their own, with family support as an option.

• What I discarded: letting a relative switch features on for them. Consent has to come from the person, which is also what privacy law requires.

• The cost: acceptance was slow at first, because the senior has to act. It rose after we added reminder notifications.

A second decision: say less on each screen

Simple Mode has the same number of screens as the regular app; that was a technical limit. It turned out not to be the problem. The problem was how much each screen said and how many actions it offered. So each screen, and the home screen, shows less and asks for less. Seniors tend to read every word, which is why the opt-in fits on one screen with very few words.

How we measured

Three rounds of testing with seniors: the regular app, the first Simple Mode, and the current version. In testing, seniors requested a ride on their own in less time than on the regular app. A data scientist dedicated to the project produced weekly reports that showed the team how each feature was performing. After seeing in those reports how Simple Mode and seniors in a Family profile were doing, we decided to create Senior Accounts. After launch we followed sign-up completion and first trips for riders aged 65+, trips per month per senior account, pickup cancellations, support contacts, and the rating seniors received from drivers. That rating had been falling; it stopped falling once drivers knew about the rider’s needs in advance.

What I would do differently

I would break the ride request in Simple Mode into more steps, one action per step, to make each one clearer. And I would add more moments that confirm a step went well. Many seniors are not used to getting things right in an app, and each small confirmation builds confidence.

A note on my role

The research was run by Uber’s research team. I was the inclusion design lead, working alongside a dedicated accessibility specialist. Detailed flows and figures are internal. I can walk through them in an interview.