Gojek · GoFood · June–October 2023
Redesigning the order tracking experience to reduce customer anxiety
In 2023, Gojek needed to improve profitability by reducing rewards and promotion costs while keeping food delivery affordable for Indonesian customers. To support this, order pooling was introduced but faced low customer adoption. As Design Lead for the consumer booking experience, I built and led a team to redesign the order tracking experience, reducing customer anxiety and enabling the scalability of this new logistics model.
My Role
Product Design Lead
Team
GoFood · cross-functional
Duration
5 months (June–Oct 2023)
Platform
Mobile (Android + iOS)
Business shipped a new delivery model without touching the UX.
In 2023, Gojek was under pressure to become profitable. For GoFood, the lever was clear: lower the delivery fee. Order pooling — “Mode Hemat” — was introduced as the solution. Customers accept a slightly higher ETA; eligible orders get assigned to a single driver; logistics savings get passed on as subsidies.
The business ran an experiment. Orders started pooling. And the tracking screen that millions of users stared at while waiting for their food stayed exactly as it was — a map-first UI designed for regular, single-order deliveries.
It didn't go well.
A good logistics model had a UX problem. And that UX problem had a measurable, growing cost.
Order delay & driver complaint tickets
For pooled orders vs. regular orders on identical routes
ETA compliance for second deliveries
Down from baseline — eroding the one promise users were relying on
Potential revenue loss per month
As pooling was scaled back 40% to contain the complaint surge
30 min
✓ You'll save Rp20,000 on this order
Checkout
Customer accepts higher ETA
Order eligible for pooling
Good food is coming
Driver is on the way to you
Galih Pambudi
B 1060 JEK
First delivery
Pooled order
Driver is delivering to another location first. Don't worry, it's not far from you. They ordered from the same resto as you.
Good food is coming
Driver is on the way to you
Galih Pambudi
B 1060 JEK
Second delivery
Pooled order
Three structural problems in the existing tracking screen.
The tracking screen wasn't designed for pooling — but it had deeper structural issues that would have broken any high-ETA, multi-state delivery model. We audited the current experience and found three root causes.
Map = center of attention
The design forced users to focus on driver movements on the map — not order states, not ETA. If the driver paused, changed route, or GPS lagged, users read it as 'something went wrong' and raised a ticket. Pooling made this worse: when drivers were unassigned or detouring to a first delivery, anxiety spiked.
ETA = buried in hierarchy
ETA information sat at the lowest level of visual hierarchy on the screen. With historically poor ETA compliance (now made worse by pooling's longer ETAs), users had learned not to trust the number — and there was no stronger signal to anchor to.
Linear order lifecycle
The state model assumed a fixed sequence: restaurant confirms → driver assigned → food picked up → delivered. Pooling broke this. Driver assignment and food prep could happen out of order, but the UI had no way to represent it — leaving users with unexplained states that looked like failures.
Annotated existing tracking screen
Three callouts on the live UI: map dominance, ETA visual hierarchy, and the linear state model — showing exactly where the experience broke under the pooling model
HMW
How might we balance system status transparency with customer anxiety?
HMW
How might we design to change the mental model of customers to adapt the new logistics model?
How we measured customer anxiety
Time spent
on the order tracking screen
Proxy for anxiety — longer dwell time means more checking, less confidence in the system.
Screen open rate
of the order tracking screen
How often users actively re-opened the screen mid-delivery — a signal of uncertainty.
Tickets raised
for ongoing orders
Support contacts during the active delivery window — the clearest signal of UX failure.
We didn't start with the final design.
Two targeted experiments ran before the full redesign — each with a specific hypothesis, a measurable outcome, and a deliberate learning that shaped what came next.
June
Exp 01
Turn off pooling pins & remove pooling nudges
July
Exp 02
Remove map from order tracking for all delivery orders
October
Final Design
Improve order status & ETA prominence; Revamp info cards
Are we overcommunicating pooling?
Pooled orders were perceived as more likely to be delayed. Reducing the visual prominence of pooling information — the dual customer pin, the banner nudge — would reduce anxiety and bring focus back to the ETA promise.
Remove 2nd customer pooling pin, show only 1 pin on the map
Remove the banner nudge that explained the pooling model
Make pooling look less visually distinct from a regular order
Surface pooling context as part of the order status copy instead
No statistically significant impact — positive or negative — on any anxiety metric. No changes to driver↔customer chat initiations.
Over-communicating about pooling doesn't add anxiety. The problem isn't the labels — it's the underlying UI. The map and the state model are the root issue, not the pooling messaging.
Do we really need the map at all times?
The map itself — not the pooling information — was generating anxiety by forcing users to focus on driver GPS position. Replacing it with state-specific illustrations would reduce anxious checking and tickets.
Variant 1: Replace map with illustration by default; user can switch back to map
Variant 2: Remove map entirely with no option to switch back
Variant 3: Show illustration only; map revealed once driver picks up the order
All three variants stat-sig positive. Variant 3 performed best: avg screen time −4.68%, tickets raised −6.89%.
The map is only useful in the last mile — when the driver is actually heading to the customer. Before that, it adds anxiety without adding information. Variant 3 gave users the map when it became meaningful.
ETA-first. Illustration-driven. State-rich.
Four design principles, derived from what the experiments proved. Shipped in October 2023.
ETA focused
The arrival countdown becomes the dominant UI element — a large, prominent circle with time and on-time status. The map now supports the ETA, not the other way around. Users are anchored to time, not location.
Scalable states
New order state model that decouples food preparation, driver assignment, and delivery. Non-sequential pooling logistics are now fully representable — each state has its own distinct visual treatment and copy.
Delightful journey
State-specific illustrations replace the map during food preparation and pickup phases. A chef cooking, a driver flying. Contextual, emotionally resonant, animated — signalling progress without GPS dependency.
Cleaner UI
The three most common support queries — 'When will I get a driver?', cancellation, order edits — are surfaced as quick actions directly on the tracking screen. Reducing contact rate and friction simultaneously.
Before
Original tracking screen
Map-dominant, ETA buried at the top, binary order states, pooling banner visible, linear lifecycle
After
Redesigned tracking screen
ETA countdown leads, state-specific illustration replaces map, simplified driver card, quick-action support surfaced inline
Chef has started cooking
Illustration phase — map hidden, ETA leads (Arrival in 30 mins · On Time), contextual copy ('Mm— if only you could smell the aroma')
Food is coming your way
Driver en route — map now revealed, ETA still leads (Arrival in 8 mins · On Time), driver card with quick-reply pre-fills
Frequently raised issues panel
Self-serve support surfaced inline: 'When will I get a driver / I have to cancel / I want to edit my order'
Before → After: Driver info card
Old: photo, name, plate, health badge, tip CTA, delivery details — all stacked. New: compact card with rating, trips, pre-filled chat quick replies
The numbers that followed.
The redesign directly unblocked the full rollout of Mode Hemat. Pooling had been scaled back 40% while the UX was broken — the new experience gave the business confidence to scale it.
[Add: whether pooling fully scaled back up, any broader adoption of the illustration model across other GoFood order types, or team/leadership recognition.]