After the Mobile Browser application Meru Cab has now launched its Cab Booking application for iOS and Android Phones. Was waiting for this as the earlier browser versions was okay not that great to be used or simply it was not that COOL.
A decent 13.5mb application - will not eat up much space on your phone..Rated 3.5 stars on iTunes..
First Impression: Pretty Neat iOS application landing page.. Proper split of the home screen giving the first time user a clear idea of how to go ahead and book the cab on the application.
Few Features to talk about:
ICE - In Case of Emergency Icon: This is an interesting feature which helps the traveler raise alarm In Case of Emergency. The application will send out SMS to the pre-configured two of your contacts.
Though when I tried this for testing the SMS was delivered after 8 hours. Looks like the SMS aggregator's needs to prioritize these SMSs :)
Favorites Menu : Much required menu to store your frequent Pick Up and Destinations to quickly book a cab. Once you have set up a favorite addresses booking the cab is breeze on this application.
Looks like the application stores the Favorite Pick up and Destination on the servers which is not necessary in my view. Can be stored locally for a faster application access and usage. (Also be aware while storing your complete home address...I personally would not like my complete address to be stored on some servers)
Maps: looks cool but makes the application appear cluttered(look at the font size on this page)...the impression you have on the landing page shatters. Actually when you land to page 3(To?) .. you will feel the Maps page was really not required during the booking process.
Also from an end user perspective while booking a cab we mostly know the pick up and destination address. This page could have been kept simple as landing page with simple menu's to select pick up, destination and Favorites menus.
Time Selection page - Intuitive.. reminds me on my iPod nano..one glitch here.. the selected time is not show clearly.. text gets over lapped..needs to be worked out :)
Select Destination: This is the page I was talking earlier.. maps page was not really required rather directly landing on this page would have served the purpose.. Select your destination and there you go.. booking confirmed.
SMS & Email confirming your booking will ping on your phone as soon as you complete the booking.
Fares: Good to have the city wise Fare table so that we don't have to check for the fare with the cab driver and get confused.
Now all that's till you book the cab..the real fun starts once the Cab is assigned to your booking. Earlier you would call the Chauffeur and keep bugging .."By when will the cab arrive..." Now the same can be easily done on your finger tips with the Map page where you can real time track the cab assigned to your trip. This is where the maps are used in a good way. Also you can track the time to your destination once your trip starts.
Suggestion: Remove the maps while booking flow and have a separate menu for tracking the cab and time to reach the destination.
The best part.. once your trip ends you can see a m-receipt on the application "Go Green". Liked it!!!
Few UI menu could have been done differently:
1. Menu page - instead of coming from the bottom could have been done with iOS Split view on click on the Meru Icon so that user need not to learn how this app functions..Split views with Facebook & Linkedin Application are pretty standard feature to use.
2. Small Font Size - needs to have a larger font size for the address bars
3. Few UI Glitches - on the time selection page
Would have loved to see:
1. Push notification: Though the application details say the application supports Push notification.. didn't receive any..Still the SMS and email confirmation was also fast so can live with this..
2. Cancel a Cab: Could not find Cancel a trip menu in the application.
Lastly would love to see a Mobile Payment option within the application (something like Uber) to pay for the trip once done- how about IMPS??. That should be the next step...where users are allowed to create Meru Wallet (something like IRCTC Wallet)and at the end of the trip once can simply pay from the wallet !!!???
All in All a Simple, Intuitive Application to book your Meru Cab.. Would definitely use this instead of booking over a call.
A must have application for people using Meru in the cities where Meru is currently operating.
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