The research

RideCare Installation and Pairing Research

Last updated: 20. Dec. 2025

To improve the installation and pairing instructions, I worked with a service designer in RideCare's product team to conduct four observation sessions and nine installer interviews.

Observations

From the observations sessions, I was able to map out how the installation process works, which was the first step towards understanding how the instructions needed to be rewritten.

I learned that paper instructions failed to communicate key installation details, which were difficult to convey through text and images alone. In some cases, installation and pairing were handled by two different people: one focused on installing the hardware, while the other handled pairing through a laptop dashboard needed to confirm proper setup.

Interviews

To learn about installers experiences, we conducted interviews to understands their needs, pain-points and use-cases.

"Installer interview
It would be nice to show like all the little details.
Observation 1
"Installer interview
It would be nice to show like all the little details.
Observation 1
"Installer interview
The instructions are ok, but you don't know if you are doing it well until you pair it.
Interview 3
"Installer interview
The instructions are ok, but you don't know if you are doing it well until you pair it.
Interview 3
"Installer interview
I called you guys a couple of times just to figure out why it wasn't working.
Session
"Installer interview
I called you guys a couple of times just to figure out why it wasn't working.
Session

Some installers mentioned it was a matter of “getting used to it,” while others said easy access to videos would help when they got stuck on specific steps.

Pain point 01
Unclear instructions
Written steps couldn't communicate physical nuance, leading to incorrect setups and bad sensor data.
Pain point 02
Pairing inefficiency
Installers had to manually enter a 12-character device ID. Mass pairings weren't possible.
Pain point 03
Dashboard access
Sensor status was laptop-only — meaning installers had to coordinate with fleet managers on-site.

Information Architecture

Following, I created an IA artifact to map out all the screens/features we needed, and to ensure we weren't missing anything in the process.

Redacted for better understanding

User Flow

After compiling all the information that was needed for each feature/phase, I put together a small user-flow that reflected the screens and ideas from the sketched flow

Conclusion

What began as a request to update installation instructions revealed deeper gaps in the installation and pairing process, ultimately leading to the creation of the RideCare Go app.