Designers use Figma to bring Uber to the unbanked | Figma Blog

Uber’s expansion into emerging markets required designing for differences in language, literacy, devices, culture, location, and user roles. For its cash-payment initiatives, product designer Femke van Schoonhoven adopted Figma after fragmented tools made collaboration and research iteration difficult. Figma became a shared, web-based source of truth that reduced communication overhead, improved engineer handoff, and enabled distributed teams to work together more effectively.

Designing for Diverse Markets

• Uber serves millions of riders across dozens of countries, requiring experiences that work across very different local contexts.
• Designers conduct extensive research, including riding with drivers and testing designs in real-world environments.
• Emerging-market design must account for:
  • Language and literacy
  • Device limitations
  • Culture and location
  • Whether the user is a rider, driver, or another participant
• Cash payments were particularly important for reaching users without access to traditional banking.

Problems with the Previous Workflow

• The Cash team used separate tools for design, prototyping, sharing, feedback, and engineering handoff.
• Designers had to repeatedly import and export files and communicate project status outside the design tool.
• During field research, only one person could edit a design at a time, preventing real-time iteration with teammates.
• This made it difficult to respond immediately to feedback from Uber drivers.

Figma Enables Real-Time Collaboration

• Van Schoonhoven moved existing files into Figma through a simple drag-and-drop process.
• She could create prototypes using local languages and realistic, in-context materials.
• Multiple team members could edit the same design simultaneously, whether working nearby or across countries.
• Figma’s file organization made designs easier to locate and maintain.

A Single Source of Truth

• Stakeholders could access the latest designs directly instead of requesting updates by email.
• Figma reduced communication overhead by an estimated 75 percent.
• Engineers could be invited into design files, view current changes, and comment in context.
• Early engineering involvement made handoff faster and less error-prone.
• The shared workspace helped replace siloed work with a central design repository.

Supporting Distributed Projects

• Figma provided the collaborative foundation for projects involving designers in Amsterdam, San Francisco, and other locations.
• Teams could access shared Uber platform components and work from the same current files.
• Because the tool was web-based, stakeholders could share designs and obtain approvals more quickly.

Figma helped Uber’s designers adapt payment experiences for unbanked users by combining rapid iteration, shared context, and cross-location collaboration. For distributed product teams working across complex markets, a centralized collaborative design environment can substantially reduce friction from research through engineering handoff.