GoPass
2025
An island designed to elevate the rider experience
How we designed GoPass Live Activities and Live Updates to elevate the passenger experience
Team & my role:
Senior Product Designer working closely with a Product Manager and a cross-functional engineering team (three engineers). I owned UX and UI end-to-end, from discovery to delivery.
Problem area
A game-changer for ride-sharing
Co-ordinating pick-ups between passengers and drivers is one of the hardest and most important things the GoPass app does. It takes a lot to get it right, but keeping passengers informed in real time is key. If passengers don’t receive the right updates at the right moments, it can lead to a frustrating experience for everyone.
The GoPass app is great at sending these updates, but there’s a catch: we can’t always count on passengers having the app open. Passengers are busy, often juggling a lot as they prepare for their trips. The real challenge isn’t what to tell them, but how to make sure they see it.
Before Live Activities on iOS and Live Updates on Android, push notifications were the only way to share important updates. They could be cluttered, easy to miss, or stale. The opportunity was a dynamic, easy-to-access space for updates that stay clear, current, and right where passengers need them.
Product approach
A sea of possibilities
One of the most powerful features of Live Activities on iOS is their flexibility. They adapt to different contexts through four distinct forms, each surfacing the right level of information at the right time.
iOS Live Activities
Live Updates bring their own limitations on Android. Rather than forcing visual parity where the platforms differ, the design respects those constraints while keeping the essential ride status familiar and reliable.
Android Live Updates
Lessons
Design for presence, not noise
Live Activities are a fantastic addition to iOS, but they come with restrictions on size, animation, and functionality. Instead of trying to work around those limits, we used them to focus on the content that truly matters — and leave out what doesn’t. On Android, a separate design recreated the essential behaviour for earlier versions, keeping the experience useful beyond the newest devices.
As Live Activities become more common, apps will share Dynamic Island with one another. In such a small space, recognisable colour and consistent visual cues help passengers identify GoPass at a glance throughout the ride-sharing experience.
