Introduction

In many African cities, daily commutes are long, costly, and inefficient. Maputo is no exception. As the city grows, so do its transportation challenges: traffic congestion, fuel costs, and lack of reliable alternatives to solo driving.

Agoo started as a side project to explore a solution that many cities have adopted with success: carpooling. But in Maputo, the cultural, economic, and infrastructural landscape demanded a different approach. The app had to solve not just for logistics, but for trust, safety, and behavior change.

This case study outlines how I researched, designed, and iterated on a carpooling concept tailored specifically to the needs of Maputo’s commuters.

Context: A Familiar Problem, an Unfamiliar Market

Unlike Silicon Valley or Europe, where carpooling platforms like BlaBlaCar or Waze Carpool thrive, Maputo’s transportation network is highly fragmented, informal, and deeply personal. Most people travel by private car or informal minibus taxis (chapas), and trust in shared transport depends heavily on personal networks.

The opportunity? Create a platform that felt safe, efficient, and community-driven—designed for local realities.

The challenge? Trust. People were far more likely to carpool if the other rider was someone they knew—or at least knew of.

The Challenge: Design for Trust, Safety, and Community

The first insight came early in the research: open systems (where anyone can ride with anyone) don’t work well in Maputo. Safety concerns, lack of familiarity, and fear of conflict with chapa and taxi drivers all contributed to hesitation.

That meant our app needed to focus on closed and semi-closed carpooling models, where users ride with people from their company, university, or partner networks.

Core design questions:

• How might we make ride-sharing feel safe and trustworthy for first-time users?

• How might we reduce decision friction in a fast-moving, high-traffic context?

• How might we reflect local travel patterns and incentives in the experience?

• How might we balance user needs with regulatory and social expectations?

Goals and Strategy

Help commuters save money and time

Enable users to reduce daily commuting costs while easing traffic congestion and improving trip comfort and reliability.

Build trust through community-based systems

Prioritize closed or semi-closed systems, where riders are vetted by association—co-workers, organizations, or verified networks.

Support authorities’ goals for urban planning

Encourage better use of public space, reduce emissions, and give regulators data-driven visibility into mobility patterns.

Process: Grounded in Local Research

Designing Agoo started with deep contextual research. I analyzed transportation data, commuter flows, and urban planning policies in Maputo and Matola, then layered on behavioral insights from ride-sharing models worldwide.

Key learnings included:

• 29% of Mozambique’s companies are in Maputo and Matola

• 62% of workers live 15–25 km from work

• 39.3% of drivers commute alone

• Most users strongly prefer riding with known or vetted contacts

From there, I created user personas and mapped typical commute scenarios. These formed the foundation for user flows, wireframes, and prototyping.

Design decisions were then tested through peer reviews and usability walkthroughs.

Key Features and Design Decisions

Trusted Networks First

Users are matched primarily within closed groups: workplaces, institutions, or verified communities. This design respects social boundaries and makes people more likely to opt in.

Flexible Route Matching

Agoo suggests rides based on time, route overlap, and shared networks. Riders and drivers can adjust schedules within predefined windows, avoiding rigid or one-time-only coordination.

In-App Safety Signals

Each user profile shows verification badges, group memberships, and ride history. Users can report issues, rate each ride, and choose who they ride with—adding a layer of control and transparency.

Results and Impact

Though Agoo remains a concept, the project has received positive feedback from design peers, urban mobility specialists, and Mozambican professionals.

It demonstrates a hyper-local approach to a global design problem—and makes a strong case for designing not just for a market, but with it in mind.

It also helped me develop frameworks I now apply when working on other projects with trust-sensitive user flows, such as finance, healthcare, or AI.

What I Learned

• Transportation UX is deeply cultural—trust and behavior shape everything

• Designing for emerging markets means balancing ideal use cases with infrastructural realities

• Closed-system design can be a strategic feature, not just a constraint

• Simplicity, transparency, and user control are key to driving adoption of new habits

Above all, this project reminded me that good design doesn’t start with features—it starts with context.

Conclusion

Agoo is a design exploration rooted in empathy, urban research, and community understanding. It imagines a version of carpooling that works for Maputo—not just a copy of what’s worked elsewhere.

Curious how this applies to your project?

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