This is a critical design take on the current state of the gig economy.
The ideas and views presented are those of the creator and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of anyone else, including the entities mentioned. Moreover, as opinions and views do, the ones presented here are always evolving .
- Wait Time Compensation by Restaurants
- Ratings for Customers
- Increased Tips: mandatory 20% minimum tip
- Improved Communication Model
Dasher
Currently, the responsibility to ensure everything goes right lies on the Dasher. There is a way to improve this by redesigning the ecosystem and list them as one of the primary stakeholders. Addressing their goals and catering to them will level some of the field.
with more power comes more responsibility. and it's a heavy load to carry alone. but empowering users can lead to sharing this responsibility .
The restaurants will be more transparent and honest about the order prep time.
And will refrain from confirming order is ready until the order is actually prepared.
This way they can be more responsible and in control of their sales.
Customer tips are a major chunk of the Dasher earnings. When customers do not tip, Dashers tend to not accept those orders. We hope a mandated tip will resolve this problem.
The Customers will tip more and be nicer to delivery drivers to meet minimum criteria and to have access to all restaurants.
If there are penalties in place, customers will be with their responses.
“Restaurants don’t like Dashers. Incentivizing Dashers for waiting is not helpful for restaurants and that’ll make their relationship worse.”
- Participant 5
“Can restaurants confirm that Dasher is here? Dashers can exploit this. Restaurant should have authority over Dasher waiting.”
- Participant 3
“I would be constantly thinking about the rating. I cannot reach out to Dasher & ask for a rating if they forget (to rate).”
- Participant 2
“Some of the things are an issue. Customers won’t like fixed tips or penalties. It is not customer-oriented!”
- Participant 5
“People might not like it when they find out the ratings are automated. How can a system give me ratings?”
- Participant 7
“These perks are nice. Being a Top Customer is not insanely hard!”
- Participant 3
“The rating system makes DoorDash exclusive, I can imagine someone putting their rating on their Tinder profile!”
- Participant 4
Critical Design is speculative, conceptual, provocative, and can be darkly satirical. It does not always lead to usable products, but it does produce long-term thinking, a nuanced view of consumers as complex, contradictory individuals, and alternative solutions suggesting that change is always possible, even inevitable.
● Aneed for improving the conditions of gig workers environment
● Pay more attention to implications of algorithmic management of workers
● Address the power dynamics between gig workers and platforms
