How to avoid a too cluttered UI on mobile devices?

Question

One of the features of my mobile application, is the facility to request a seat on a journey. The user can view details about the journey, and then selects the "x sharing" link to pop down information (seen on screen 2) about:

• Who is on the journey (denoted by profile picture)
• Where they are being picked up from
• How much each of them is paying
• The total journey time
• The total journey cost
• The total journey mileage

Now I have 2 questions to ask regarding this UI

1) Is the 2 sharing link on the first screen too small and unnoticeable? Can I make it more appearent to the user in anyway? Note that its different to the Request Seat link which takes the user to a different screen.

2) How can I reduce the clutter on the second screen? All of the information is important to have, but it looks a bit messy...

Answer 1

I think it's okay to make the "x sharing" link that small for two reasons :

• Some people doesn't really like the idea to share their taxi with unknow folks
• This is first of all an information, not every users care about who is sharing their taxi and nor would they tap the link

But if your goal is to increase the social part of the app you could make it visually bigger or try to display the user's profile picture directly on the first screen.

^{download bmml source – Wireframes created with Balsamiq Mockups}

That been said, I don't think your second screen is too cluttered. Actually it's well structured with all the informations. You did a great job !

EDIT : On the other side, the "Request Seat" should probably be bigger since it is the main action to perform (you could design it as a large button).

P.S.: I'm wondering if it is really important to show how much the others are paying for the taxi ?

Answer 2

The "2 sharing" link looks like it fits fine, not too small, but not too big.

If you are going to have something pop out - make the background dimmed or blurred so the the focus is on the pop-out. This would make it appear less busy.