Designing Driver Apps for One-Handed Use
Article by Iglika Borisova
A courier has a parcel in one hand and a phone in the other. Designing for that moment changes almost every decision on the screen.
Delivery drivers don’t use their app the way office workers use theirs. They glance at it between stops, in bright sun or in the rain, often with a bag or a box in the other hand. If an action needs two hands or a second look, it will be done wrong or skipped.
Put the next action in the thumb zone
We design each screen around one primary action (arrive, scan, hand over, next stop) and place it at the bottom, within easy reach of the thumb. Secondary actions move into a sheet that opens only when needed. Anything destructive, like cancelling a delivery, sits far away from the main button.
Make it readable at arm’s length
Large type, high contrast and clear status colours matter more than visual polish here. We test screens outdoors on real devices, not only in Figma, and we check them with gloves on.
Forgive mistakes
Mis-taps will happen, so every important step can be undone for a few seconds, and the app keeps working offline and syncs later. The best compliment a driver app can get is that nobody talks about it. It just gets out of the way of the job.
