Let's Ride
Payment handling app for children's rides in shopping centres.
Overview.
Ride On are the dominant player in providing children's rides in Australia, with more than 2,500 rides and skill
machines installed in shopping centres throughout Australia, New Zealand and Singapore.
The Let's Ride app, published by the biggest player in Australia's children's rides Ride On, lets parents pay
for and activate children's rides without the need for coins or even tapping against the machine. Parents can
prepay for packages of 'tickets' at a discount price and use up the tickets easily.
Rides are primed for start by the app, but still require a manual button press to actually start the ride for
safety.
UX and UI
Hardware Integration
Payment Handling
Mobile Apps
![Screenshots of the Let's Ride app showing three screens for starting a ride.](/img/rideon/rideon-screens-1.png)
Easy and fun.
The Let's Ride mobile app is a subtle, complex app, involving integration with payment gateways, custom APIs and
all manner of user authentication and security.
Yet the face of the app has been kept deliberately light and fun. The app is extremely easy to use, with users
guided to the nearest ride using location services and the ability to start a ride with prepaid tickets boiled
down to just two taps.
The design of the app was made to reflect the joyfulness and freedom that children experience when on one of the
Ride On rides.
![Screenshot of the Ride On app showing a nearby ride to be started.](/img/rideon/rideon-screens-2.png)
Many moving parts.
Behind the whimsical design is a highly complex technical system. The app integrates directly with Braintree for
payments using credit cards, PayPal or Apple Pay. A constellation of AWS services is connected through a custom
API to handle authentication, SMS verification, marketing push notifications and data storage.
The process of actually starting a ride requires integration with an API exposed by vending machine specialists,
Nayax. This exchange of messages happens asynchronously, with the app having to wait for an incoming request
from the Nayax system to be notified when the ride is ready to start.
And underpinning all these systems is a deep integration with Ride On's Salesforce system, to sync asset
locations and perform daily reconciliations of payments.