Research

In order to understand how to create a worthwhile experience, we first have to understand who our users are. In order to do so, I conducted primary and secondary research to understand the problem space.

After forming a research plan, I began with secondary research. This included market research to understand current market trends and competitive analysis for benchmarking Rentl’s main competitors.

Competitive Analysis Key Takeaways:

• Apps like Spinlister and KitSplit offer rentals for bicycles and camera gear, respectively. However, they don’t have great UI to back up their designs.

• No one has tackled the outdoor gear category in terms of rentals specifically.

• There great opportunity in learning from the best of selling apps like OfferUp, and to use them to help take Rentl’s design to the next level.

1 on 1 User Interviews

Moving on to primary research, I conducted 1 on 1 user interviews to gain insight into who it is I am designing for. The goal of the interviews was to understand the users’ expectations, motivations, and frustrations with restaurant accessibility.

User Interview Key Takeaways:

The research for Rentl showed that the problem of renting gear when traveling is far from perfect. The user interviews revealed that almost all the interviewees thought of the gear rental process to be dated and flawed.

MOTIVATIONS:

• Selection and Availability – Users want the freedom to rent gear that is not normally rented out as well as be able to find better items at better prices compared to brick-and-mortar rental stores

• Price – Users want to save money and browse different gear listed at different prices

• Ease of use – Users need to have a seamless experience with the app for it to become a viable and credible rental option

FRUSTRATIONS:

• Selection and Availability – Users want the freedom to rent gear that is not normally rented out as well as be able to find better items at better prices compared to brick-and-mortar rental stores

• Lack of Selection – The selection of gear available for rent is often small

• Poor Condition – Rental gear is often rented out in terrible condition

• Transportation/Lack of Competitive Options– Getting to and from the rental shops can be difficult if there is no rental vehicle.  Transporting the gear can also bring its own challenges.  Rentals are often priced similarly, and competitive rental options can vary.

Empathy Map

An empathy map was created to help add depth to the insights pulled from the 1 on 1 user interviews.

User Persona

From the data found in our user interviews, we created a user persona. This persona is used as a reminder as to who we’re designing for and is crucial to understanding the concerns, expectations, and needs of our users.

Task Flow

To create a task flow, a key task was defined and the steps a user would need to make to accomplish their task were mapped out.

This task flow explored how a user would go about posting an item for rent on the app, and what information was necessary for each step of the form.

Wireframes

Brining over our ideas and layouts from initial sketches, low-fidelity wireframes were built in Balsamiq. These wireframes helped quickly explore different layouts, hierarchies, and functionalities before beginning the main design.

Mobile UI Design

Using our wireframes as a reference we designed the new Rentl App UI. The designs took into account what features needed to be built out in order to deliver the best possible experience to the user.

Prototyping and Testing

Usability tests were conducted in person and recorded with the users’ consent.

Task 1: Message the owner about additional gear, and request a booking from Dec. 16th to the 19th

Task 2: Canel the booking

With the completion of the app design, I created a high-fidelity Figma prototype. Two tasks were created to test the usability of the site and a total of 5 participants were chosen.

The results from the usability tests were promising, as all participants were able to complete their tasks with little to no difficulty. However, some minor tweaks and suggestions were brought up (such as confusion with the date picker) and were fixed in the final iteration.

Priority Revisions

The results of the usability testing were very promising and very few changes needed to be made to flesh out the design.

The main issue of the booking functionality was fixed mirroring users’ metal models from previous experience with booking flights, hotels, etc.