Car Rental Application
A case study of designing a state-of-the-art mobile Application for renting a car online
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Project: part of Professional Diploma in UX Design degree
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Role: UX Designer
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Year: 2021 - 2022
Overview
I began the UX Design course in August 2021 while working full-time as a Product Owner at Kia Connect. My goal was to enhance my knowledge and skills in UX practices beyond my work experience. For my design assignment, I chose to create a mobile application for car rental services
Problem
My experience in the automotive industry has reinforced my belief that mobility is crucial for a clean and sustainable future. There is a significant shift in how people travel—from vehicle ownership to shared and rental models. More than ever, individuals seek convenient, flexible transportation solutions that fit their needs.
Solution
I decided to design a concept of a Rental Car Application on mobile devices, which offers the user an easy way to search for rental vehicles with desired location, time period, and personal preferences.
Design Process
Following the design thinking concept, the project has been conducted through the standard design thinking process, with 5 main phases:
(1) Understanding & User Research
(2) Analysis
(3) Ideation
(4) Wireframe & prototype
(5) Validation & Iteration
Phase 1: Understanding & User Research
The aim of Research phase is to focus on understanding customer's goals, behaviors and context, addressing their pain points and answering the question: What’s their problem?.
Three research methods have been used: Competitive Bench marking, Online Survey and 1:1 In-depth Interview.
Competitive Benchmarking
To get an overview on the market and how the services are currently offered, I did a competitive bench-marking to analyse four different applications specialised in rental car services:
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Sixt
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Enterprise
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Turo Go
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GetAround
While Sixt and Enterprise are strong competitors in car rental business, GetAround and Turo Go are more well-known for its sharing model.
The overall analysis shows that most of the available solutions do not yet consider user experience at its core, but rather business's need. Users are overwhelmed by multiple offers and often got lost during the search process.
Online Survey
To get further insights from broader audience, I ran an online survey and received more than 20 responds in total and around 30% have recently booked a car rental online. Several comments reveals great insights on real pain points of renting a car online.
What's your first priority to select a rental car?
I want the booking information anf rental details to be more consumable and transparent, sometime it’s overwhelming but still not sure if I’m aware of all the important contract details
In-Depth Interview
I conducted 1:1 in-depth interview with 2 users to deep dive further into what they are expecting from a rental car application.
The Interview sessions was conducted online via Zoom and recorded with the user's consent for research purposes.
The Interview session covers 2 parts:
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Explore their experience and expectation with car rental services in general
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Perform several tasks to rent a car online in two applications: Sixt and EuropCar
Phase 2: Analysis
With handful amount of data collected through the research phase, I started to analyse them using Affinity Mapping approach, to organise and categorize the data in different groups and make sense from them.
After understanding deeper the goals, behaviors, context and mental models of a customer, I was able to build a Customer Journey Map to showcase how a customer would go through the application from initial stage to the end.
Affinity Mapping
This is the phase where colorful sticky notes and Affinity Mapping technique helped me to cluster the unstructured data and reveal great insights.
I also used Miro to digitalise the final diagram in an easy reading format
Customer Journey Map
I continued to deep dive in different stages in a User Journey while interact with the car rental application and build a Customer Journey Map.
Phase 3: Ideation
I started to create the concept for a Rental Car application with a user flow, where different screen states are detailed. I went over it also in later stage of the design process to ensure the comprehension and consistency between the final design and user flow.
Flow Diagram
Low-Fidelity Sketches
With the user flow, I then started low-fidelity sketches. It helps me to identify basic problems from the initial states. I did have the chance to went through it with some close colleagues to get overall feedback on how the experience provided could fit their expectations.
Phase 4: Wireframe & Prototype
High-Fidelity Prototype
After identifying potential problems of the Low-Fidelity prototype and fixing them, I started to transfer it to a High-Fidelity Mockup using Figma.
Wireframe and Annotation
I built a wireframe with annotations that include detailed explanations on each screen and interaction, defining the rules:
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How the system/application should behave
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How it should respond to the action
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How it communicates the results
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How it helps fulfilling user's intentions
Phase 5: Validation
In the Validation phase, I conducted a Usability Test session and tested the High-Fidelity Prototype with 3 users: 1 online session and 2 in-person interviews.
The Test Scope focuses on the search process, booking process, and account creation process.
Some of the findings brought great value and helped me to go back and rework the prototype.
Findings after Usability Testing
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The search bar is not clear enough
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Some texts / labels are too small to read
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Some icons are too small and inconsistent
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The filter option is not intuitive
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Need to enhance UX writing as certain terms are hard to understand
Design Iteration
I started to iterate the prototype and user flow after testing and analysing the results. Design iteration helps me to understand the remaining problems and what still needs to be refined and then fix them.
I also learnt that Style Guidelines including Color Style, Typography, and reusable UI components are very helpful in ensuring the design consistency, as well we in saving time when modifying the product design at later stages.
Final
High Fidelity prototype
Demonstrate the flow from the search phase to booking a rental car. The settings for this prototype are set ideally for iPhone 11 Pro. It is also suitable to try from a Desktop.
Lessons Learnt
With this project, I learnt that Understanding and User Research is an essential part for any UX Design project. UX is problem solving principle. A great product design will solve user's problem and generate positive emotions while doing so.
I have also improved a lot my interview skills through conducting Usability Testing sessions, how to define test objectives, and reach the research goals. It is also important to ask the right question, not leading questions for feature-focused, but more open-ended questions to explore the best user's behaviours, goals and context.
Running this project while working full-time has enhanced my time management skills and strengthened my commitment to side projects. It required me to take on the role of both Product Owner and UX Designer, balancing responsibilities effectively. This experience has been invaluable and has prepared me to dive deeper into the UX field.