Craft a mobile-first experience that empowers travellers to seamlessly plan and book the perfect rental car for their journeys.
Worked with
Yuj Designs
to Consult a leading US Car Rental Company
Role & Team
Role: User Experience Researcher + Designer
Team of 2 UX Designers, 1 Visual Designer
Year & Timeline
2023 | 6 months
My Contributions
I led client discussions, translating their needs into actionable design directives.
UX Research & Analysis
Personas, Service Flows, Task Flows,
Information Architecture, Conceptual Map
Design & Prototyping
Low & High Fidelity Wireframes, Prototyping,
UI Design, Usability Testing
• Before diving into the solution, here’s the context •
The existing car rental website faced significant usability challenges, resulting in a suboptimal experience for travellers and potentially impacting conversion rates.
In collaboration with the client, we set out to understand users' goals and pain points, aiming to redesign the experience around their needs.
Our project focused on streamlining the rental process, enhancing user decision-making, and ultimately improving customer satisfaction and booking conversions.
Business Goals
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Boost mobile conversion rate to match website performance through mobile-first design
• With this context in mind, we aligned our efforts with three key business objectives •
Increase first-time customer retention to 70-80% via improved relationships and loyalty programs
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Drive customer engagement with personalized experiences and promote add-on subscriptions
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• To achieve these goals, we first needed to identify what wasn't working in the current product •
What’s not working with the product?
Take aways from Heuristic Analysis
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Users struggle to make informed decisions due to information overload and poor prioritization.
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Pricing transparency is an issue, with users finding it difficult to understand the breakdown of costs.
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Lack of essential details such as car features, ratings, reviews, and usage history, which are critical for informed decision-making.
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Lack of personalized recommendations and limited filtering options hinder users from finding their ideal rental car quickly.
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The booking process is cumbersome and time-consuming, with too many pop-ups while applying coupons.
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Information overload at the initial step, overwhelming users with excessive data entry requirements.
• While addressing these pain points was crucial, we also wanted to learn from successful practices out there •
What’s working in the market?
Take aways from Competitor Analysis
• With these findings in hand, I shifted the focus to understanding the users on a deeper level •
There is James,
A caring family man plans a budget-friendly road trip.
They want to rent the suitable car that is safe, comfortable and not heavy on their pockets.
Their Goals & Expectations
To rent the most suitable & comfortable car
Needs customer support 24*7
• To fully understand James' experience, I mapped out their entire car rental journey, revealing critical pain points and opportunities •
• Among the challenges identified, one stood out as particularly impactful to both user satisfaction and business goals •
Despite the brand being known for it’s affordable prices and exciting deals, a common pain point that emerged was that,
“Finding the right coupon or discount is very tedious. ”
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Poor discoverability of discounts as the website lacks affordance to navigate to explore more discounts.
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Having to remember coupon types & enter codes.
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Restricting users to avail discounts at certain point in their rental booking journey.
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Complexity while appling multiple coupons functionality.
Reframing this challenge as an,
Opportunity
How might we enhance the coupon experience to provide users with clear, personalized, and easily accessible rental discounts?
• With this opportunity in mind, I crafted ideas that addresses both James' needs and business goals •
Process Simplicity
Streamline the process. No more deciphering confusing types or navigating complex functionalities.
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Transparent Coupon Benefits
Users deserve clear details about monetary discounts, free upgrades, booking extensions, and other benefits each coupon offers.
Smart Discount Suggestions
Suggest the best deals tailored to the user's rental journey - location, car type, booking duration, and more. Inject some friendly language into your system's suggestions.
Personalized Perks
Leverage their profile to automatically suggest membership discounts and other personalized offers.
WIREFRAMES
✨
Introducing the New Car Rental App
Booking Journey Redefined
✅ Simplified Initial Booking Steps: Implemented a step-by-step guided process to prevent information overload
✅ Personalized Recommendations: Utilized AI to suggest suitable offers based on user trip details
✅ Mobile-Optimized Experience: Ensured responsive design for seamless booking across all devices
✅ Improved Information Architecture: Implemented progressive disclosure to reveal information as needed
Takeaways ✨
First Step in Leadership
This project marked my first experience leading a design team while navigating client management
—a humbling lesson in balancing creative vision with stakeholder priorities.
Cross-Function Collaboration
Working with the marketing and product development teams on the coupon application reinforced the importance of breaking down silos for holistic product development.