UX/UI | Challenge

Redesigning Lightyshare’s Search System

A two-week journey to transform the rental process on Lightyshare, developing a new system to enable users to search for multiple items simultaneously and access the most efficient rental solutions for professional audiovisual equipment.

Filmmaking thrives on collaboration, uniting diverse talents and specialized equipment to bring cinematic visions to life. Yet, amidst this creative endeavor, the hurdles of acquiring professional-grade gear persist as barriers for many aspiring filmmakers.

Enter Lightyshare, France’s premier peer-to-peer marketplace for renting professional audiovisual equipment. With over 23,000 users and more than 16,000 equipment listings, Lightyshare has emerged as the go-to platform for filmmakers seeking quick, reliable, and cost-effective solutions.

For our Final UX/UI Bootcamp’s project, Mathilde Leonardo, Michel Dujardin and I embarked on a two-week mission to transform the rental process on Lightyshare. Our goal was to empower users to effortlessly input their complete equipment lists and access a range of cost-effective and efficient rental solutions. The revamped interface, equipped with a robust search function, aimed to categorize rental options based on criteria such as availability, cost-efficiency, and supplier combinations, minimizing the need for users to navigate multiple vendors.

A bit of context

« It takes a village to make a movie »

The landscape of film production has always been a tapestry of collaboration and innovation, woven together by a diverse array of costly equipment. Traditionally, filmmakers navigated the realm of cinema with behemoth film cameras like the Arri 435, commanding staggering price tags of $120,000 to $200,000. Renting such equipment was the norm, spanning beyond cameras to encompass essential accessories like lighting, dollies, stands, and microphones.

However, the advent of Canon’s DSLR camera with video recording capabilities in 2008 shattered these traditional barriers. Suddenly, cinematic-quality videos became attainable to enthusiasts, thanks to compact cameras that seamlessly merged photographic aesthetics with video capabilities. This technological breakthrough marked a turning point, making filmmaking more accessible and democratizing the art form.

Amidst this digital revolution, Lightyshare emerged in 2016 as a beacon of innovation within the French filmmaking community. Serving as a marketplace for equipment lending among filmmakers, Lightyshare provided a legal framework for renting expensive gear, accompanied by comprehensive insurance coverage against theft, break-ins, or embezzlement. Today, Lightyshare continues to earn accolades from its users for its competitive pricing, financial accessibility, flexibility, troubleshooting support, community spirit, and networking opportunities, further solidifying its position as a cornerstone of the filmmaking landscape.

Understanding Lightyshare’s main users

Research

After reviewing our brief, our priority was to quickly identify the target audience for whom we were designing this new feature. This would allow us to reassess whether our approach was indeed the most effective or not.

To do that, we started out by conducting 9 extensive user interviews, some of which took longer than an hour and a half. We took our time on this first step as we really wanted to make sure we properly understood who we were talking to and what were their main challenges going through the platform.

Then we delved into a comprehensive survey gathering 165 answers, from which we were able to quantify our users’ needs.

This led us into developing our primary persona : David, a freelance videographer living in Paris.

David, who already owns a substantial amount of equipment for his projects, frequently rents additional gear to enhance his setup. Efficiency is crucial to him, so he’s in search of a streamlined rental process.

Needs

David desires :

• a user-friendly platform offering quick and precise equipment searches,
• an organized catalog for easy browsing and contingency planning,
• transparent pricing, and
• dependable equipment that meets professional standards.

Pain points

While Lightyshare remains David’s preferred choice due to its competitive pricing, flexibility, and community-centric approach, he still encounters certain challenges with the platform, including :

• navigating the platform,
• conducting efficient searches and
• facing difficulties in sourcing equipment, resulting in extended transportation times and logistical complications.

User journey

Research showed that 77% of users typically rent between 2 to 5 products but struggle to find everything in one place. For example, David often rents from multiple owners, leading to delays, scheduling conflicts and logistical headaches.

This cumbersome process inclines David towards traditional rental houses, especially when his equipment needs exceed 3 to 6 items.

Moreover, our survey indicated that 48% of users occasionally rent equipment outside of Lightyshare, while 21% do so regularly. Among reasons cited for not using Lightyshare are issues with equipment availability and difficulties managing lengthy item lists :

These findings highlight missed rental opportunities and revenue loss due to optimization challenges, underscoring the importance of addressing these issues.

Therefore, we asked ourselves :

How could we help freelance videographers using Lightyshare in locating a list of equipment in the fewest possible locations or, ideally, in a single location ?

Our ideas

Focus and inspirations

Considering our problem statement and two-week deadline, we focused our efforts - through multiple iterations and in response to 11 user tests (Concept & Usability) - on creating a new search system, including a more relevant searchbar and matching search results.

Our design inspirations were derived from comprehensive visual benchmarking of diverse websites, including those focused on audiovisual equipment (TRM, SmallRig), similar platforms to Lightyshare, albeit not necessarily with their primary market in France (Gearbooker, Fatlama, Flecto…), and peer-to-peer platforms like Airbnb and BlaBlaCar, for instance, plus general UI inspiration from platforms using stacked elements, such as Shotdeck.

The Searchbar

Currently, when I’m writing this article, Lightyshare’s homepage looks like this :

Reflecting on our interviews with Lightyshare’s users, we identified an opportunity to enhance the search bar’s prominence and implement filters such as location and desired rental duration directly within it.

Our next idea was to develop a search bar that would enable users to search for multiple items simultaneously, either through typing or browsing available categories, which do not currently exist.

We encountered challenges in determining the best approach, as there were no examples available on the internet. Eventually, we settled on the concept of representing multiple items as “pellets,” but faced a scaling problem due to visual clutter. To address this, we explored the idea of having pellets overlap and reveal themselves upon hovering, but found this solution insufficient.

Eventually, I spent an evening doodling on Figma and devised a solution where the search bar could be transformed into a list, which users could reveal or hide using a simple button. Additionally, I recognized the importance of providing visual feedback to indicate when the list contains items while hidden. As a result, I added a small blinking indicator below the list button, which received positive feedback from testers. Here’s the Mid-Fidelity version of it :

Finally, to enable the possibility of copy/pasting a list of items directly into the search bar, we envisioned that it could recognize “ ; ” or any other appropriate symbol as a separator. Consequently, pasting a list of items separated by “ ; ” would automatically generate a pellet for each item in the search bar list.

The search results

Currently, launching a search on Lightyshare appears as follows :

In this example, I asked for Canon 5D offers nearby.

As we gave more emphasis to the search bar in our homepage, we understood however that it needed to be then minimized to prioritize search results and the user’s current list of items or pellets. Users could easily return the search bar to its normal state by clicking on it. Additionally, we considered incorporating icons representing each category of items to enhance product identification, while users could utilize a map feature to assess distances between themselves and potential owners.

Our design underwent various usability tests, leading us to introduce horizontally stacked cards to present results in a new format. These cards highlight owners who possess some, the majority or all of the requested items, or provide alternatives as needed. Interestingly, our research revealed that 44.4% of renters prefer sourcing from a single owner, even if it means considering alternative options.

Here, users can sort search results in two ways: by distance (default) or through optimized sorting, which prioritizes owners holding all or the majority of the items.

By utilizing the “see details” (“Voir les détails”) button, users can navigate through each offer’s details without leaving the results page using an overlay displaying all necessary information regarding each product. Additionally, users can scroll down to find helpful suggestions about the owner’s catalog to potentially increase their basket while still focusing on a single owner.

If users cannot find everything they need in one spot, they have the option to display alternatives for specific products by navigating to the filters (“Filtres”) and selecting products for which they are open to alternatives.

High-Fidelity assets and prototype

Final screens and assets

As I’m more of a UI than UX person, I was given the task to create and assemble most of the UI componants for the final prototype, for which I decided to go for an atomic approach.

For this project, we needed to adhere to Lightyshare’s brand identity. However, we also solicited feedback from our users regarding their related feelings, and they all found it enjoyable and clear.

Here are some of the High-Fidelity screens (Note that we designed in 1440px width to fit our stakeholder’s desktop asset files for handoff) :

Late during the process, we also implemented :

• a feature allowing users to isolate a specific item among the list by clicking on one of the pellets to isolate related results.
• a basket overview accessible by clicking once on the basket icon on the top right. This feature allows users to easily navigate through already added items and view overall pricing information, including Lightyshare and insurance fees. Users can also remove any item from the basket with the click of a button, reverting it back to the pellet list as before.

But you can witness it all in action here :

Conclusion

Next steps

If we had more than just two weeks, our next steps would have included:

• Conducting additional tests, including Usability and Desirability Testing.
• Expanding our prototype to include more researched items, demonstrating how the search bar could handle an “overload.” We envisioned pellets appearing in containers, with one displayed for each category of requested items, but the two-week timeframe was too short to implement this feature fully.
• Implementing real-time alterations in search results as each filter is applied.
• Developing a dedicated mobile application to enhance the user experience and facilitate communication between renters and owners, as 66.7% of the users indicated that communication with the owner was a primary reason for accessing Lightyshare on their phones.

Final words

Wrapping up, I’d like to express my appreciation to all of you, dear readers, and to my fellow teammates who made this endeavor a truly rewarding one. A special nod of thanks goes to Lightyshare for their confidence in our team and to Ironhack for the invaluable bootcamp experience. This project signifies the completion of our journey, and I’m thankful for the growth it has brought us.

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