Dollar.com Car Rental: Improving Usability + Creating a CSR Campaign
Overview
For this group project at General Assembly, we were “contracted” by Dollar.com car rental for the following work:
- Improve any usability issues on their responsive website
- Incorporate a feature that meets the expectations of more socially conscientious consumers
Our user data prompted us to focus on improving the usability for the mobile website first, and once the initial UX process was completed, we completed a second breakpoint for desktop.
Problem Statement

Users/Audience
The user is someone who frequently rents cars for work or travel, and who is either on a budget or who is interested in utilizing a company’s rewards program.
Roles/Responsibilities
This was a group project during a UX Design Immersive program at General Assembly, but this is an individual case study based on my own findings. All work was completed on campus at General Assembly, New York.
Scope and Constraints
The project was completed over a 10 day period, including weekends, divided in to three components, culminating in a presentation on the results. The parameters were limited to the student population around the GA campus, and there was no budget to conduct the research/testing.
The Process
The UX process that we followed (outlined below) was based on the Double Diamond design process.

User Research
Screener Survey
A screener survey was conducted for intial user research (see below). The survey was distributed on a campus-wide Slack channel at General Assembly as well as through our groups’ various social networks.

The qualifying criteria that was used for the Screener Survey was based on the survey question, “What is the typical time period that you rent a car?” Any respondent that answered “Yearly,” was disqualified.
The goal was to interview respondents with notable preferences regarding car rentals, which would in turn provide more applicable data for synthesis. The thought process was that a respondent who rents a car once a year is less likely to be involved with rewards programs, perks, or have strong opinions regarding certain rental car company practices.
Five respondents answered with qualifying answers, and all five people were interviewed.
User Interviews
The five screener survey respondents were interviewed in-person and over the phone when necessary, to help understand rental car behavior and social consciousness practices.
Affinity Map
We combined the insights from the user interviews in to an Affinity Map (see below).

The interviews and affinity mapping helped to define specific goals, needs, pain points, and behaviors of the interviewees. These were developed into a persona, Anthony (see below).

Journey Map
A journey map was created to document Anthony’s flow of renting a car. It was determined that the major pain points were resulting from usability issues on the mobile website, and so we decided to focus on mobile for our first breakpoint. We also wanted to design a CSR feature that would allow Anthony to practice social consciousness without having to spend additional time.

Usability Testing on the Mobile Website
We proceeded with usability testing on the mobile website, but we were met with a variety of challenges. First, the Dollar.com app was non-functional and would direct users to a beta test of the mobile site. Second, occasionally the mobile site would auto-direct us to the beta test site, and other times the older mobile site would load. Third, in the middle of our Design process the beta site updated with several new features. These issues did not impact the usability issues that we uncovered, but they did make the project more challenging to complete.
We tested 4 users on usability for the Dollar.com mobile site, and we were interested in whether they could log in to their Member Rewards profile and book a car. 0/4 users were able to log in to their Member Rewards profile, and so this test was scored “Major Issue.”

Problem Statement
We re-evaluated Anthony’s problem statement and synthesized the below information to help us design a solution.

Design
The persona and journey map, and usability report paved the way for the design process, which began with sketching in a Design Studio. Design Studio 1 focused on developing a streamlined Member Rewards log in process, and Design Studio 2 focused on creating a CSR feature.

Low-Fidelity Paper Wireframes
The initial sketches from our group were combined and we moved forward with Lo-Fi paper wireframes. The paper wireframes allowed us to design for the problem space and to create a new feature for socially conscious consumers.

Mid-Fidelity Digital Wireframes
After usability testing was completed on the lo-fi paper wireframes, we created our mid-fi wireframes. We created a CSR campaign called The Growth Initiative, which would plant 1 tree for every 20 miles that a user drives.

In regards to solving for the user Anthony’s problem, we created a new flow for the user to access their Member Rewards profile information, and then implemented a feature for the user to use the points to decrease the cost of their rental vehicle.

Below is an overview of the user flow for all of the mobile website features that were created.


Mid-Fidelity Usability Testing
Once we were finished with our Mid-Fi prototype, we created a scenario and task for usability testing:
Scenario
You have to travel to Boston for work from 11/7–11/10, leaving from JFK airport. You decide to book a car from Dollar.com because you have an account, and you can earn rewards points. You also happen to be interested in learning more about how Dollar.com contributes to social causes.
Task 1
Find out how many member rewards points you have.
Task 2
Read about The Growth Initiative campaign, and then find out how many trees have been planted with your help.
Task 3
Use your rewards points to book an intermediate sized car.
Mid-Fidelity Usability Test Results
There were several opportunities that arose from the Mid-Fi usability testing.
In task 1, users were not able to clearly see their member rewards points.

In Task 2, the testing was scored a success, however 1 user tried to user the CSR campaign banner as a link instead of the actual “Read More” link.

In task 3, users found the points identifier confusing, as they tried to use it as a button instead of the add/subtract toggle button directly below it.

Hi-Fidelity Prototype
We proceeded to create the hi-fidelity prototype, taking in to account the usability issues from the Mid-Fi usability tests.
For Task 1, we moved the Express Rewards points identifier to the Express Rewards sub-menu in the user profile (see below).

For Task 2, we enlarged the link to the Growth Initiative to include the entire banner area (see below).

For Task 3, we changed the Rewards Points identifier within the Add-On screen, and adjusted the add/subtract toggle button to make it easier for users to use their rewards points when booking a car (see below).

Hi-Fidelity Usability Testing
Usability testing was performed with 3 users on the hi-fidelity prototype, using the same scenario and tasks as the earlier testing.
The hi-fidelity iteration proved to be successful in all tasks, and all users were able to complete the tasks with no issues. 2 users mentioned that they would like to be able to access their Growth Initiative information from the home screen (see below), which is something we would like to consider for the future.

Second Breakpoint- Desktop
Once the hi-fidelity prototype was complete we created the second breakpoint for desktop, taking in to account the current member profile login, and our task with implementing the CSR feature.
We added The Growth Initiative campaign to the homepage, and created a link that will lead users to their personal growth intiative sub-menu in the user profile.

Next Steps
There are several improvements to the site that we would like to consider for our next steps.
First, we would like to create a more intuitive link from the Growth Initiative campaign screen to the User Profile screen. This will allow users to access their personal growth initiative from the homepage.
Second, we would like to conduct usability testing on the second breakpoint to ensure that usability is consistent across the two platforms.
Finally, we would like to create a secondary persona for first-time car renters and work through the same UX process for that specific user.
