Case Study: Creating a trustworthy way to rent outdoor equipment from locals.
As a local in Utah, there are many different outdoor activities that I love. Hiking, wakeboarding, kayaking, snowboarding, to name a few. It’s incredible that I can enjoy all of these activities within 45 minutes from where I live. However, these activities require gear that I don’t have room to store in my townhome. I have to know someone who is willing to lend me their stuff or find a rental place in order to participate in these outdoor activities. It’s not always convenient, and it can get costly. There’s got to be a better way to rent outdoor equipment.
This thought was not one that I had right away. The Shed app we started with is not the same app as what we ended with. This is the story about how it changed and the process throughout the way.
THE ASSIGNMENT — Design Challenge
I had just been assigned a group for a new design challenge in the UX/UI design course I was attending. We were given a task to design a native mobile app. While we didn’t get to choose our groups, we did get the chance to choose the subject. from 7 pre-determined problems the instructors came up with. Luckily, my group and I were on the same page with the subject and we choose to design the “Stuff Lending Library App.”
The Problem:
Most people end up accumulating an abundance of items that they only need or use a few times a year. Keeping track of these infrequently-used items is a huge challenge not to mention finding a place to store them.
What if it was possible to make money off of these items without the burden of keeping track of them?
Details:
Design a mobile experience offering on-demand rentals. Design for two perspectives (1) As a person offering their “stuff” available for rent and (2) As a person looking to rent someone else’s “stuff”. Strive to create an experience that is equally appealing to both perspectives.
Empathize
I started out my journey to creating a new “stuff lending app” by listing out assumptions I had about borrowing or renting. And then by challenging those assumptions.
For this project, we were tasked with taking a lean UX approach. After we listed the assumptions, my group and I struggled with what to do next to make sure we were following the lean UX way. Google gave us a great idea for our next steps, and the first was to answer a few questions, so we made sure we were on the same page.
Who are our users?
An average person wanting to use “stuff” they don’t own, for personal use.
What is the product used for?
(rentee)
-Renting stuff that you don’t have.
-Searching for what you need.
(renter)
-Make money on your stuff when you’re not using it.
-Renting out your things that sit in storage most of the time.
-Keeping track of your rentals. Who, where, how long, how much.
When is it used?
Whenever the need is there. When does the user need items?
What situations is it used in?
-When someone needs to rent something for a specific use.
-When someone has stuff they don’t use often and want to make money off it by renting it out.
What will be the most important functionality?
-Searching to find the specific thing you need.
-Convenience and versatility for users.
-Tracking your stuff.
What is the biggest risk?
-Lost, damaged, stolen items.
-Money
-People who take advantage.
-Safety of users.
Competitive Analysis Research
Once these questions were answered, I started my personal research by downloading 6 different apps with a similar product. My goal was to gather as much information as I could from the applications. I also had questions about the flow of my app I hoped to get clarity on.
- What is the homepage going to be when logged into our app?
- Do we want navigation icons on the bottom of the screen? What are other navigation options?
- What was the process for posting a new item?
Offer Up, Let Go, and Lend It were a few of the apps that I researched.
Experiencing the different apps was helpful for the development of my own. I found many qualities that I liked and wanted to adopt in my designs. Most of the apps had similar icons for navigation. I also liked the review aspect on a few of the apps and wondered how I could include that. There were features I knew I didn’t want to incorporate into my designs. Such as the different size photos while browsing through the items. I definitely wanted a cleaner look for my searching experience.
The Big Change
I was turned off by the apps that allowed users to rent and sell anything. There were too many options, and the apps looked messy. The experience on those apps was not as good as the apps that had a more specific product. This was a big moment for me because I originally loved the idea of an app where you could rent out anything you wanted. The user in my head was too vague and needed to be narrowed down. It was like a lightbulb went off!
After much thought, my teammate Jamison, and I decided to change the route of our app completely. We are both outdoor enthusiasts and had an easy time agreeing on changing our app from a “RENT ANYTHING” app to renting outdoor equipment.
Market Research Survey
Narrowing down the type of rental items through our app was a crucial step in the process. We made the decision at the perfect time and I was eager to dive in and really get to know our users. I listed out as many different questions as my brain could think of and added my favorites into a google form. I sent the survey out on a few platforms and waited for the responses.
Here are the questions I included in the survey.
I received about 40 responses from people on my survey, and some of the information was proving my assumptions to be correct. However, there were also answers that surprised me and definitely provided insight to problems people have with renting.
Some of the main takeaways I found from my survey include:
- There were positive and negative renting experiences from my users.
- The common frustration with lending out their own gear was keeping track of that item, and never knowing when it would get returned.
- People want to try a variety of outdoor activities, but they don’t have the space to store new equipment.
- It’s not in their budget to buy new products for those activities.
Define
Together, we used the information from the survey responses and were able to define who our users were. We had two primary persona’s, one was a Renter — a user who rents out their personal outdoor equipment. The other as a Rentee — a user who is looking for outdoor equipment to rent.
At this point in the project, we were struggling with how to split the work. Since there was only the two of us, we decided to split the work right down the middle. I would take the renter side, and my teammate took the side of the rentee.
Persona
After we determined who was designing what, I focused on the target user and created a persona based on what I knew.
- Todd wanted to keep his stuff safe and make sure he knew where it was and when he would get it back.
- Todd didn’t use his outdoor equipment nearly enough.
- Todd has experienced positive and negative rental experiences.
Ideate
The Name
Every app needs a good name. You want it to be memorable and also relevant to your product. During some of our discussions, Jamison and I were constantly mentioning how our users would store their equipment in storage rooms, or sheds. Based on the outdoorsy theme we were going for, we agreed on the name SHED for our app. It just sort of fell into our laps as the perfect name.
User Story Map
We continued on the ideation phase by creating a user story map. This part was as much fun as it was challenging. The user goals were simple to define because of the information we received back from our research.
However, once we got to the tasks and narratives, it wasn’t quite as simple. It would seem that we were on the right track, and then we would think of something that would throw a lot of our progress out of whack. We had to go back and switch a lot of things around. (Thank goodness for sticky notes)
It was hours of brainstorming, discussing, and at times it felt like we wouldn’t ever get it figured out. This was the first time during our project that we realized how challenging it was being in a group of two. Most of our classmates were in groups of three and had at least an extra vote if there was ever a debate. It was just Jamison and I. There were many times we didn’t exactly see eye to eye and it was tricky to find a solution. We had to go back to our persona several times to ensure we were solving their problems. Not what we as the designers thought was best, but what the users needed.
- We had to consider the user’s safety.
- How would we ensure people weren’t going to take advantage of each other?
- Should we add an insurance option on the items?
- How can we make sure the rentee’s kept the equipment in good shape?
These were all questions we ran into while creating our story map and it was a fun task to answer them and come up with this.
Prototype
Before we started on our separate sketches, we needed to determine the basic functionality of the app. Some of the questions that I asked Jamison were:
- Do we want a fixed set of icons on the bottom? If we do, what should those icons be?
- What is the main/home page when you are logged in?
- Would we have a specific place to switch between rentee and renter?
Together, we determined that fixed icons were the way to go. And oh boy, the icons were a major mountain for us to climb. We had too many things we wanted to be able to do. Because of this, the idea of a radial button for our icons, instead of having them as a fixed footer at the bottom came into our heads. It seemed edgy and different. It would also allow for more real estate in our designs. We decided to give it a try for our app. It can always be changed if it fails, right?
I then had an idea to write down all of the icons we were deciding between, and elaborate on what that icon would represent. This was a helpful way to figure out which icons were the most important.
We determined which icons would be used the most, and decided on the 5 fixed icons for our radial menu. Now it was time to whip out the paper and pen and start sketching. I started by designing out a variety of ideas for each page of the app. I was excited to solve the original problems through my designs and watch SHED come to life.
Low Fidelity — The stage of many changes.
When I determined which style I preferred for each screen, I took those to sketch and created a low-fidelity mockup. I used a website called Invision to create a prototype for the renter side of SHED. I was able to get the radial fab button working on Invision(which was quite the complicated task) and a few people were able to view SHED and provide feedback before I moved to high-fidelity designing. Some of that feedback was:
- “Take a look at your copy, and find a simpler way to label your buttons.”
- “The radial fab button is normally a contextual button, make sure to include an introduction in your onboarding process.”
High Fidelity — The finished product
Jamison took over the onboarding screens, and made sure to include a detailed introduction on how the fab button works within SHED. I changed the copy on several of my buttons and made sure the wording was simple and concise. I then continued on the path of finishing the MVP for SHED.
Jamison and I wanted colors that were outdoorsy, but also made you feel like you were in a shed. He’s a graphic designer for his day job and took the lead on our style guide.
Test
When it comes to hi-fidelity testing, unfortunately, there isn’t much to mention. This was one thing that we weren’t able to spend enough time on. I wish I could go back, and spend a little less time on some things (that dang radial button in Invision) and spend some more time on testing. In my head, I felt like the prototype needed to work perfectly in order to start testing. I have learned that is not true, and to test as often as you can!
Future Features
There were many times during the course of this project that an idea would pop into my head and due to timing, I would just have to write it down under the “future features” section in my notebook. Of course, I would want to test these ideas out with users to ensure they weren’t just ideas that I thought would be useful. Some of those ideas include:
- Adding a social aspect to the app. Being able to view the profiles of other users and view their rental history, and reviews.
- A deal of the day section. A way for renters to add an item at a discount for last minute rentals.
- A way to share the deals with your friends and family, either through texting, or social media.
Conclusion:
Creating SHED was an awesome learning experience for me, and I had a lot of fun solving the different problems for this app. It was an extremely different experience from my first group project, and I am glad for the skills I learned throughout this design challenge.
- The importance of communication with your team. Keep everyone in the loop as much as you possibly can throughout the whole process.
- There is a reason that you start with lo-fidelity, and stay there as long as you can before moving to hi-fidelity. It is much easier to make updates on a low scale product.
- Your product doesn’t have to be perfect to test.
- What we as designers want and what the user wants isnot always going to match up. It is important to refer back to your persona and really make sure their goals are thought about, and their frustrations are problems to solve.
