VOYAGE CASE STUDY
During 2021, I was tasked to put all of the skills that I've learned from the previous years and apply it all to one big, giant, project. This was where I was able to finally put the pedal to the metal and see exactly what I was capable of doing.
It had to be a new concept, and something that had to be out of my comfort zone. It also needed to be about something that was relatively common within today's society.
Tools Used: Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Illustrator, Microsoft OneNote, Figma, Adobe XD
THE IDEA
After a week of jotting down notes, brainstorming ideas, and writing down as many nouns as I can, I settled on creating something along the lines of a case study for a fictional company that offered some sort of service. And after doing a little more note jotting and contemplating, I came up with the idea of creating a fictional vehicle renting company.
And since I've never rented a vehicle myself, I knew that this kind of case study would be something that would not only be a new concept for me, but also a challenging one nonetheless.
THE CHALLENGE
Not only am I inexperienced when it comes to renting a vehicle, I also had to get this case study completely finished for presentation within four months. Which meant I needed to conduct as much research, design work, and overall development within the span of four months tops. Which in other words meant that I needed to not only execute this idea accurately, but I also needed to do this in a timely fashion.
THE OBJECTIVE
To start this case study, I needed to have a clear objective as to why I'm even doing this in the first place. Aside from the fact that this is my senior project, I needed a clear mission as to why this hypothetic company is trying to make it's mark within the automotive industry.
To figure this out, I put myself into a customer's point-of-view. I asked myself a few questions as to what I would want to see in a vehicle renting company and what would persuade me to go for one brand over the other.
And in doing that, I managed to chisel out a few objective goals that I seek to accomplish throughout this entire case study:
1.) Find out what makes one rental company stand out and appeal to a customer more than another, and capitalize on it.
2.) Figure out how to target a broad range of consumers.
3.) Create a unique and high quality brand identity that separates itself from its competitors.
KICKING THINGS OFF
I've got my idea and I've got my objectives. Now it was time to flesh things out even further. Right off the bat, I knew that this vehicle renting company would have to compete with the other top competitors within the industry with companies like Enterprise, Avis, Budget, and so on. To see what I was up against, I did some research on those competitors. I searched up those competing companies to see what their approach was when it came to their individual marketing and over all brand identity. I made sure to look and take notes on the various trends between each of their sites and applications along with reviews, insights, as well as various other things.
I also made sure to take mental notes as I go along to see what exactly would entice me to choose one rental company over another.
THE RESEARCH
Along with reviews, went to YouTube to see if there were any kind of pain points and trends that people were expressing online. According to some of these reviews and videos, a handful of these rental companies tend to have mixed reviews on the quality of what they're offering. With issues like problems with customer service, vehicles not being kept well, and some cases where customers are being completely ripped off.
I took my research to sites like Consumeraffairs, Truepilot, and Yelp to get a relatively realistic idea as to what customer experiences were like when renting from these major companies.
And from this research, I've noticed a trend that a handful of these companies have had a concerning amount of reviews that bring up how some customers have situations where they have to use their credit or debit cards to place "holds" until an insurance company picks up their policy. Then afterwards, still get charged more money than what they were initially promised.
There were other problems I've noticed where a handful of reviews state that they were being lied to even further. With situations like receiving upgrades to services without being asked, and unknowingly being charged more money. There were even more situations where the upkeep and quality for vehicles weren't good at all. I've noticed reviews stating that some of the cars they've rented reeked of body odor and smoke. Others have also mentioned how the quality of the vehicles that they've rented weren't worth anywhere near the money they spent. With concerns like junk and trash still being left in vehicles from previous users, scuffs, cracks, and obvious uncleaned surfaces.
GATHERING THE INSIGHTS
But online reviews can only really get you so far when it comes to getting valuable insights. After conducting a few hours of research, I then went into the field of conducting interviews to get more of a realistic idea of what exactly makes one rental company more attractive than another. I also wanted to get an idea of how to target an age group that was as wide as possible. To do that, I needed to reach out to a few friends, colleagues, family friends and coworkers that ranged from my age (which is 23), all the way up to ages 60-65.
With my research objectives in mind, I went on to ask my colleagues, friends, acquaintances, and family if they were willing to undergo quick five minute interviews. Thankfully, I managed to get a hold of six of my colleagues. During the process, I interviewed six individuals including my father, a personal friend, a couple, and three coworkers. The goal here was to interview a diverse range of ages and experiences. Here's what they had to say on the matter:
THE DISCOVERY
The results I've gathered from these interviews were interesting to say the least. There were some answers that I was certain I'd receive, and there were others that I've never even considered nor realized. As stated before, I've never rented a car before, so finding out about the pick-up and drop-off feature that some rental companies have is pretty mind-blowing to me.
Second to that is some companies tend to charge by mile instead of day. I found it bizarre how some companies would charge you based off of how many miles you've driven versus just charging a daily rate. Overall, that whole concept seems significantly more costly. Fortunately, some have mentioned how it's beginning to be more of a thing of the past.
Another thing that I found was Interesting was how important customer interactions are. Of course being completely honest is important, but depending on how the customer interaction is between the seller and the consumer makes or breaks a purchase for them. One individual mentioned how he had a run-in with a former employee at a renting site, and that the entire encounter made him completely switch to another service.
One final piece that I've discovered was that one of my interviewees have mentioned how the salesman that was helping him throughout the rental process was extremely pushy on selling him extra features and upgrades to squeeze more money out of him. He mentioned how since the salesman was so insistent and constantly pestering him for more, he was highly considering walking away to get service from somewhere else.
AFFINITY MAPPING
With these insights gathered, I've noticed some common trends and phrases between each person listed. So I did a little bit of a affinity mapping to analyze the data that I analyzed. I've noticed a common theme amongst these phrases that revolve around themes of price and affordability paired with good quality customer service.
PUTTING LABELS TO THE NAMES
After getting my common keywords and phrases together, I wanted to narrow down even further as to what I was looking for to get a bullseye on what kind of problem I was trying to solve for this project. So I came up with the Idea to put these keywords under specific themes. And looking through these common key words and phrases, I've noticed that these phrases all revolve around three recurring themes: Affordability, Good Vehicle Quality, and Great Customer Service.
EXPANDING THE WEB
After getting my common keywords and phrases together, I wanted to narrow down even further as to what I was looking for to get a bullseye on what kind of problem I was trying to solve for this project. So I came up with the Idea to put these keywords under specific themes. And looking through these common key words and phrases, I've noticed that these phrases all revolve around three recurring themes: Affordability, Good Vehicle Quality, and Great Customer Service.
Then afterwards, I managed to come up with some remedies and solutions to the problems that these current customers and interviewees were having and organized them into a simple problem/solution diagram for reference
TAKING THINGS TO THE DRAWING BOARD
I've got my research, my themes, my problems, and my solutions. Now it was time to start bringing things into fruition. But to do that, I first needed to solve one final goal objective: Creating a unique and high quality brand identity that separates itself from its competitors.
BRAND IDENTITY
Right off the bat, I knew I wanted to evoke more of an adventurous kind of feeling to the brand and make the consumer feel as if they're going on a journey to somewhere great. Using some of the insights I got from the interviews, I created moodboard of the kind of look and feel I'd like to give to the brand identity.
BRAND GUIDELINES
In doing so, I managed to chisel out a color scheme from what I saw and constructed a set of fonts to go along with it. Since this rental company is supposed to evoke an adventurous theme, I chose more vibrant, lighter, and inviting colors. And since the goal here was to attract not only renters in general, but younger renters to the company, I also wanted to make sure that this company didn't give off a "corporate" and "business-like" kind of image.
I also wanted to make sure that the customer knew that this wasn't some low-end vehicle renting company either. Using clean fonts like Arial as well as clean typography and hierarchy would most-likely help find that sweet-spot look of premium and affordability.
LOGO DESIGN
Since this vehicle renting company specializes in travel, I referred to this company as Voyage. I wanted to convey that same theme within the brand's design identity. Originally, I was going to use something similar to a ribbon to accentuate more of a corporate look. But creating and using symbolism such as something similar to a location marker to give off the impression that this company is centered around traveling as its primary logo felt like the better direction.
Making sure that the brand's logo is following the overall project goal of appealing to a broad age demographic while maintaining a sweet spot between an easy-going, laid back image, and a professional, clean, and "business-like" aesthetic.
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SKETCHING THE LANDING PAGE
Taking my insights, project goals, and research that I've gathered across the weeks, I applied everything I've found in the best way I felt was feasible. According to the majority of the individuals I've interviewed and researched, using Voyage's special discounts, deals, quality, and highlights had to be its main selling point.
Although this is just the beginning sketches of the landing page, I already had a clear idea of what kind of images I would use to support this direction. The hard part was trying to figure out how to successfully incorporate the color palette I chose into the design.
MOLDING THE CLAY
This stage of the process involved setting the framework and flow for how the entire site is supposed to look like. As mention previous, I wanted capture the company's main selling points in a way that had information architecture that was easy to digest.
PUTTING THINGS INTO PLACE
The rest of this design was just simply putting things into place. Using appropriate imagery was key here, since I needed evoke less of a business-like, corporate aesthetic. I wanted the company to give off that easy-going, adventurous, and professional brand identity that can separate itself from its competitors.
However, the most challenging part was being able to choose an appropriate color palette for the job. Using the lime-green color mixed with a pastel-like yellow didn't seem to work all too well with the overall brand image. The page felt a little too loud and bright, and it didn't seem to give the viewer a chance to rest their eyes. So instead, I found that using the cleaner pastel-yellow color along with a darker shade of that seemed to work better with what I had in mind. Using white as a neutral color also seemed to pair well with the triple color combination.
SKETCHING THE MOBILE APP
The direction I took to sketching the mobile application was very similar to how I sketched the landing page. And that was focusing on what makes Voyage unique and better than its competition. This time, the objective was to run through the different kinds of tasks the user would have to go through to achieve their overall goal with the app. I took a look at a few current popular mobile applications like Cars, Priceline, Turo, Hertz, and Getaround to observe the direction they took to layering out their information and features in an app. I studied some of the pain-points I was experiencing using the application along with the various kinds of reviews each app were receiving on the app store.
USER HAPPY PATH
As I went about designing the Voyage mobile app, I made sure to create a user happy path. Or in other words, a user flow. I wanted to create a series of events a user would potentially take. I also paired this with a user goal so that the overall functionality of this app can be geared towards that end objective.
APPLICATION WIREFRAMING
Now that I've gotten a good idea of what I wanted the architecture of the Voyage to look like, I went straight to building the framework. There was a lot of information to lay out in a way that looked organized and not overbearing. The challenge was being able to fit in a decent amount of information without having to sacrifice the overall usability of the application. Especially for something like a main dashboard, or a final checkout page showing all expenses and discounts with full transparency before continuing with the transaction.
I also made sure to include special features like vehicle drop-offs, membership rewards, and various other types of attractive discounts.
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FINALIZING THE DETAILS
Finally, this step involved me putting together the visuals that I had set for the application. Like filling in pictures of vehicles where I saw fit, adding attractive imagery to sales and discounts, and making sure the design language fell synonymous with the landing page. Using the insights that I've gathered, I made sure to capitalize on all of the pain-points that a lot of other users were experiencing in other rental applications while emphasizing on all of the positive attributes that makes a customer favor one rental company over another.
PROTOTYPE DEMO
This is a running prototype I designed of what the ideal user flow would look like. This includes navigating through the main dashboard and moving through the booking process.
RETROSPECTIVE
CHALLENGES
Throughout the entire process of this case study, I'd say that one challenging aspect was figuring out how to create a good balance between a corporate-like business aesthetic, and a laid back, adventurous aesthetic that entices customers to pursue Voyage's services. I spent a good amount of time referencing pictures and videos of road trips and adventure pursuits to get a good comprehension on the target audience I was looking for as well how to exactly target them. The insights I gathered from the interviews were also extremely helpful. They were able to help me understand what exactly a customer values and looks for within a company that specializes in offering rental vehicles.
Second to that was definitely the color scheme. While setting out the brand guidelines worked in my favor, using colors like bright lime green and pastel yellow together came off as overbearing a little too much for the eye to take in. Especially when the information architecture is very important in situations like these. After a little bit of trial and error, I thankfully narrowed the color palette down to four colors to keep the design language easier for the eye to digest.
WHAT CAN BE IMPROVED?
After looking back at this process, I can say that one aspect that can be improved on are my skills with prototyping in both Figma and Adobe XD. While I do have a good understand of both programs, there is still room for improvement in making prototypes seem more seamless and easier to use. Especially in the realm of rapid prototyping.
Another aspect that can be improved on would be my management of bright colors. I noticed this when I was designing the mobile app for Voyage. There's nothing wrong with bright colors, but gaining more of a better understanding of where and how to use them would do nothing less than improve my visual presentations.
WHAT'S NEXT?
This case study has opened up many more windows to explore more ways I can make my user experience research more effective in my overall design work. I plan on researching more effective ways I can conduct user interviews along with exploring more methods of organizing my data. Affinity Mapping seemed to work wonders for me, but I'd also like to explore more about Card Sorting as well. Without doing user interviews, I wouldn't have gotten the insights I needed to make this fictional company look and feel believable. I predict that improving on these methods would make my work much more effective in the long run.