/*case study*/

Zipcar

Instantly book cars near you.

Iphones - Zipcar.jpg

Duration

1-week design sprint

Team

Solo

My Role

UX Designer

(Research, UI design)

/*overview*/

Why Zipcar?

Zipcar prioritizes its 18-34 years old target market due to the increasing demand from the targeted age group for rental cars in urban areas. Given its successful subscription-based business model, Zipcar has the potential in increasing its users if not for its subpar interface.

/*goal*/

Retaining user engagement through relevant UI

Zipcar's subpar user interface (UI) and user experience (UI) prevent users from viewing its service before committing on using. To tackle this problem, I will take a heuristic approach to improve the usability of Zipcar's interface to retain user engagement and increase user conversion.

/*problem*/

Identifying usability issues

To investigate the problem, I conducted a usability test on Zipcar's mobile application to see the problem that arises.

​

Findings:

  • Important information wasn't visible

  • There is no dedicated mobile Sign-up

  • Style was outdated

Research: Competitor Analysis

Research: Competitor Analysis

Design and usability comparison between Zipcar, Turo, Hertz, and Carla

Turo

Hertz

Carla

Google Play Ratings:

  • Turo (4.5⭐, 1M+ downloads)

  • Hertz (4.2⭐, 100k+ downloads)

  • Carla (4.3⭐, 100k+ downloads)

  • Zipcar (3.8⭐, 1M+ downloads)

Findings:

  • All 3 competitors directly display their service

  • All 3 competitors have intuitive designs

  • Turo and Hertz utilizes modern aesthetics

​

Conclusion: Although it is controversial for Zipcar to direct the users to its service (due to its subscription-based business model), it would be beneficial for Zipcar to showcase its service in its landing page.

The Solution

  1. Redirecting the user to the landing page instead of the sign-in/sign-up page. This allows the user to view Zipcar's service as well as being able to go through the car options.

  2. Create a dedicated mobile sign-in/sign-up instead of redirecting the user to the website. This allows a better user flow and reduces confusion.

Design: user flow

Since I did not have time to finish the whole sign-in/sign-up mockup, here is the user flow detailing of the general sign-up process.​ This flow will be triggered after the user selects a car that they want to rent. Members could sign in and new users could sign-up to become a member. This flow is created to align with Zipcar's membership business model. 

/*prototype*/

Final Design

Redirecting the user to the landing page

  • Display the main information: Zipcar's car rental service.

  • Increase user retention rate for new users trying to check out Zipcar's service​.

Create a dedicated mobile

sign-in/sign-up

  • Provides better user experience

  • Reduces confusion

  • Takes shorter time

/*reflection*/

What did I learn?

✨ UX design is not just making things pretty

There are a lot of steps required before going to the design process. By utilizing design thinking, I was able to learn how to empathize with the user by becoming the user while conducting usability tests on Zipcar and its competitors.

​

⌚ Time management is really important

It's not easy to conduct my first individual case study not knowing the standard procedure to conduct a proper UX case study. Due to a time crunch, I was not able to develop the whole sign-up process but was still able to provide a user flow.