ROLE:
Product Designer (User Interviews, User Research, Prototyping, UI Design, Design System)
TOOLS:
Figma, Loti, Blender, Adobe CS
TEAM:
Ana Kleinmann, Zoran Tepša, Josip Žitković, William Kurniawan, Sinisa Plevnik, Maximilian Bartl, Dorota Mleczko
TIMELINE:
9 months (MVP)
Context
In July 2022, Volkswagen Group completed the acquisition of the leading international car rental company, Europcar Mobility Group (EMG), positioning it as a cornerstone of Volkswagen's future mobility platform, aligning with the company's NEW AUTO strategy to expand its presence in the rapidly growing mobility services market - from short-term car sharing to long-term subscriptions, with plans to introduce autonomous vehicles in the future.
Product
Besides their existing app, EMG wanted to develop a new one - Europcar Mobility App for iOS and Android that would simplify existing features while adding new services and mobility options.
Three cross-functional teams served three main domains for the MVP:
- Booking
- Car-sharing
- Account + Registration
Service is currently available in Germany which serves as a test ground before it becomes available globally.
Challenges
- Simplify traditional booking process
- Include all booking features from the web version that are not available in their existing app
- Add more mobility options
- Improve cross-functional collaboration between teams at Volkswagen FS and EMG
- Restructure Design System which wasn’t maintained properly which led to design inconsistencies.
- Establish white-label design system that would primarily align with the existing Europcar brand.
Solutions and Impact
➡️ Worked with research team to gather user data that helped product management and stakeholders plan and refine Booking domain services and features in line with business plan.
➡️ Streamlined search for location and date/time and reorganized the display of essential vehicle information which improved booking flow efficiency.
➡️ Based on user testing results, implemented an interactive map for easier overview of the selected vehicle price offered by different stations resulting in a 10% increase in conversion during user testing.
➡️ Consolidated design components from previous projects creating foundation for white-label design system to support multi-brand theming.
➡️ Grouped scattered components in one Figma file which became source of truth that improved collaboration between designers and developers.
➡️ We collaborated with engineers to ensure token alignment with code resulting in faster feature creation for MVP and future updates.
Check out Figma Prototype here or below ⤵️
Process
🔬 Discovery
- Conducted workshops with stakeholders to explore the project’s nature and identify its key MVP features and align on business goals.
- Identified 5 Key Personas: Leisure, Business, Eco-Conscious, Urban Commuters, Tech-Savy
- Analyzed booking flows in leading travel and mobility apps to identify industry best practices.
- Analyzed user research and developed a roadmap as a foundation for delegating workflows.
💭 Ideation
- Explored wireframes and low-fidelity prototypes for car offers and station selection.
- Worked with developers on identifying potential technical constraints with Europcar API.
- Ran design critiques with cross-functional teams to gather early feedback.
- Sprints were set in line with our roadmap, and we started to create prototypes to explore usability.
🗂️ Design System
- Audited components to identify redundancies.
- Documented and maintained a unified system, boosting team efficiency.
👷 Prototyping & Testing
- Created high-fidelity prototypes for usability testing, focusing on reducing cognitive load.
- Conducted in-person user testing interviews.
- Iterated designs based on testing insights.
👩💻 Implementation
- Collaborated with developers during the design handoff to ensure pixel-perfect execution.
- Monitored implementation to align with the design system guidelines.
UX Research Key Insights
Confusion in Station Selection
Users struggled to find stations based on availability and location.
Cognitive Overload in Booking Flow
Excessive steps led to drop-offs.
Design System Gaps
Developers faced delays due to inconsistent component documentation.
Strengths
Well-known and trusted brand in the car rental industry, large network of rental locations, diverse fleet.
Weaknesses
Competition and emerging mobility service providers, technological challenges, user adoption.
Takeaways
✅ What Worked
- Proactive communication with stakeholders and teams is crucial for balancing user needs and business objectives.
- The iterative design process fostered collaboration, resulting in actionable user insights.
A well-maintained design system significantly improves scalability and team efficiency.
🔴 Challenges
- Aligning design solutions with tight MVP deadlines while addressing user pain points.
- Due to business priorities and development constraints we had to release the MVP without a critical features.
Conclusion
This project improved my ability to balance user-centric design and business goals while working in cross-functional environment. Europcar Mobility App now offers a streamlined Booking Domain with experience that is more aligned to offerings from their website.
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