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Virtuo is a mobile-only car rental start-up founded in 2015. It aims to disrupt the industry by allowing customers a desk-less experience and unlock cars with their smartphones. The company has backing from notable French startup figures, and raised 1.7 million in 2017.
Virtuo approached Kirk to improve their website's reservation flow, user accounts, and user experience on the reservation page. These improvements were to be made to both the website and app, and to be fully responsive. The goal was to create a high-fidelity black and white wireframe prototype, as the company's internal designers would handle the visual design.
This was the first project for myself and Clara as a fully autonomous design team. As we were accustomed to working on SaaS B2B products, working on an e-commerce service was a new challenge for us. We had to gather all available information about persuasive design to complete this project.
Our first step was to map the user journey based on different scenarios and needs such as: does the user have a business account? What is the user's experience coming from an airport? When does the user create an account?
We created two black and white prototypes of the new website version for Mobile and Desktop using Axure RP9. This allowed the Virtuo creative team to add visual design. We re-designed pages and flows, and incorporated persuasive design best practices and ergonomic knowledge.
To optimize the interface and reduce the user's rental time, we collaborated closely with Virtuo's product team and made many iterations. We held 3 design reviews per week to push the potential of flows and pages, so we were sure to be aligned and get relevant feedback.
Lastly, we timed the user testing sessions to compare the old and new interface, which would be the best feedback in this case. We used the insights gained from these tests to make improvements to specific flows and pages, particularly the airport case.
We entirely redesigned the user's account section to provide reassurance and easy access to information. The information architecture was adjusted several times during design reviews and optimized based on user testing.
The homepage's booking pod caused a lot of problems, users didn't understand the service and were hesitant to continue. We solved this by allowing users to enter all relevant information for their trip on the homepage, and also improved the search results and station search.
We redesigned the space dedicated to tracking reservations to make it more ergonomic, reassuring and visually pleasing. We added more information about order validation, billing and the ability to download all necessary documents.
Providing options to users can be difficult as it requires displaying information effectively and persuasively while maintaining ethics. We used persuasive design elements to give users important information about their rental, such as insurance policies and extras.
We delivered the work on time and even added some extra touches on some of the interfaces. Virtuo's UI and dev teams worked hard to implement it in about 3 months. We were really proud of the accomplished work. The transformation rate got doubled(!!) and a lot of KPIS showed the relevance of the work we applied.
As this was my first autonomous project, this project was rich in knowledge acquired. I learnt better how to organise my work, communicate with my client when necessary, preparing and animating workshops and design reviews. This project also made me learn better how to animate and record a User testing session.
A special thanks to the Virtuo team, the best client I ever had to work with in term of open mindedness, product skills and sympathy! And thank you also Clara, my colleague with who running this project was even funnier and more creative.
