Driving Efficiency: Turning a Confusing Rental Flow into a Clear Roadmap

ROLE: Senior Product Designer

TIMELINE: 5 weeks

PROJECT OVERVIEW

Avis is a car rental company that allows customers to rent a car for the duration of their holiday.

PROBLEM

Despite the car rental marekt being valued at 106 billion dollars, the Avis rental flow was clunky leaving the user feeling confused as they progressed through this process. Taking mutiple attempts for users to complete the flows leading to a drop off of customers out of frustation.

APPROACH

Led a user-centered redesign from the ground up: conducted usability research to identify pain points, facilitated ideation workshops, revamped user flows, and redesigned the UI with a focus on usability, feedback, and accessibility.

OUTCOME

Cut average completion time by >50%. Boosted task completion rates with users more likely to finish the process, and improved user satisfaction. The new design earned positive feedback from users and stakeholders.

DISCOVERY

To tackle the problem, I kicked off the project with thorough research and alignment.

Heuristic evaluation: First, I walked through the existing BHA app myself and with team members, noting usability issues (e.g. unclear navigation, lack of feedback, accessibility problems).

User sessions: We then recruited a few target users to observe them trying the BHA. We timed each step, noted where they hesitated or got frustrated, and collected qualitative feedback after.

My challenge was clear: streamline and make the rental car flow more forgiving so that people could complete the process.

Key findings and pain points identified

Misleading workflows - Users would be expecting one screen due to the previous screen call to action text and receive another screen. This would cause confusion when on the unexpected screen.

Lack of humanised feedback - User selected dates which returned a long error and had to deduce the issue rather than understand what to do from the error message. This added to frustration and was a big factor in whether or not the user quit the process or not.

Lack of information - When choosing a car users would often complain about the lack of information regarding the product like price per day, dimensions and specs and would instead get bombarded with add-ons they most likely didn't select at this point in the process.

Accessibility gaps - Design did not account for people with visual impairments making some of the UI elements small.

IDEATION

Ideation workshop

I facilitated an ideation workshop to brainstorm how we might handle pain points. The first step in this process was to identify user pain points by creating an affinity diagram with the usability notes written down. Next, with pain points clearly defined, I could facilitate a brainstorming session for each pain point asking "how might we solve this issue?" This strategy sparked creative solutions to which we prioritised by feasibility and impact. Once all solutions were generated, we culled them by putting them into three buckets: Must do, nice to have, and needs more validation.

Revamping user flows

I mapped out a revised flow that minimised steps and made the sequence more logical. For instance, we combined certain screens and eliminated redundant prompts to shave off time.

Sketching

Sketching helped me bring the app's user flows to life. During this process, I grasped an overall idea of how I wanted it to look and feel.

DESIGN

Wireframing

With my newfound user flow diagram, I made wireframes which established the foundation for a more intuitive and forgiving rental flow. I focused on simplifying decision points, clarifying pricing information, and reducing friction during form entry. Each screen was designed to guide users smoothly from selection to confirmation, minimizing cognitive load and helping them recover easily from mistakes.

High fidelity design

Incorporating feedback from earlier wireframes and UI iterations, I developed the high-fidelity prototypes for testing and handoff. I collaborated closely with other designers to resolve challenges in structuring and aligning interface elements. Together, we ensured that all UI components, typography, and the colour palette met WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility standards.

IMPACT

Overall experience

• Time completion rate: Went from an average of 10 minutes 42 seconds to 5 minutes 56 seconds.

• Error rate: Decreased from 68% to 23% because we changed things such as the date picker when filling out forms, adding affordances like graying out so users can see what dates are available and what wasn't.

• Error recovery rate: Increased from 42% to 87% as we introduced clearer error messages when users didn't do something correct which always stated what they should do so the user doesn't have to think, such as "Morley rentals is closed on the weekend, please select a date and time on the weekdays."

• Satisfaction rate: Improved from 4.2/10 to 8.7/10.

• Backtracking rate: Reduced from 54% to 18%.

Business outcomes

The improvements to the rental flow had a significant impact on Avis's bottom line. Conversion rates jumped from 31% to 76%, which translated to an additional 2,340 completed bookings each month. This surge in conversions generated an estimated $3.2M in additional annual revenue from reduced abandonment rates alone. Beyond the direct revenue gains, customer support costs dropped by 41% as fewer users encountered confusing errors or needed assistance navigating the flow, saving approximately $180K annually. Perhaps most importantly, the enhanced user experience increased customer lifetime value by 28%, as satisfied customers returned more frequently and recommended Avis to friends and family.