Dream Rentals
Case Study

Tools: DJI mini 2, Webflow, Figma, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe Illustrator. 
Duration: 1 - 2 months

Dream Rentals is an exotic car rental company located in Montreal, Qc. Explore how I analyzed the market and backed up my data with user poles and one-on-one interviews that assessed the demands of typical car rental consumers to create a website that surpasses the competition.

Duration: 12 Weeks (2021)

Role & Responsibilities

• Sole UI/UX Designer
• Sole Web developer
• Sole Videographer
• Sole Video Editor
• User Research & sole interviewer

Team

• Daniel Andrade (Solo)

Industry

Automotive luxury and exotic car rentals

the brief

Overview of the project

Develop a website that displays the client's inventory of luxury and exotic vehicles for rent and seamlessly integrate an online reservation platform to convert visitors to sales.

the Challenge

Sell the consumer on a dream rental experience.

How do I convert a website structure into a consumer sale? What are the competitors doing wrong that I can learn from to increase favourable clicks to the site?

the solution

Storytelling

Develop a website that conveys a story to the consumer, a story they can see themselves experiencing. Through videography, market research, competitor analysis and user interviews was I able to achieve a solution for my client.

Videography

Drone footage

The marketing behind it was to further engage the user in the experience they are signing up for when renting a luxury car. The user browsing a luxury car rental agency should feel a sense of luxury. Each animation and touch of a button must feel rich and well thought out; the same goes with the video. The angles, shots and composition had to be engaging enough to entice the user to become the driver.

research

Market Research & Competitor Analysis

I started this project by processing what the competitors were doing well and what they struggled to convey. Then, through market research and extensive competitor analysis, I understood my client's competition's weaknesses to accommodate their short-term steps in achieving success and surpassing their competitor's current success rate.

User interviews

Understanding potential users needs and issues

I chatted with potential car rental users to conduct a thorough evaluation of what each user's purpose, needs and friction points were when accessing a car rental site. This allowed me to understand better what direct area of interest the users were interested in and what needed adapting to achieve a higher success rate on placing an order with a car rental. With this in mind, each user has given me different circumstances that have allowed me to accommodate each user's demands.

Direct order

One user addressed to me that she's already placed an order on the site before and wanted an easy access point to place an order right away. She found that other rental agencies make you go through multiple pages and clicks before checking out.

Solution

Create a primary CTA as soon as the user accesses the site that directs them directly to the car inventory, shortening the user's clicks to checkout.

Process

A repetitive comment addressed in all three interviews was the ordering process. I was unsure what they were chatting about until I researched and attempted to place an order on different rental websites myself. Then, I understood the struggle to place an order through these competitors' websites.

Solution

Create an easy-to-read step-by-step guide on the homepage as to how to place an order and find a simplified car rental platform that allows for easy access to the rental inventory and easy API implementation to the website directly for a seamless experience without crossing over to another domain.

Lack of UI

A user was experiencing bugs and difficulty accessing and completing an order on a competitor's rental website on mobile and desktop. As a result, placing an order was rather tricky and tiresome, resulting in a loss of sale.

Solution

Create multiple a A/B testing poles on Instagram where different individuals voted out one of the two UI's that lacked in experience—helping narrow down a UI that was easy to use and, of course, developed in a manner that would address any bugs a user may have.

Final design

Desktop and Mobile Prototypes

the STYLE GUIDE

Main elements

Conclusion

Thoughts and Resolutions

This case study came about because of the amount of research that went into the project. I never thought I'd create a case study on a car rental site however, due to its nature of being a niche market of Luxury rentals, I felt that it would be good to share my findings and experiences from users that helped the team tap its true potential for being one of the top leading luxury car rental providers in Montreal.

My process for this project was different this time around. I had a lot of responsibilities that helped me know where all the pieces go, but it also put a lot of pressure and tasks over my shoulder. Being the designer, developer, videographer, and "drone guy" made things relatively simple in terms of storytelling. With the research and user interviews, I presented a website that not only grabbed the user's attention with the videography but made reserving as simple as 1,2,3.

Most car rental agencies make ordering as complicated as can be. With Dream Rentals. The luxury is in the service and storytelling. Though Dream Rentals was a great project to work on, it showed the lack of user-to-business static there was. As a result, the communication quickly got lost, and I believe that's where I came into play and produced a website that showcased their fleet and offered a walkthrough of making ordering as easy as possible. I believe this project can be a starting point in reusing storytelling to help new niche business ventures effortlessly communicate with their customers/consumers.

Wait.. You're still here?

Here's a cookie 🍪