Lendus

Overview Brainstorm Concept UX Text & Refine Reflection

01-Overview

As the lead UX/UI designer for Lendus, I developed a streamlined platform aimed at individuals and small businesses in the rental industry. Lendus serves as a one-stop hub for listing and managing underutilized assets, designed to effortlessly connect owners with potential renters and boost revenue.

Duration

5 months

Jul 10 - May 4

Roles

I worked as the UX/UI designer on this project, guiding the testing and information architecture while also being responsible for the design system and final UI.

The Challenge

Inspired by the core mission of Lendus to democratize the rental industry, my challenge is to design an intuitive and inclusive user experience in a web application platform. The aim is to enable individuals and small businesses, irrespective of their technical skills or market experience, to easily list, manage, and rent out their underutilized assets for additional revenue.

02-Brainstorm

Research

We kicked off the project by brainstorming essential features, focusing on the specific needs of our target audience: individuals and small businesses with underutilized assets.
To streamline the user interface, we listed key functionalities that would offer a robust yet simple platform. This exercise proved useful for navigating later challenges in information architecture.
A competitive analysis was conducted to examine existing rental platforms, helping us identify unique opportunities and gaps in the market where Lendus could excel.
Finally, we looked to popular e-commerce and social media platforms for design cues and best practices, aiming to incorporate elements that would make Lendus intuitive and user-friendly.

What we learned

Our target demographic mainly includes individuals and small businesses, making accessibility a paramount concern.
To cater to a diverse range of assets, we designed a flexible yet simplified interface that sets Lendus apart from more niche rental platforms.
The lack of user-friendliness in existing rental platforms confirmed that there was a significant opportunity for innovation in the industry.
Popular e-commerce and social media platforms thrive on visually appealing designs combined with intuitive controls, a pattern we aimed to replicate in Lendus.
One critical observation was the need to minimize friction in the user journey. We understood that the quicker an asset could be listed or rented, the more value we provide to our users. This led us to optimize the platform for speed and ease, allowing for quick listing, searching, and checking out of assets.

03-Concept UX

Preliminary concepts

Striking a Balance: Our first challenge was to balance feature-richness with simplicity. We aimed to minimize the cognitive load for users on each screen while providing all the essential asset management tools.
Core Functionalities: After scrutinizing user needs and business goals, we determined that a booking and listing UI were critical starting points. These features would enable swift and smooth interactions between asset owners and potential renters.

The Lendus homepage features a striking hero image of industrial equipment, quickly signaling the platform's focus on aiding small businesses with idle assets.

This preview features a top-rated industrial drill, highlighting key functionalities like images, pricing, and reviews.

This view showcases a map interface, pinpointing available rentals in real-time, streamlining the search process.

Other important functions

Messaging Feature: Our real-time messaging system enables straightforward and instant communication between asset owners and renters, facilitating negotiations and building trust.
Personalized Listing Marketplaces: One significant concern we unearthed during our research was the hesitance of lessors to invest time and resources in creating their own websites. To address this, we developed a feature allowing users to create their personalized marketplaces within Lendus. This feature not only streamlines the listing process but also negates the need for individual lessors to have separate websites, making it easier for them to focus on renting out their assets.

04 - Test & Refine

Identifying pain points from user research testing

After establishing our criteria through low-fidelity wireframes, we proceeded to develop high-fidelity prototypes for user testing. We engaged various stakeholders in this process, including potential users from our target audience of small businesses and individuals, as well as experts in the rental industry. We instructed them to navigate through the main user flow and openly share any concerns or difficulties they encountered.

Reducing complexities created by an overabundance of functionality

Initially, our platform included a wide range of features, aiming to provide a comprehensive experience. However, user feedback indicated that this led to cognitive overload, particularly for new users. Realizing the importance of a simplified user experience, we scaled back to focus on a Minimum Viable Product (MVP). This MVP retained only core functionalities such as booking and chatting, leading to a cleaner and more intuitive interface.

Usage of Modals

To address navigational challenges, we incorporated a consistent use of modals across the platform. This design choice allowed us to present essential information or collect user input without requiring a shift to another page. The advantage was twofold: it simplified the user journey by keeping them in the current context, and it reduced cognitive load by presenting information in a focused manner.

Before

After

User Reliance on Search Bar

Our analytics showed a high user reliance on the search bar for finding assets, making us question the utility of categories in the navigation bar. These categories, intended to aid in navigation, instead contributed to a cluttered interface. We chose to streamline the UI by enhancing search functionalities, thereby reducing clutter and improving the user experience.

05 - Reflection

Information Architecture is important as early as possible

We quickly found that we were having issues with the user flow later in the prototyping process which could have been easily avoided by focusing more on the information architecture as early as possible. Many of our issues were simply compounded over time as we had done a minimum amount of the information architecture necessary until the prototyping stage.

Finding the fine line between functionality and simplicity

User feedback highlighted the platform's complexity, prompting us to find a balance between robust features and user-friendliness. We introduced tooltips for clearer guidance and reorganized the home page, consolidating less essential elements to maintain focus on key functionalities. This approach simplified the user experience while retaining important features.