ABOUT GETAROUND

Getaround is an online marketplace that connects Hosts and Guests from our car-sharing community. Individuals can share their own cars on our platform (Hosts) and Guests can use our mobile app or website to book a car and unlock it without the need to meet someone and hand off keys.

HOW I STARTED THIS PROJECT

I am a Getaround user as a renter, I am satisfied with the service.
But there was one problem that bothered me. Often time when I started my trip with the car that I reserved, the gas was not full. It instantly made me think "Should I refuel the gas before I go?" or " how much should I refuel the gas before I return?". It is always better to start a trip with a full tank, rather than 80% of the tank. 

So, I conducted interviews to see how many users agree with the problem that I have. And I tried to find the reason why the renters are not refueling the gas before they return the car. Also, I tried to find other problems that renters are having on the car profile page from the interviews.

RESEARCH

Interview

To start the interviews, they rented a car from the Getaround or other p2p rental car services. And from the interviews, I found that they all have experienced with fuel/gas problems. Such as, the gas was not full when they started a trip, they extended their trip to refuel the gas before they return, or they just skip to refuel the gas and paid panalty.

From the interviews and conversation with the interviewees, I found an interesting insight.

Interview Insight

• People rent a car because they don't own a car.
  
• 4/5 interviewees are living in the urban area. And only one of them lives in Texas.
• The renters who live in the urban areas care less about gas station locations. Because a gas station is not a place they frequently visit. But one of the interviewees said the gas station is in every block in Texas.
• Renters recognize less about the closest gas station from the place where they return the car.

After the interview about the gas problem, I was thinking to have gas station information into car profile. But I realized that car profile has some problems for renters. So I continued the interview about the car profile page.

RESEARCH

Design Critique

Figure 1
The only information renters can get is animals and smoking is not allowed, where the car is parked and available time in the Figure 1 car. 

Figure 2
Figure 2 car information has very detailed information. The information is written in sentences. It takes time to read all the paragraphs, and also hard to remember the specs of the car. It feels hesitant to read and makes avoid or scan the detailed information.

Rating & Review
It is able to know the rating and how many users participated in the rating & review, but It isn't able to read the reviews.

Car Owner's Profile
The owner's profile is not able to see.

Design Critique Insight

• It only shows the information that the car owner provides.
• The current design is hard to obtain the information.
• The information gap is huge on different car profiles because it relies on car owners' descriptions.
• Renters want to know more about the car and car-related information.

PROBLEM

The current car profile is relying on the owner's description.
That is causing information inconsistency and information gaps between other car profiles.

GOAL

Through the new design, I am aiming to reduce the information gap between other cars.

WHY?

Information consistency helps to establish credibility & accountability to renters.
And consistent design helps to absorb information quicker.

HOW?

Clear information breakdown to build a car profile template.

RESEARCH

How are other services sharing information to build trust between users?

I chose to have a competitive analysis by comparing Turo, Airbnb, and eBay. 
Turo is one of the competitors with Getaround. But Turo is more focusing on the premium cars, such as Tesla, BMW, Maserati, and others. Airbnb is one of the best and worldwide marketplace that represents the C2C platform. eBay is proving a service that needs to deal and transaction with the trust of a consumer to consumer.

Product Page Competitive Analysis

From the product page competitive analysis with other services, I was able to know what information that Getaround is missing to build trust between renters and owners. Most importantly, Getaround doesn't have the review that other services are all able to see. 

Current vs Redesign Information Comparison

I organize my thought about what information should I have in the Getaround redesign from what I learned in competitive analysis.

CAR INFORMATION
9. Review - It helps renters to collect experience about the car. And for car owners, It is a good place to get feedback and modify the problems from the reviews. 
10. Like / Wish List - From the interviews and research, renters have a behavior of renting the same car they have rented before. For the users' convenience, I thought it is reasonable to have it in the redesign. 

HOST INFORMATION
3. Joined Date - The timeline is a good standard point for rating, review, and award.
4. Award - By showing awards, viewers can think the car has good ownership and the car and owner are approved by the Getaround.
5. Respond Time - It is one of the information to show the activeness of the owner. 
6. Contact Owner - It is convenient to know how to contact the owner before they book a car in case of an accident.

OTHER INFORMATION
1. Policy - Every car might have a different policy such as free cancelation or insurance plans.
2. Gas Station - From the interviews, interviewees who live in urban areas don't know where a gas station is. But the Getaround services are mostly in the urban areas. 

RENTER'S SOLUTION

Information Breakdown

I tried to divide and categorize the information from the breakdown. From the interview, I learned that users' priority is where the car is located for their accessibility and proximity. Because most car functions and features are similar unless the car is not special. 

1. Overall about the car

• Car Images
• Like / Wish list
• Owner's profile
• Award
• Car year and model
• Reviewing rate
• Rent information

1.Overall about the car

Description for Overall about the car

In this first information breakdown, the goal is to get brief information about the car.
From the redesign, users are able to see the owner's profile, and add the car to like / wish list, and also able to read reviews to help their decisions. 
And the award feature is also added in the redesign. The award is given to the users who filled out the information and passed the amount of experience qualification.

2. Car location

• Parking
• Gas station

2. Car location

Description for Car location

From the interviews, accessibility and proximity are the most important condition when users rent a car.

And one of the most common problems is 4/5 of users have experienced rushing at the last minute or forget to refuel the gas before they return the car or experienced start their trip with not fully tanked.
I found the insight that non-car owners have less perception of the gas stations.

As a solution to increase the refueling rate,  I thought about informing gas stations before users rent a car.

3. Car function

• Feature
• Safety
• Comfort
• Others

3. Car function

Description for Car function

I organized a car's functions by feature, safety, comfort, and others.
And updated new icons to see the information clearly and made it easy to scannable. 
Also, users can use the dropdown button to appear the functions.

4. Other details

• Car description
• Reviews
  

4. Other details

Description for Other details

After the car function breakdown, I decided to show more detailed information and reviews. Specific information about the car from the owner and experience from other renters will help users to know about the car.

4. Host information & Policies & Price

• First name
• Joined date
• Respond time
• Contact host
• Policies
• Price
• CTA

5. Host information & Policies & Price

Description for Host information & Policies & Price

To wrap up the information about a car, I thought it is important to show the host's information. Because in a case of an accident, If the users know how to contact the host before they rent a car, users can immediately contact the host without struggling to find a contact host, if there is an accident.

NEXT CHALLENGE

How to make users edit the new information?

WORK IN PROGRESS