Project Overview
NeighborTools connects tool owners with renters in a safe, secure peer-to-peer sharing platform. Owners make money from unused tools, while renters save by avoiding purchases and supporting local communities.
In a team of three for 3 month we worked to design a website to facilitate the process of lending and borrowing tools among people.
Problem Statement
Many people have tools sitting unused at home, but finding a convenient way to share them for occasional use, while also benefiting the community and environment, can be challenging. This is often due to logistical challenges and concerns about trust, which can complicate the process of lending securely and easily.Our Solution
Our app provides a user-friendly platform that simplifies tool lending within communities. By connecting lenders with borrowers securely and conveniently, we facilitate a seamless sharing experience. Features like comprehensive rating and review system, detailed tool descriptions, and secure payment options ensure trust and reliability. Our goal is to promote community cooperation, reduce environmental impact, and empower individuals to earn from their unused tools effortlessly.THE SOLUTION
Let's Take a Look at the Final Design Before We Move Forward
In the video below, I demonstrate the flow for adding a tool to the NeighborTools website.
DISCOVER
How Did We Get to the Final Product?
In order to educate ourselves and understand users need, pain points and motivations, we conducted a semi-structured interview with 11 individuals to understand user paint points, needs and what influence them to trust an app to share their tools.
Voices of the interviewees
Key Insights of Interview
75% of interviewees expressed concerns about potential loss or damage of their tools.
82% of interviewees expressed concerns about fraudulent activity and trustworthiness.
60% of interviewees expressed concerns about setting appropriate pricing.
Analyzing the Competitors and Taking Some Inspirations
We decided to understand our competitors. We tried to go through these apps and had 3 main goals while conducting competitive analysis:
- To analyze what features these apps are offering to solve customer needs.
- To get inspiration for the user interface design and identify existing design patterns that users might be familiar with.
- To identify possible pain points and what’s missing with respect to the user experience and interface.
We also analyzed Facebook Marketplace, a strong peer-to-peer platform, and Airbnb, a successful app for sharing personal properties. By studying their design and user experience, we gained valuable insights to enhance our own product’s user experience.
Gaining Deeper Insight Into User Needs
After analyzing our competitors, we designed a survey and received a total of 46 responses. We identified the most important factors for users wanting to rent tools.
Verified
User-Profile & Identifications (83%)
Secure Payment
and transactions(83%)
Review & Rating System
(72%)
Insurance / Security
Deposit(56%)
Clear Terms
and Conditions (54%)
Defining Design Principles
Core Value That Needed Reinforcement
Ensure that tool owners feel secure and confident when lending their tools to encourage more community engagement.
Streamline the tool lending process to make it simple and user-friendly for tool owners, including clear and transparent pricing.
Incorporate insurance, protection options, and a reliable rating system to enhance the overall lending experience.
DEFINE
Who We Are Designing For?
After conducting interviews, we identified a USER PERSONA and brought it to life with visual, to ensure always kept in mind who we were designing for and could easily see what features were needed to make this product useful for our target audience.
Mapping Out the User Journey
We developed a user flow diagram to ideate and visualize what screens and interactions users would go through.
DEVELOP
Design Challenges and Potential Solutions
*** To better understand the solutions, I am presenting them in high-fidelity designs.
Challenge #1:
Uncertainty regarding Insurance and tool protection against potential damage or loss.
Solution:
Challenge #2:
Concern regarding fraudulent activity and trustworthiness.
Solution:
Challenge #3:
Owners faced uncertainty in determining the appropriate pricing for their rentals.
Solution:
Team Creativity: Unleashing the Potential of Teamwork
We brainstormed and sketched various design ideas for the website, taking into consideration the needs and pain points of our user persona. We prioritized essential features, such as home page navigation, searching tools and creating a search result and tool's description pages. Through collaboration, we converged on a design that pulled elements from all the sketches. We then moved to the wireframing stage of the low-fidelity design.
**Click any sketch to view details
Homepage Variations
Lending Dashboard
Search Flow
Tool Details
Lending Dashboard
Iterative Design Process: Usability Testing (Round 1)
We iteratively created and tested wireframes and interactive prototypes to refine our design. By conducting multiple rounds of user testing, we ensured that our final product met the needs of our user persona.
Here is the iterative design process for 'Listing Item' page.
'Choosing Category'
'Describing Item'
'Select Condition of Item'
'My Listing' page
DELIVER
Design Inspiration: Mood Board
In order to define the visual direction for NeighborTools, we revisited the persona and reminded ourselves what we wanted our users to feel and think whilst using the website. We wanted to foster trust, establish a friendly, community-focused environment, and convey the message that borrowing tools should be fast, affordable and hassle-free.
Creating Consistency: A Visual Style Guide for the Product
A visual style guide was created to ensure complete consistency across the product. This guide ensures that typography, color, and UI elements are correctly used by other designers, whether they are recreating or building upon the app.
Ensuring Color Accessibility for All Users
The contrast between the foreground and background colors of the primary and secondary buttons was tested on color blindness websites to ensure acceptability.
Delivered Design Pages
Home Page
Listing Item Wizard
Reservations
My Listing
Create Account
Inbox
Click an image to enlarge • Swipe to see more →
This Journey Taught Me ...
Reflecting on this project, it was a great learning opportunity for me as a UX designer. Working with a stakeholder and a team of designers taught me the importance of collaboration, communication, and flexibility. I learned to approach design decisions with a balance of user feedback and business goals, and to iterate designs based on ongoing feedback. Moving forward, I will continue to build on these skills and apply them to future projects.
Next Step
If we were to continue working on this project, our next step would be implementing Owner-Managed shipping item. Additionally, we would evaluate the current design through more user experience testing and consider solutions for when tools become outdated or less utilized over time.