Project
Designing a seamless end-to-end car rental experience that enables users to easily book and rebook vehicles without confusion or unnecessary steps.
The goal was to create a transparent, intuitive, and efficient process for travelers.
My Role
I worked as a UX Designer and Researcher, focusing on how people search, book, and rebook rental cars while traveling.
Through interviews and usability testing, I uncovered key pain points and translated insights into a clear, intuitive user flow.
Timeline
The project was completed within a 6-week design sprint that included research, ideation, prototyping, and testing.
Each phase incorporated continuous feedback and iteration to ensure a smooth and reliable booking experience.
Research & Discovery: from problems to insights
Understanding why users abandon bookings and how clarity builds trust.
Problem statement
User interviews revealed that travelers often abandoned the car rental booking process due to unclear steps, inconsistent information, and unexpected fees.
Lack of transparency during key decision moments led to hesitation, confusion, and reduced confidence — especially for users renting abroad.
Goal
The objective was to design a clear, transparent, and reliable booking experience that minimizes friction and supports confident decision-making.
The focus was on simplifying the flow while preserving essential information users need to complete a booking without uncertainty.
Research audience
Participants included international travelers, families, and frequent business renters.
The group represented a wide range of digital confidence levels, helping identify barriers experienced by both tech-savvy users and occasional renters.
Research plan & methods
The research combined user interviews, competitor benchmarking, and heuristic evaluations of leading rental platforms.
Each method focused on identifying trust gaps, emotional friction points, and usability issues that contributed to booking abandonment.
Key insight
Users didn’t need additional features — they needed clarity, predictability, and reassurance at every step.
Upfront transparency around pricing, policies, and return details became the strongest driver of user confidence and completion rates.
User Personas
A clear overview of the four primary traveler groups using the system — each with unique goals, constraints, and decision patterns that directly shaped the booking flow.
User Flows
Main app navigation flow
This flow defines the primary navigation structure of the app — how users move through key sections such as Search, My Trips, Profile, and Support.
Booking Flow
The core booking experience guides users through searching, evaluating car options, reviewing policies, and completing checkout with full visibility into pricing and requirements.
Information Architecture
A high-level structure of the app’s core sections — designed to support fast decision-making, predictable navigation, and clarity for international travelers.
User Tasks
Home / Search
Location selector
Date & time picker
Filters
Search results
Car details
Add-ons
Insurance overview
Checkout
Confirmation screen
My Trips
Upcoming trips
Past trips
Trip details
Price
Modify booking
Cancel booking
Recalculation Summary
Supporting system areas
Account
Personal info
Driver license info
Payment methods
Billing history
Saved preferences
Support
UFAQs
Help articles
Contact support (chat / phone)
Policies & fees
Insurance rules
Settings
Language
Currency
Notifications
Accessibility options
Legal / Terms
Competitor & Market Analysis
A focused evaluation of leading car rental platforms to identify UX gaps, friction points, and opportunities for differentiation — especially for international travelers.
Key UX issues identified across market
Hidden or unclear fees
Most platforms reveal insurance, add-on costs, or extra charges late in the flow — causing distrust and booking abandonment.
Excessive choice & cognitive overload
Many interfaces show too many vehicle categories, add-ons, and unclear insurance tiers at once, overwhelming users.
Inconsistent return-station logic
Return-location changes often trigger unexpected rules or price changes that aren't clearly explained.
Non-transparent insurance information
Insurance wording is complex, ambiguous, or buried inside expandable sections.
Poor mobile optimization
Critical steps (filters, add-ons, payment) often require too many taps or open multiple screens.
Opportunity areas
Clarity & Transparency Framework
Expose all fees, return rules, and insurance details upfront to rebuild trust.
Simplified Decision Path
Present information progressively — reducing cognitive load and speeding up selection.
Predictable Rebooking Experience
Most competitors treat booking changes as a separate, confusing flow.
Opportunity: integrate modification directly in “My Trips”.
International Traveler Support
Clear language, currency, and return instructions become a competitive differentiator in tourist regions.
Summary
Most rental apps suffer from hidden fees, unclear rules, and overloaded interfaces — especially painful for international travelers.
This project focuses on delivering clarity, transparency, and predictability across booking and rebooking.
End-to-End Booking Flow
High-fidelity wireframes outlining the complete booking process—from initial vehicle selection to final confirmation—designed to support consistent, predictable user interaction across all steps.
Context
This flow was developed for an international car-rental startup serving a diverse customer base, including both local users and travelers from abroad. The design required a clear, universally understandable booking experience that accommodates varying levels of digital proficiency and familiarity with local rental policies.
Objective
To establish a structured, transparent booking journey that reduces cognitive load, clarifies protection and pricing decisions, and enables users to complete the rental process with confidence, regardless of their location or travel context.
Driver Verification
Driver information and documents are captured upfront to ensure accuracy, compliance, and a smooth handoff across the booking flow.
This step reduces friction, prevents downstream issues, and standardizes the verification process for both users and agents.
Booking Summary
The Booking Summary screen consolidates all critical trip data, pricing details, driver verification results, and protection selections into a single, structured review step. Designed as a high-integrity checkpoint, it ensures users fully understand their rental terms before proceeding, reducing ambiguity and minimizing post-booking support requests. This stage reinforces compliance and operational accuracy while creating a clear, low-friction decision environment that strengthens user confidence and supports efficient downstream processing.
Final UI Overview
A quick visual overview of the final interface — simple, clear, and aligned across all screens.
The final UI creates a unified, seamlessly structured booking journey built on clarity and consistency. Each screen supports quick recognition and confident action through a predictable visual rhythm. Together, these patterns form an experience that feels intuitive for users and scalable for future business needs.
Strategic Design Summary
A concise overview of the principles and outcomes
driving this design.
UX design principles
The design followed principles focused on reducing friction, strengthening clarity, and supporting confident decision-making through the booking flow.
Consistent patterns and structured interactions ensured a predictable experience that guided users through each step with ease.
Outcome
This stage defined the core structure of the booking experience, clarifying how information is presented and how decisions are made throughout the flow.
It aligned the team around a unified interaction model and established a stable foundation for moving into high-fidelity design.
Final reflection
This phase reinforced the importance of clarity, predictable behavior, and well-structured decision paths in a task-focused journey.
Establishing these fundamentals early prevents downstream complexity and supports confident progress into visual and interaction refinement.
Let’s Create with Clarity.
Open to opportunities where design can simplify complexity, strengthen workflows, and support efficient product experiences.
Available for collaborations and full-time UX/UI opportunities.
© 2025 Dina Lee. All rights reserved.