Easy Motorhomes

Easy Motorhomes

My Role

UX Designer

Methods

Interviews, Personas, Competition Analysis, Lightning Decision Jam, Moodboards, Card Sorting, Customer Journey Maps, User Flow Diagrams, Wireframes, Prototypes

Tools

XD, Illustrator, Miro, Balsamiq

Background

A prevalent B2B Car Hire company decides to venture into a B2C product for the first time: Easy Motorhomes is a motorhome hire e-commerce platform that offers a safe holiday alternative in Post-Covid times.

The Pandemic travel restrictions have reshaped the concept of travel. Easy Motorhomes offers a travel option which involves no Covid related health risks and reduces the chances of cancellations. It proposes holidays within the country and in private vehicles/accommodation. It is also an economical holiday option and this is important since Covid has brought economic uncertainty for many people.

Easy Motorhomes is a new brand in the B2C market. There are well established car hire companies offering motorhome holidays to the final customer in the UK and across Europe.

GOALS:

Offering a holiday style that works in the Post-Covid era. It is not only about the legal/moral travel restrictions, but also about people’s needs after the pandemic, which have changed due to contextual factors. In times of complexity, it is crucial to make the booking process simple and self-explanatory.

The Challenge

The Lean

UX Process

“Will I need a special driving license?”

THE PROBLEM

A motorhome holiday was something most of our interviewees had never experienced. Although they found the idea attractive, they thought it presented a few complications. They had question marks around the topics of parking, stopovers, toilet and type of license required.

We had all the answers to these questions and things where much easier than they thought! We decided to build our brand and booking experience around the idea of SIMPLICITY.

The Final Design

How We Got There

USER RESEARCH

Interviews

& Personas

I interviewed 7 middle-aged subjects who reside in the UK and had travelled abroad on vacation within the last 2 years. The goal was to understand how Covid-19 has shaped the idea of travel for British citizens.
More specifically, to find out if a trip on a MOTORHOME within the U.K. would be an appealing alternative.

Most of the interviewees were open to and even excited about the idea of a motorhome holiday. These are the aspects they found attractive:

  1. Staying in scenic places, close to nature.
  2. The sense of adventure.
  3. Avoiding check-ins / check-outs.
  4. The freedom to stay wherever you want and to modify the trip on the go, without a fixed travel itinerary.

I noticed that, although many motorhomes can be driven with a B1 license, none of them knew about this: they thought they would need a different type of driving license. I found this is an important aspect to highlight when promoting motorhomes holidays (IT’S EASIER THAN YOU THINK!).

Since the Pandemic was declared in March 2020, their lives have been affected in many ways:

  1. Most of them are working from home.
  2. They spend most of their time at home.
  3. Some of their preferred leisure activities are not possible any more.
  4. They feel they spend too much time on digital devices.
  5. Uncertainty about their financial situation.
  6. NOSTALGIA for an earlier time, when things where easier.

As a result of this, they have developed a crave for spending time outdoors and getting closer to nature. Some of them have developed an interest for DIY tasks, gardening and pets. They administrate their money carefully due to the uncertainty.

These facts were key to understand our audience’s needs and we translated the gathered data into a look and feel our customers would be emotionally connected to.

DEFINING THE STRATEGY:

Lightning

Decision Jam

This was my first experience with a Lightning Decision Jam session and I loved it! In just a couple of hours we succeeded in:

  • Identifying and prioritising the main CHALLENGES this product presented.
  • Choosing the most viable SOLUTION for each challenge.
  • Setting the roadmap for the IMPLEMENTATION of each solution.

THE LOOK & FEEL:

Moodboard

Our main target audience grew up in the 70’s and 80’s. During the rounds of interviews I sensed a childhood nostalgia. They felt things were easier back then, before the Digital Media invaded their lives. Many of them are trying to reduce the time they spend on digital devices and spend more time close to nature. Some have recently quitted social media. They are all looking for ways to simplify their lives.

We translated these emotions into a Look & Feel that radiates those values.

INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE:

Card Sorting

& Site Map

INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE:

Customer

Journey Maps

NAVIGATION DESIGN:

User Flow

Diagrams

NAVIGATION DESIGN:

Wireframes

Final Thoughts

This was the first time I was given the opportunity to implement so many UX methodologies in one single project. Every design decision was founded on findings from the initial research.

It is very rewarding to see how a product can be uplifted by combining different UX Research, Design and Testing methods.

Designed and coded by Asier Ferrara © 2021