Building trust in the sharing economy amidst a global pandemic
A furniture-rental startup believed that renting items was more sustainable than buying fast furniture. Users, however, struggled with psychological barriers to enter into an unfamiliar service format.
MY ROLE
Design Researcher
Strategist
Facilitator
METHODS
Ethnographic Research
Qualitative Interviews
Data Synthesis
Workshops
Rapid Prototyping
TEAM
Minerva Izaquirre
Tarjni Jotania
Tony Dang
PARTNER
Mobley is an NYC-based startup that offers furniture rentals for homes. The project began with a brief to create a differentiated positioning for Mobley, built on sustainability at the core. The business had emerged from the belief that with increased mobility in cities, a rental model can reduce wastage created by ‘fast’ furniture. Hence, the assumption was that sustainability would be the driver for consumer decisions.
PROBLEM FRAMEWORK
Challenging assumptions and understanding consumer motivations
While the client came to us with certain objectives in mind, our focus was on the consumer’s side of the story. Were they aware that furniture rental was an option? How would this offering fit in with their existing relationships around the category? We started by looking for these answers through ethnography, interactive surveys, and generative research with over 65 respondents.
In order to develop Mobley’s strategy, a key step was to define their core audience. The company had been working on the premise that Students who move for higher education and Working Professionals could be core users. Based on the business opportunity and surveys conducted, we honed in on Working Professionals in top cities and potential early adopters of the service.
SENSEMAKING
Moving from one home to another is a big challenge for young, Working Professionals in the City. Where does furniture rental & Mobley fit into this picture?
We dived deeper into this segment through qualitative research and created a comprehensive picture of their lives, especially in the context of frequent home-shifts.
Design research revealed barriers to renting furniture such as hygiene and quality. Moreover, sustainability was not a credible enough hook for consumers to enter into the category.
Sustainable furniture was a ‘nice to have’ option, but first consumers needed to trust the brand and the condition of the products they would rent.
At a fundamental level, there was a lack of trust in the furniture rental model.
CONCEPTS CO-CREATION
How Might We build trust in an unfamiliar service based on sharing ‘used’ items in a post-COVID 19 world?
In a post-COVID world, we realized that consumer priorities were rapidly changing. Concerns around renting used furniture would only exacerbate in the immediate to medium term. Against this backdrop, we broke down our task into our immediate goals:
How Might We:
Build trust in brand Mobley
Enhance the engagement experience with the brand
As the client’s operations team focused on cleaning standards and processes, our goal was to create transparency and an enhanced experience for users through the brand’s primary interface, its website.
We conducted ideation and co-creation workshops to understand the crucial areas of design intervention. Users sought credibility, transparency, and flexibility in their purchase decisions.
Critical decision-making in the process depended on product representation. Thus, we focused on the user’s experience and engagement with the brand’s product pages.
PROBES, PROTOTYPES & TESTING
Bringing alive the online experience of furniture in lieu of the reassuring real-world experience
Three strategic brand values that we proposed and took forward into our design were: Flexibility (Convenience), Safety (Hygiene) and Consumer Empowerment.
Using the current website as our starting point, we incorporated feedback from three rounds of usability testing to redesign Mobley’s product pages.
We uncovered a clear hierarchy of features as desired by consumers as well as certain preferences to be kept in mind
To address user concerns, we introduced features such as user reviews, sizing visualizations and visual expressions of texture and material.
Using this feedback to refine our design, we presented two layouts to consumers, tested via UserTesting.com. After A/B testing, we recommended the new wireframe and a product page template guide optimized for navigation and visual design.
IMPACT OF THE NEW DESIGN
The new design added both tangible and intangible value to the brand’s performance. It increased the effectiveness of the product page and improved the brand’s trust perception scores. In addition to these immediate gains, a strategic roadmap was laid out for future possibilities starting with short-term enhancements building up to long-term goals such as VR experiences.
Further details about the process can be found here.