GO Rentals
Reimagining the car booking experience for forward-thinking kiwi rental brand
- Date
- 2019
- Client
- GO Rentals
- Responsibilities
-
- Interactive Art Direction
- Digital Strategy
- Product Development
- UX Design
- Responsive Web / UI Design
- Ecommerce Design
- Email Marketing Design
- Mobile App Design
- Interaction Design
- Project Management
- Matt Currie
- Branding
- Designworks
- Development
- Go Rentals In-house
- Website
- gorentals.co.nz
GO Rentals is New Zealand’s largest independent car hire company – built on a 20-year foundation of the best customer experience in the market. They live and die by their website, with millions in annual revenue at stake.
I’ve been working with them for over ten years on three iterations of their website, and each time we’ve strived to push the market forward with the most innovative user experience possible. In 2019 GO contracted me for their most ambitious redesign yet.
Rethinking everything
Nothing was off-limits. We started from a clean slate. Our goal was to redefine what an ideal car booking experience could be on any device, and then work out how to make that possible.
- How can we most quickly define the itinerary (dates, times, locations) of our car hire, even on mobile devices?
- How might we better communicate independent ratings, awards, and customer testimonials to establish trust as early as possible?
- How might we anticipate a customer’s preferences and help them find the right vehicle quicker?
- How can we alleviate concerns by injecting help FAQs contextually within the booking process?
- How might we leverage technology to make data entry and payment as effortless and magical as possible?
Led by Matt Currie, GO’s head of customer experience, we worked through a series of workshops and rapid prototypes to define and validate the big changes we could implement to make the itinerary and booking experience easier than ever before
“Benek brings years of expertise to the table and it's particularly refreshing to work with somebody who really does understand e-commerce.”
James Dalglish - Go Rentals General Manager
Ambitious undertaking
GO Rentals had recently completed a huge piece of market research and was simultaneously undergoing a rebranding process with Designworks. The new website had to maintain or improve their SEO position, reflect their new brand and marketing direction, and be technically feasible to develop within an ambitious timeframe.
Each of these stakeholders had important and valid goals that didn’t always align. It fell on my shoulders to find clever UX design compromises that could satisfy the diverse needs of this high-stakes project.
Simplicity driving innovation
I employed a mobile-first design strategy for the core parts of the booking flow to ensure that our new experience was as optimised for small devices as it was for home computer screens. Our mantra was “simplicity”. For every process and piece of content, we considered what could be done to remove unneeded steps. How we could say or show something more concisely. Do we need to ask a customer for this info now, or can we remove that hurdle by asking only when it’s truly needed?
The result is a deeply considered and meticulously crafted user experience that leaves nothing to chance – from the first time you land on the website to the final email you receive after your journey is complete. It’s one continuous brand experience that leaves the customer immensely satisfied at every turn.
“Benek's skills go way beyond just design, he understands usability, the need for good on-page SEO and has an un-canny ability to trouble shoot problems or issues and come up with superb solutions.”
James Dalglish - Go Rentals General Manager
A robust design system
GO’s new digital design language has been built on a foundation of consistency and modularity. Colour is used purposefully. Custom icons are informative and on-brand. Buttons and form fields are intuitive and precise in their interactions. Animation is employed to refine and delight.
I delivered GO a comprehensively documented style guide that will allow their new design language to grow and evolve over the coming years of market shifts and continual refinement.
It’s been a pleasure working with a team like GO Rentals for the past decade. They’re customer experience focused, possess and immense value for UX design and an unwavering desire to innovate. A match made in heaven. Here’s to ten more years of market-leading success!
