City Cycles
The challenge
85% of users were leaving the City Cycles website in the middle of the bike rental process, instead preferring to book via phone or in-person. However, City Cycles staff were overwhelmed by the volume. To solve user problems with the site, I conducted UX research to determine why users weren’t booking online and tested improvement recommendations.
Who are the City Cycles users and what are their pain points?
User research uncovered that 85% of users were leaving the site when placing an online reservation because they found it “frustrating” and “confusing” and often felt “misled”. The current process required users to email the store with their reservation details, which the store would then confirm with a reply email. I hypothesized that updating the online reservation system to include a clear reservation call-to-action (CTA) and real-time confirmation would result in more online reservations, less lost traffic leaving the site mid-reservation, and fewer phone calls to the store for reservations.
How do we solve users’ frustration with booking a reservation online?
From here, I began to brainstorm possible process, sitemap, and visual design changes that might solve users’ pain points about the online reservation process.
To solve users’ pain points, I updated the language on the homepage’s CTA button to “Rent a Bike”, replacing the previous CTA language that confused users (“Online Call Ahead”). I also ensured this button was above-the-fold so users wouldn’t have to search to find it. To further help users start the bike rental process, I created a new page called “Bike Rentals” and added this page to the navigation menu. Lastly, instead of users needing to email City Cycles to complete their online reservation, I created a multi-step form that begins on the “Bike Rentals” page. This form would provide instant confirmation of the reservation upon submission.
Challenges and lessons learned
The biggest challenge I faced during this project was to ensure that all proposed solutions directly helped with users’ pain points and were not just “nice-to-have” updates for the website, especially for a site as basic as the original City Cycles site.
Another challenge I faced was trying to maintain the original site’s look and feel by using the original home page header image, general layout, and making minimal changes to the design system. These constraints provided a fun opportunity to challenge my design skills, though I think that another image and layout might have suited the home page’s goals better.