Maximizing trust, flexibility, and efficiency in borrowing
“The sharing economy market is expected to grow to over $1 trillion in revenue by 2031”
Have you ever needed something but didn’t have it because you didn’t want to buy it and keep it for occasional use like once or twice a year? Think tools, books, clothing, games, etc. - screwdriver set or car vacuum, anyone?
And then no one in your immediate circle has it?
81.3% indicated that they would buy the item, and 43.8% also selected the option to just go without it. A hugely missed opportunity!
How might we create a trustworthy, efficient borrowing and lending system that helps those who are budget-conscious and low on space borrow quickly and stress-free?
Results
• 8.67 out of 10 for overall product satisfaction
• 8.50 out of 10 for trustworthiness of the platform
• 8.08 out of 10 for trustworthiness of the borrower and lender
“I am excited to use this product. I’ve been wanting to rent out my snowboarding stuff for a while. If I can make a few bucks doing this, I’m all for it.”
Team
Anita Liao (me)
Emily Gu
Liwen Chang
Timeline
3 months
September - December 2024
My Contribution
Concept Owner
Design Strategy & Lead
Product Design
Visual Design
Interaction Design
UX Research
The Buro app is designed to maximize trust between borrowers and lenders from the very start, allowing full transparency in the item’s condition, how it should be used and taken care of, reviews from past borrowers, who the lender/borrower is, and the ability to hold both parties accountable in ensuring the integrity of the transaction.
Borrowers can be requested to provide the lender updates on the item while in the lending period to give both users peace of mind.
Success Metrics
• 80% of users indicating high trustworthiness in the NPS score for the platform
• The items have an average of 1 week from listing to being borrowed
• 50% of borrowers to be lenders too
User research based on interviews with borrowers and lenders showed that most concerns come from the trust in the other party, the condition of the items, their privacy, and the need for item variety
Part 1 - Borrower Casey
Her low points are most apparent when she's not sure what other tool can be used in the place of the screwdriver, when no one in her closest circle has the item after furiously contacting everyone she's comfortable with, and then when using the borrowed tool, praying not to damage it.
Part 2 - Lender Casey
As a lender, her anxiety mostly stem from vetting the borrower, and the uncertainty of how the item is doing in the borrower's hands, only feeling relief after the item inspection after return.
From these two sides of the persona, we learned the importance placed on trust, clear communication, and fostering positive relationships through mutual assistance.
Competitors analyzed showed further design considerations in flexible pickup and return, effective listing process and setup, and vetting the items in addition to some high-level brainstorming from journey mapping opportunities
One of the biggest challenges was prioritizing the features for this complex 2-sided marketplace with this many opportunities.
I led the strategy in the prioritization effort and delegated sketch work to my team accordingly.
From here on out, only requesting an item experience and logging the item’s condition experience will be shown, which are the main components that drive trust between the borrower and lender
Borrower Experience
01 Requesting an item starts with viewing item details
This part of the experience is the most important in allowing borrowers to see and make a decision on whether to request the item.
The content here must include the following to optimize trustworthiness for the borrowers:
Images
Ratings
Item availability
Pickup & drop-off information (with multiple options if available)
Description
How to use the item
Lender information
Deposit amount
Version 1
Version 2
During concept testing, participants much preferred having the actions front and center, as well as hiding unnecessary information. After receiving additional feedback on how they vet lenders & the item, this was the resulting design:
02 Video logs are required to update the lender on the item’s current condition
While the item is in the borrower’s hands, the item details screen changes to this particular version that provides a way for the borrower to access relevant information and log the item’s condition, reducing anxiety for both parties.
Usability testing results revealed major confusion revolved around ambiguous pickup options (hand it in person or contactless), and sparked a discussion about an edge case that a video cannot be uploaded during the time of pickup and drop-off
Question: What if the video can’t be uploaded because of bad or no data/wifi?
Answer: Make it available offline!
To make the video recording experience offline, an extra step is added where the video is saved within the app and the user will now be able to access it once they are ready.
Bagel as micro-currency
Bagel fits in especially well for New York, and is something that gives off a neighborhood/community vibe - easily accessible and shareable, loved by most people.
Final Results! Borrower Experience
01 Request Item
Requesting an item starts with viewing all the information about the item, ranging from ratings & reviews to help with the vetting process, the ability to change the pickup & return date and time, deciding if the location is convenient, and important information such as the frequency of logging in the item’s condition for the lender.
From the item details screen, the user will be led to the next step of this process of reviewing the details of their selections. In addition, information about cancelation and the ability to contact the lender is available too. Moving the ability to message here can greatly decrease the volume of messages for the lenders, who are tired of people asking questions but not following through.
02 Log Item Condition
I realized that it may be a better experience to let the borrowers know how to take a good video early on so that they can upload it as soon as possible, and make sure the AI can correctly identify the condition of the items, hence the hints in the UI.
Next Steps
Revise item details page to reflect an even clearer pickup option. From my third round of testing, users did not notice the “Hand it to me” tag that is supposed to signify an in-person meeting pickup
Explore other features such as requesting an extension for the borrowed item as it’s one of the core experiences that fosters flexibility - which is an important factor for borrowers that differentiates Buro from other competitors
Learnings & Reflection
01 Always be one step ahead
As the lead designer, I had to drive the overall strategy to ensure the project was completed on time and reflected our product goals. This meant that a lot of the work came from figuring out the next steps ahead of time to meet our objectives and produce the needed deliverables. Additionally, throughout this project, I started to get a sense of where our team falls short and would have to set examples first, provide guardrails, or have a plan B in mind just in case.
02 Contributing to the design system
This project allowed me to explore setting up a design system in Figma. For this I’d have to thank my teammate who took the design system course to guide me in creating primitives and tokens which made applying texts and colors so much easier!