Summary

Today’s mobility landscape is irrational and inefficient where most cars are used less than 5% of the time. The new cars of today are increasingly ‘Smart’ & ‘Connected’. It means that your car is generally available to anyone who wants to use it when you are not using it. This could significantly offset the cost of ownership and generate revenue for the owners.

‘InstaCar’ is a new peer to peer car-sharing company that allows ‘Host’ (car owner) to rent their cars to ‘Guests’ (car renter) for specific duration of time. The ideal ‘InstaCar’ host is Adrian | The Idealist: Sustainability begins at home.

He is a young IT professional working at Google in Silicon Valley. He is married to his wife Gita and they live in their new house in Dublin, CA. They recently bought their Tesla model S P75D through an Auto Loan from US Bank. This is their second car. Their monthly payment on the Auto Loan is approximately $1,200.

Since he does not drive the Tesla much, he is looking to monetize the idle asset to help make the car payments and also share the Tesla experience with others within the community who do not have cars. He feels that it is a good way to contribute to a better environment by participating in the broader sharing economy.

Analysis and synthesis of the 1-1 interviews lead to the following insights:
- Reduce vehicle-ownership cost by monetizing the idle asset
- Coverage of liability through insurance for vehicle damage or accident
- Host and Guest screening by P2P carsharing company
- Easy scheduling, access logistics and vehicle cleanliness
- Contribute to the environment by participating in the broader shared economy
- Perceived value of helping with vehicle access for people who do not have cars

EMPATHIZE (Research)

Research began by looking at today's gig-economy (Uber/Lyft) as well as shared-economy (Airbnb/Yerdle). We quickly realized that today's gig-economy is neither 'collaborative' nor 'shared'.

We also analyzed the strengths and weaknesses of existing gig and shared mobility competitors like Uber, Scoop, Zipcar, Car2Go and GetAround. The focus was to evaluate what aspects of car sharing they did well and what could be further improved upon.

Five key ingredients were derived that entails a truly 'Collaborative Shared Mobility':
1. The core business idea involves unlocking the value of unused or under-utilized assets
2. The company should have a clear values-driven mission and be built on meaningful principles including transparency, humanness, and authenticity
3. The providers on the supply-side should be valued, respected, and empowered
4. The customers on the demand-side of the platforms should benefit from the ability to get services in more efficient ways that mean they pay for access instead of ownership
5. The business should be built on distributed marketplaces or decentralized networks that create a sense of belonging, collective accountability and mutual benefit through the community they build and operate in.

Five participants were interviewed to understand who they are, their lifestyle and whether they would be interested in renting their cars to earn extra income. Questions were asked to get insights into understanding their pain points, deterrents and apprehension regarding renting their car. We also tried to understand their motivations for listing their car for rent on the marketplace. All of the users were young working professionals between 25-35 years of age. They all had at least one Tesla.

We quickly realized the most important factor for sharing/renting their car was 'Peace of mind' that included guest screening, insurance coverage, safety, transfer logistics and 24/7 emergency support.

DEFINE (Strategy)

Based on initial research, three provisional personas were identified:
1. The Conventionalist
2. The Realist
3. The Idealist

They all differ on various dimensions:
The first persona is the most skeptical one, the conventionalist likes to remain in a familiar environment like renting from car rental companies or using their own car that does not need them to adapt strongly.

The second persona, the realist, does like to experiment with the newly introduced technology and features, but only favors those which really help them deal with making their life easy like not having to wait in a line to get a rental car. They would also be open to renting their own cars when not in use to make some extra money on the side.

The third persona, which is the idealist, likes the idea of P2P car sharing the most. They are technically adept and has comprehensive experience when it comes to new technology. The idealist enjoys using the new technology that help leading a more sustainable lifestyle.

From the interview data a persona and an empathy map was created representing the main user group: The Idealist. The persona focuses on Adrian, a young IT professional working at Google in South Bay.

He and his wife recently bought a Tesla. Since he does not drive the Tesla much, he is looking to monetize the idle asset to help pay for the car and also share the Tesla experience with others within the community helping to educate them about electric cars and reducing carbon emissions.

IDEATE (Interaction Design)

Based on this need we decided to focus on designing a solution that would allow Adrian to share his Tesla easily with enhanced 'Peace of Mind'. We generated a number of sketches with various ideas and then developed a hybrid option that was an amalgamation of various elements from different sketches to refine further. Final sketches were put into a storyboard to show the screen flow from beginning to end.

Using the storyboard both a taskflow and a userflow was mapped out for 'Adrian'. The userflow shows how Adrian would first create an account on and then list his Tesla on InstaCar's market place.

Referring to the storyboard and userflow, low fidelity wireframes were built.

Emphasis was put on:
- Creating an easy, simple and elegant onboarding process
- Providing information about how things work and where to get help
- Providing support both while listing as well as renting cars
- Giving peace of mind through transparency during the entire process

PROTOTYPE (Interaction Design)

The brand that was created for Mirror is one that represents sustainable, ethical and fair-trade practices. Lime green and brown were chosen as the primary colors to represent these values. The logo embodies these qualities depicted by collapsing the first letter 'M' and the last letter 'R' of the word 'Mirror'. The typeface was chosen to give the brand a simple, modern and elegant look.

High fidelity prototypes for usability testing were created using the mood board and style guide as reference