Guidiamo's Car Rental Navigation Menu Case Study
A look at current car rental navigation menus, what makes them work, and how they can be improved.
Overview
Project Brief
The car rental business, Guidiamo (Italian for 'We drive'), used usability tests and analytics and indicated users are having difficulty navigating the website.
The Problem
The navigation of the website was overwhelming and confusing. The users also wanted to be clear on the menu titles to look the same as the visual branding.
The Goal
Design a fresh look at the navigation plan and general navigation structure of the website by referencing competitor's menu systems
Responsibilities
Competitor analysis, wireframing, and visual design
Tools
Figma, Adobe Illustrator
The Analysis
After looking at the navigation of similar car rental websites, I was able to identify what they have in common and why some looked more pleasing and were easier to understand.
The four major competitors in the car rental industry are Budget, Thrifty, Avis, and Enterprise.
Budget's Navigation
Pros: Strong use of colors. The menu is easy to understand from a glance.
Cons: Multiple bars makes the header padding huge. The space creates an uneven balance of information.
Thrifty's Car Rental's Navigation
Pros: Straightforward navigation bar. There is no confusion of the text indication, and everything is clear where the information is.
Cons: The menu system uses little padding. Combined with a small text size makes it challenging to navigate and frequent user misclicks.
Enterprise's Navigation
Pros: A spacious and bold menu system. The space allows the doubleheader of the menu system not to be as confusing.
Cons: An overwhelming amount of menu links. With so many links to information pages, it's overwhelming to find what you're looking for. Also, there is no search button, so you're at the mercy of the help button.
AVIS's Navigation
Pros: Straight to the point menu system. Clear separation from the log-in from the information-based pages.
Cons: unclear membership title. AVIS preferred sounds more like a recommendation than a membership to sign up for. This may lead to many users skipping over such a valuable benefit from AVIS.
Designing the Navigation Bar Wireframe
With the information learned from the competitors, I've compiled the most helpful information and why.
The Car Navigation Sitemap
An outline of every page in the menu system to know where the pages can be found.
The Visual Design of the Menu System
Containing the information for renting and learning about the business. Here's a rundown for the most notable titles:
Vehicles
The page with the most interest to the user. Vehicles has the navigation to rent or purchase a certain vehicles. Using red to indicate where the user is heading while maintiang brand visual cues.
Our Mission
Company information to increase loyalty and trust. Other information such as careers can be found here.
Membership
The user most likely has not signed up to be a member yet and needs to learn more about the benefits before joining.
Login
For the user to have and record the nessesary information from renting or purchasing a vehicle .
Search
Helping the user identify what they can search for—an easy button to do as it says.
The Final Product
The conclusion of what the home screen of Guidiamo's menu looks like.
Project Learnings
What I've learned from this project?
- When in doubt, be big and bold. The user will have fewer errors in navigating the menu.
- Keep the visual elements consistent with the brand identity. The menu is a part of the overall visual branding, including colors and fonts.
- Using multiple menu bars can be difficult to contain and often better to have one simplified bar.
- The membership menu title is valuable for the business and must be as straightforward as possible.
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Are You Ready to Have Your Visual Problems Solved?
You can call me at 253.670.5440 or email me at Nick@NickMannDesigner.com.
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