MOBLEY FURNITURE RENTAL (now CONJURE)
UX Research and Strategy, 2020
As an external partner for Parsons' Integrative Studio, furniture rental company, Mobley, shared with us their vision to become a thought-leader in the rental furniture space by building sustainability as a core value into their business model.
While there were many areas of exploration towards Mobley's vision, our team was challenged on how might we build trust in the rental model and enhance engagement in a post-pandemic world and what could be Mobley’s positioning as an environmentally sustainable brand? See final report here.
Method-
Research and Synthesis,
Mixed-Method,
Rapid Prototyping
Skills-
Ethnographic Research
Information Synthesis
Timeframe-
14 weeks (spring 2020)
Collaborators-
Minerva,Vasuta,Tony
Approach-
Our team focused on the consumers' side of the story and started out by applying the design thinking process to create an efficient design system and extract value from the product page for the end-user experience.
As a designer who has worked on UX design before, I led the interaction and visual design strategy for the website re-design and co-led user research and usability testing.
User Testing and Workshops-
Focusing on the consumers' side of the story, we started out by applying the design thinking process to create an efficient design system and extract value from the product page for the end-user experience.
Qualitative Research-
We dived deep into Working Professional and Students user segment based on what our client had defined their core target segment. We did comprehensive qualitative research to understand their perspective and stories on what home means to them and what are the factors that determine their decisions when they shift, settle, and style their homes.
Understanding core users-
To grasp their understanding of furniture lifecycle, we asked our users questions like 'What does sustainability mean [to them]?', 'How do they discard furniture, and what do they think happens once it is discarded?'
Research Synthesis-
Our research revealed that there was a prevailing lack of trust in the furniture rental model. This key insight stemmed from other mental model learnings of the user segments.
Key Findings-
From our research, we found these key attitudes operating in the category context. Based on the repeatedly emerging theme of price-sensitivity among the Student’s segment, our recommendation to Mobley was to focus on Working Professionals rather than Students as their core target audience.
Mobley's Current Product Display Page
What is the consumer looking for?
Ideation-
Building on our key question- How might we build trust in brand Mobley and enhance the engagement experience with the brand, we ideated and strategized Mobley's positioning in the furniture rental industry.
1. Cleaning Solutions:
Branded product line
2. Your Moving Companion App:
A customer engagement hub
3. Experiential Space:
Product Experience + Redesign Center
COVID and pivoting-
Our recommended strategic positioning and the idea of a 'moving companion' received favorable feedback, however, due to expense and COVID constraints from the client-side we pivoted to hone in our user interview learnings and pivoted to work on enhancing the product page experience.
The potential areas included redesigning sizing and visualization, moving planner widget, and getting the IICRC certification.
User Testing 1.0
(size and layout)-
Our recommended strategic positioning and the idea of a 'moving companion' received favorable feedback, however, due to expense and COVID constraints from the client-side we pivoted to hone in our user interview learnings and pivoted to work on enhancing the product page experience.
The potential areas included redesigning sizing and visualization, moving planner widget, and getting the IICRC certification.
User Testing 2.0 (visualization)-
After the feedback analysis from the prototype testing, iterations, and research findings, we found that integration of the recommended features would effectively address more than one area of concern framed by our how might we statement.
Final Prototype-
Research on website engagement and furniture eCommerce revealed that it's hard for customers to relate to furniture online when compared to other categories like fashion and electronics. We also looked at the best-performing furniture websites to benchmark product experience.
Version A
Version B
Impact Measurement-
Proposed Wireframe of the Product Display Page
Mobley's Current Product Display Page
Version A was the preferred version for 64% of the interviewees. It increased overall perception in terms of trust and efficiency of Mobley's brand identity.
Final product page layout
What are the consumers looking for?
Strategic Recommendations-
After the feedback analysis from testing, iterations, and research findings, we found that integration of the recommended features would effectively address future concerns.
Top Recommendations
Recommendations value analysis
