Budget Rent-A-Car
The Budget website had been around for quite a while when we
started working with them.
They gave us two challenges.
The first was to improve the performance of their
booking engine. On the surface this seemed like a
straightforward user experience job.
The second challenge was to create an online brand
guidelines document that set down all the rules that any
page on any Budget site must follow.
Challenge No.1
We discovered that as well as requiring us to apply our
usability skills this challenge required us to understand and work
with lots of local rules and requirements to service the many
regions they occupy worldwide.
On top of this we had to work closely with a range of other
companies providing specific services that keep the service up and
running.
The first thing we did was to get Budget and all the companies
around the table to gain a detailed understanding of the many
issues we faced.
Having gained a clear understanding, we developed wireframes
based on early usability research. These were usability tested
again and immediately showed a marked improvement. During our
design process we had to check our designs carefully to ensure they
were able to deliver a rich experience as well as accommodate
several language variations.
Once the final designs for each stage in the booking flow were
complete we supported Budget's technical development partner in
Germany to build the pages.
Early usability feedback was very positive so we're hopeful for
a drastic performance increase once the designs have been live for
a while.
Challenge No.2
With so many international offices it is important that a brand
like Budget can effectively control their brand. To support them in
this effort, we produced a brand definition guide for online that
explains the exact details of all digital design elements.
We created this document alongside the design to ensure that all
components were clearly explained but the overall scheme was not so
restrictive that it would lead to regions breaking the rules to
solve local issues.