The Client
In 2023 during the hiring process for Mbition (a subsidiary of Mercedes Benz) I was asked to design a feature for Mercedes Benz owners to share their cars with friends, family via the Mercedes Me app when the car is not in use.
This feature doesn’t necessarily help the owner make profit by sharing their car with others but to reduce the parked hours of one car.
Understanding the Problem
In order to understand the problem and to create a problem statement that will guide me through the process I distributed the information I have into segments using 5W1H method.
Problem Statement
“Eco-conscious users of Mercedes Me app need a way to safely share their cars with family, friends and acquaintances when the car is not in use so that the number of the cars on the street will be decreased.”
Early Sketches
Car Sharing Cycle
A diagram was created to understand and simplify the whole journey of sharing a car with others also to act as a guide throughout the design process.
Owner leaves the car at the suitable location
User goes to the parking spot and takes the car
User goes to the desired location
User returns the car to one of the desired parking spots.
Competitor Analysis
A competitor analysis was conducted to fill the information gap; available products in the market, who’s leading, what are they doing good and badly including user flows from apps within and outside the industry.
Personas
For a quick understanding of my target audience’s goals and frustrations I created proto-personas. Since I couldn’t do detailed user research given the limited amount of time, instead I decided to go with this approach.
