The existing system for equipment rental management at a company was based on AS400 (green screen) technology. With the majority of new sales representatives being millennials and belonging to the younger generation, it became increasingly difficult for them to adapt to the cumbersome system. This system was essential for managing the rental process, and without it, the entire operation would come to a halt. To address this challenge, a team of two product designers, one product owner, and five engineers was formed to create a modernized application that would simplify the process of renting out equipment, making it more efficient for sales representatives. The goal of the project was to streamline the rental application to make it more user-friendly for sales representatives, thereby reducing the time it took to train them and increasing user adoption.

The team conducted observational research to understand the challenges faced by sales representatives with the current application. They focused on the contextual inquiries to gain insights into the current process and identify the pain points. The research process revealed that there were several issues that needed fixing, including the cumbersome navigation, lack of visual hierarchy, and high cognitive load required to perform even the simplest tasks on the system.
The team then focused on designing a modernized rental application that would simplify the rental process, making it more efficient for sales representatives. They created a flow and task analysis of each of the processes involved in the rental process, identifying the time it took for advanced users to utilize or do some of these processes. They also measured the number of windows a user had to open to complete a single task, such as searching for equipment.

Our research identified current pain points in the application, such as difficult search functionality, duplicate/unnecessary information, and multiple screens to complete a single action. Other pain points included the need to re-enter passwords at every step, having to remember how to spell equipment names, and the lack of an easy way to convert a quote into a reservation.

Based on our research findings, we created a flow and task analysis of each process, including how long it took advanced users to complete each task and the number of windows they had to have open to complete one reservation.

We used this information to streamline the workflow, simplify navigation, and create a dashboard that provided access to high-level functionalities. Our team also identified the need to automate some processes and made process changes from the top down in collaboration with stakeholders.

During usability testing, the time it took for a new sales representative to complete a task on the system reduced significantly, from 20 minutes to just 1 minute. The team’s efforts resulted in a modernized rental application that was user-friendly, easy to navigate, and efficient. The new rental application design included a simplified navigation, consolidated information from various sources in a single place, easy access to equipment status, a dashboard with all the high-level functionalities in one place, and streamlined workflows. The design was complemented by the creation of a design system that touched on various applications, including the Dispatch app, Mechanic App, Yard Workers app, Fleet management app, parts app, GPS app, email, phones, and CMS.

In summary, the team’s approach of conducting observational research to understand the challenges faced by sales representatives with the existing rental application, creating a task analysis, and streamlining the rental process, resulted in a modernized rental application that was user-friendly, easy to navigate, and efficient. The new application is in progress and designed to reduce the time it takes for new sales representatives to complete tasks and made it easier to train them, resulting in higher user adoption and less retention. The team’s efforts contributed to improving the rental management process, making it more efficient and easier for sales representatives to rent out equipment to their customers.