Introduction
Research
Personas
Design
Results
Fast Follows
Takeaways
Knick Knack
June-July 2023
Product Designer - UXA End-to-end MVP Capstone
Knick knack is a peer-to-peer rental app concept I created for my final capstone project in Designlab’s UX Academy. Over six weeks I conducted all research, branding, design, and testing for the MVP.

While designing the flows, I prioritized safety at the forefront, both for the users and for the items they will be exchanging.
Introduction & Background
While planning for a milestone birthday party earlier this year, my household encountered one small problem: for the first time ever, we were going to have more guests than we had seating for.
Just a few folding chairs would have solved our problem. We checked the local Library of Things, and asked around our small local network - amazingly enough, our search came up totally empty.

That’s when I began to wonder if we could utilize the concept of a peer-to-peer marketplace for items people would like to rent short-term. One user can post a listing for something that has been sitting around in their closet or garage, and another user can schedule to rent that item for a small daily fee.
Research

Over three days, I spoke with eight participants in hour-long user interviews.

I made sure to seek out participants who were active users of peer-to-peer marketplaces like Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, and Kijiji, as well as users who expressed a strong aversion to these apps.

Overall, users desire a platform that:
  • Encourages safety, above all.
  • Could potentially help them earn back the expense of their own rarely-used purchases.
  • Could help them spend less on items they don’t actually have the space or need for day-to-day.
  • Is easy enough to use that it outweighs the hassle of coordinating peer-to-peer locally.
Safety (and the gendered aspect of it)
Before research, I had not realized how many of my discussions would revolve around gendered experiences and violence.

The majority of my respondents identified themselves as women, and all but one  spoke about the dangers they fear (and have already experienced) while utilizing these platforms.

Even beyond gender, violence was a common theme. All eight participants spoke of the fear of encountering violent strangers, and safety has played a major factor into their decisions with each sale.

While it is important to convey to the user that there will always a certain amount of risk involved with peer-to-peer coordination, how might we account for these safety concerns within the flows? What can I build that will help users feel like our marketplace values and accounts for their safety?

Personas & Use Cases
I designed everything (from the task flows to the test script) around two personas: Riley and Brenda, who will be exchanging a projector for a weekend.
Riley, the renter A young professional in her early 20’s who just moved to a new city for work. She wants to host a movie night at her new place, but she doesn’t own anything to watch movies on.
Brenda, the owner A retiree in her 60’s who has enjoyed many hobbies over the years, and has a house full of cool stuff to show for it.

She used to be really into historical costuming, but lately she’s taken up other pursuits.
Storyboard
Task Flows
You can view the full task flow document on figma here.
Notes on Branding
While researching competitors, I noticed that most of the branding was too ambiguous to really convey how an app like this is “supposed to be used.”

For branding, I knew we needed to focus on the main use cases provided in research - parties, household equipment, and tools - while still leaning into the excitement of “treasure hunting.”

What’s more exciting than being invited to rummage through knick knacks in your neighbor’s garage or hall closet?

Designing Solutions

One way that Knick Knack addresses safety concerns is by encouraging the use of approved, neutral swap locations.

With each city the app launches in, the Knick Knack team will scout for well-lit, well-populated locations (with working cameras!) to add to the approved list.

How it works Owners will select a few preferred swap locations, and renters will choose the one that works best for them.
Owners will also be able to opt-out, if they are open to agreeing on a location in dms.
Verification

All users on Knick Knack will be encouraged to verify their profiles by submitting some form of identification securely to the platform.

To remain accessible to those who do not wish to upload their ID, verification will not be required to use the app.  
Rental Rules

To account for the possibility of loss or damage to rented items, owners have the opportunity to set preferred rules for each listing.

Where Brenda might decide that her projector requires a security deposit and verification, she might not apply the same rules for her craft supply rentals.
As for the UI itself, I made sure to reference other peer-to-peer platforms users already expressed having positive experiences with. I analyzed everything from vacation rental platforms to pet-sitting apps, and utilized the patterns in ways that make the most sense for small-scale rentals.
The full v1 prototype is available for view
here.
Results

In research, users had expressed a lot of apprehension around the concept of peer-to-peer rentals. So when I took the v1 prototype to testing, I was surprised to find that testers’ reaction to Knick Knack was overwhelmingly positive.

Users expressed that they enjoyed the familiarity of the patterns. Four out of six testers remarked on this, crediting the patterns themselves with their increased sense of confidence in the platform.

100% of tasks were completed successfully. All six testers expressed that the design was “neat and straightforward” in a way that made flows easy to navigate.

As far as what needs improvement - testers expressed a desire to see more clarity in the copy on both the Rules and Location screens in the Add A Listing flows.

Where all six of the testers stumbled a bit with the copy and elements of these two pages, they reacted positively when given a verbal explanation. I’d wager we can fix most of the issues simply by updating the copy itself.
Fast Follow Features for v2
This project focused primarily on completion of the MVP flows, but we identified a few other enhancements that would serve as ideal fast follows once the MVP launches.
Condition reports

As one of the pre-made rules, owners will be able to require that a condition report be filled out before the rental is returned.

Users will be asked to document the item with a built-in camera tool, as well as a quick inventory of the item’s parts and functions.  
Storefront profiles

Users overwhelmingly expressed interest in local rental businesses being able to list on the platform as well.

For renters, this provides a more comprehensive search of rental items in their area.
Time slot selection

To simplify everything at the MVP stage, all pick-up and drop-off times are set to start after 12pm noon each day, with the specifics determined via DMs.

In the future, we would like to add a time selection feature at the Request to Rent screen.
Takeaways
By being deliberate with the brand’s tone, and by harnessing the power of familiar patterns, I was able to design a product that quelled many of the initial fears associated with the premise.

It was rewarding to craft solutions for the laundry list of potential issues users might encounter while navigating peer-to-peer rentals.

It was exciting to hear testers exclaim that they “really could have used something like this” in past scenarios where they ended up buying something just to solve a temporary problem. That’s when I knew I had a good design on my hands!
Responsive case studies coming soon!
For now, the full case studies can be viewed on desktop.