Welcome to my first UX review: Connect By Hertz.

Intro

Connect By Hertz launched in late 2008, early 2009. I had been an avid user of Zipcar until then. When I discovered Hertz was launching the same product, I reviewed and compared Zipcar and Hertz’s terms and conditions. Hertz pretty much duplicated Zipcar: from the price for late fees, to the limit of 180 miles per 24 hour period, everything. Why did I switch to hertz?

• My relationship with Zipcar was not tight: although I had been using them for a few years, I was unhappy to constantly find cars unclean, mostly due to the clientele.
• Hertz came out with amazing prices: even thought they raised them a bit in March/May of 2009, they were still more attractive than Zipcar’s
• All cars were equipped with a GPS
• They were the first to make a hybrid available through their float

The Interface

Since they launched, their website has always been a bit chaotic and searching for cars never as smooth and easy as through Zipcar. They recently revamped the search experience and although we can see the good intentions, it is a bit hard to use and interact with.

After you select the “find a vehicle” link, you get to select the pick up and drop off dates. This takes you to the search results screen as shown below.

The Good

Some improvements were made through this redesign:

• A large map helps quickly visualize where available cars are
• When you click “show list”, you can check on the time/date each car is available
• As you move the map around, zoom in and zoom out, the results update and always show available cars in the visible area of the map

The Bad

• Even though the map size was largely increased, the overlays cover most of the map area. If you hide the controls to make the map more visible, in addition of losing the controls (obviously), they will come back if you select and un-select a car. Jarring.
• The option for users to suggest new car locations is great but does not need to sit on the map
• The links located above the bottom overlays are not noticeable:  “Suggest A Vehicle Location”, “Show List” and “Key”. They look like headers and “Show List” and “Key” are abstract terms.
• Notice on the map, some of the markers contain an asterisk. Any idea what they mean? It means that more than one car is available in that area. Too abstract and could be understood as “different terms apply to this car”. You would need to click on “Key” to get the legend.
• The “select location” option is a 3 step process that makes you go through countries, then state and finally city. It is lengthy and frustrating (most users will expect to enter a zip code/address somewhere) redundant of and could be coupled with the “Look for vehicle near” functionality located at the bottom of the map.
• The “show list” functionality is also complicated and does not feel like fun at all.
• Each action on the overlays or the map will cause the search to update right away

The Solution

Here is my raw take on where they should go from there.

• Created a side rail where the search options are constantly accessible
• Added a different view: map view. Upon clicking this option, the list view would be displayed in place of the map and show the exact same cars as on the map view
• Each car on the map has a number so that it is easy to find them on the list view
• I did not created the list view as what Hertz has under “show list” can be re-used and plugged in place
• Clicking on a car shows an overlay that allows the user to adjust the times. I copied and pasted the current adjusting time design that Hertz has – improvements could be made >> making the interface clearer. Font is very small, it is hard to read the times, etc
• It would be useful to give users an idea of the price range for each car in the sidebar (cheap, med, pricey).

Thoughts? Please share!