Domain
Travel & Transport
Platform
Web, Mobile
Geography
USA, Europe
Services
Research, Strategy, Design
An ecosystem built for speed, scalability & seamless mobility.
SIXT is a leading international car rental company with a vast network of locations worldwide. The company offers a wide range of vehicles, from economy cars to luxury SUVs, catering to diverse customer needs. SIXT serves millions of customers annually, with a significant presence in 130 countries. SIXT approached NetBramha to enhance both the responsive web and mobile app experiences. The goal was to create a more modular and scalable platform that addresses user pain points and delivers a superior user experience.
Challenges
To effectively design for a global audience, it’s essential to develop culturally sensitive and legally compliant designs for diverse markets. This requires a keen understanding of cultural nuances and legal requirements in different countries. Additionally, maintaining design cohesion across various projects and frameworks is crucial to ensure a consistent brand experience worldwide. These were the key challenges that we faced, collaborating with SIXT.
Solution
Our solution included several key features to enhance the user experience. We educated customers about available offers, enabling them to make more informed decisions. We implemented a user-friendly self-service feature, allowing users to independently manage their accounts and services. With the right design thinking frameworks, we were able to not only increase user engagement across the platform, but also improve revenue channels, bringing down user frustrations & dependency on physical touchpoints.
Research
Discovery sessions across SIXT stakeholders exposed us to the host of user frustrations prevalent in the platform. We also explored the many legal nuances & constraints associated with vehicle rentals across countries in Europe & the USA, along with cultural differences. Our target demographic which was both retail customers & corporate employees using SIXT for trips & journeys, were segregated into user personas/groups to understand each group’s pain points & build experiences that tackled these challenges.
Pain points discovered
Physical
Touchpoints
Increased reliance on physical visits/touchpoints for renting vehicles
Limited
Self Service
Users were unable to complete basic tasks without contacting customer care
Lack of
Clarity
Unclear Services and Packages, along with confusing email communications
Trust
Issues
Unexpected charges or services on billing through a non-intuitive interface
Strategy
Our strategy focused on addressing customer complaints by delivering a robust solution that simplified the app experience for SIXT’s customers. We collaborated closely with SIXT’s in-house design team to enhance their existing design system, aiming to resolve three core issues. We conducted competitive benchmarking and heuristic studies to identify the reasons behind the high drop-off rates. By understanding these pain points, we could target the specific areas causing customer frustration. Additionally, we also aimed to build gain creators (while also reducing user pain points), such as introducing new revenue streams by cross/upselling products.
Design Thinking
Human-centered design empowering SIXT’s users
Simplifying the complex
Streamlining process across multiple devices
Designing for Nuances
Both legal & cultural nuances explored across EU/USA
Design execution
We refined the design system to build enhancements that would minimize customer drop-off during the process. This involved troubleshooting and improving key elements to ensure a smoother journey for users. Additionally, we reduced the need for human intervention by automating aspects of the process. We researched and identified parts of the on-ground or brick-and-mortar stages that could be automated, allowing customers to complete their transactions seamlessly and receive their cars with minimal external help. Finally, we streamlined and clarified all communications between SIXT and their customers. Our goal was to eliminate any confusion or ambiguity, ensuring that customers understood every step of the process and were less likely to need to call customer care.
Visual design
The visual design for SIXT’s digital ecosystem was crafted to balance global consistency with local relevance. We evolved the brand’s visual language into a clean, modular, and adaptive system that could flex across 130+ countries without losing identity. The interface emphasized clarity, legibility, and visual hierarchy – crucial for complex transactional journeys like rentals and returns. A refined color palette anchored in SIXT’s signature orange created instant brand recall, while generous white space and high-contrast typography improved scannability and accessibility. Visual cues such as iconography and micro-interactions guided users seamlessly through each step, reducing friction and uncertainty. Every screen was designed to feel intuitive yet premium – reflecting SIXT’s commitment to both efficiency and sophistication in the mobility experience.
Outcome
The redesigned SIXT educates customers on available offers, leading to more clear and informed decisions. We introduced a user-friendly self-service features that empowers users to independently manage their accounts. We simplified long trips management by allowing multiple users to be added to a single trip.
We identified & addressed issues causing customer drop-offs. The redesigned enabled reduced need for human intervention by integrating automation. We enhanced clarity and reduce confusion in customer interactions with design. And lastly, we ensured a simple, seamless, user-friendly & uniform product experience across all touchpoints.
As a result, SIXT saw a significant difference in impact after the scaling and enhancements were done. The modular and consistent design elements facilitated easy scalability for developers, reducing development time. Additionally, our enhancements led to a 20% increase in the click-through rate across devices, demonstrating improved user engagement and effectiveness.
