LendItOut: Building a Safer Peer-to-Peer Rental Experience

Client

BCIT, D3/FSWD Project 1 (Wim Teuling)

Timeline

January 2025–May 2025

Role

UX/UI Designer

Team Size

7 members

Software

Google sheets, Google Doc, Figma, Adobe Suite

Brief

LendItOut is an all-in-one marketplace that allows users to rent, buy, and sell items in one seamless platform. Unlike traditional marketplaces, which focus solely on buying and selling, LendItOut is built around flexibility; letting people temporarily borrow what they need and purchase it later if desired.

What was the result

The outcome was LendItOut, an all-in-one online marketplace designed to connect individuals through peer-to-peer lending. The platform enables users to easily rent, lend, or borrow everday items—helping communities save money, minimize waste, and maximize the use of resources they already own.

Case Study

Key Findings

Existing platforms suffer from trust gaps—users fear scams, fake reviews, payment insecurity, and counterfeit listings—alongside rental risks like damage or loss without clear liability. Onboarding feels demanding, communication between users is clunky, listings often mislead on quality/availability, search lacks precision, pricing confuses fairness, notifications overwhelm or underwhelm, support lags, and policies remain unclear.

User Research Reveals Marketplace Pain Points

Using insights from our user research, our team identified critical pain points hindering peer-to-peer marketplaces: trust and safety gaps like scams, fake reviews, and payment insecurity; rental liability fears around damage, loss, or unclear responsibility; cumbersome onboarding processes and core user flows that demand too much effort; poor inter-user communication leading to misunderstandings; inaccurate product listings misrepresenting quality or condition; ineffective search tools and availability tracking; and pricing frustrations where fair market value remains opaque. These barriers stifled user participation, fostered hesitation, and undermined efficient resource sharing in communities.

Secondary Research Shapes Secure Redesign

We supplemented primary findings with secondary research into online marketplace legality, regulatory compliance, and proven business models—analyzing platforms like Facebook Marketplace and Kijiji for operational strategies, revenue streams (e.g., boosted listings), and risk mitigation tactics. This dual approach fueled critical thinking, guiding us to redesign LendItOut as a reliable, intuitive platform that prioritizes security through verified accounts and deposits, simplifies flows for seamless engagement, and builds lasting user trust via transparent policies and streamlined support.

Research snapshot

This was the approach we went with

From user research insights, I proposed targeted solutions to address key marketplace pain points, balancing practicality with the project's scope.

Solutions I proposed:

Mandatory Account Verification: Required before buying or selling to minimize anonymous transaction risks, prioritizing safety and streamlined interactions.
Security Deposits: Applied to listings above a price threshold, empowering owners with control and reducing damage or theft risks.
Category-Based Pricing Ranges: Defined minimum/maximum prices per category to prevent overcharging or underpricing.

These measures have limitations but suited our MVP constraints. With more freedom, I'd integrate AI for enhanced safety.

AI would make LendItOut safer and smarter by:

Automating fraud/risk detection for trust.
Smartening deposits/verification for rentals.
Offering intelligent pricing/discovery recommendations.
Streamlining onboarding, support, and notifications.

Like what you see?

Let's make something amazing and usable that people actually love to use, because great design should feel effortless and meaningful in everyday life.