My Role:
Product Designer
Product Scope:
Renter App · Car Owner App · Super Admin Platform
Core Areas:
User onboarding · KYC & verification · Vehicle listings · Search & discovery · Booking · Payments · Earnings & payouts · Dispute resolution · Analytics · Platform management
Intro:
AffluentRides is a car-rental marketplace designed to connect people looking to rent vehicles with car owners who want to make their vehicles available for hire.
I worked on the product experience across three interconnected platforms: the Renter experience, the Car Owner experience, and the Super Admin platform that supports the operations behind the marketplace.
The challenge wasn't simply to design three separate interfaces. Each experience had to work together across the entire rental lifecycle. From onboarding and verification to vehicle discovery, booking, payment, rental management, payouts, and issue resolution.
The problem:
Lagos is a fast-moving city where people frequently need flexible transportation for work, events, business trips, weekends, and short-term mobility. At the same time, vehicle owners have an opportunity to generate income from cars that may otherwise sit idle. The opportunity for AffluentRides was to bring both sides together in one trusted marketplace.
But creating the marketplace meant solving more than the problem of finding a car. We had to design an ecosystem where renters could confidently book vehicles, owners could safely manage and monetize their cars, and the AffluentRides team could maintain trust and operational control behind the scenes.
Three sides of the problem:
01.
Trust:
How might we help renters and owners confidently transact with people, vehicles, and payments they don't know?
02.
Coordination:
How might we connect discovery, booking, rental, payment, and payout into one seamless journey?
03.
Operations:
How might we give AffluentRides the visibility and control needed to verify users, manage vehicles, monitor bookings, and resolve issues?
Kick-off:
Before jumping into screens, I mapped the product across its three experiences to understand how each side of the marketplace would connect.
Renter App:
Discover, compare, book, pay, and manage rentals.
Car Owner App:
Complete KYC, list vehicles, manage bookings, and track earnings.
Admin Platform:
Verify users, approve listings, monitor activity, manage finances, and resolve issues.
Design Process:
I structured the project across 10 weeks, starting with research and ending with validation and refinement.
I started with 2 weeks of research and understanding, exploring the Lagos car-rental landscape, user needs, and the relationships between renters, car owners, and the platform.
This was followed by 2 weeks of definition and ideation, where I translated the findings into user journeys, information architecture, core workflows, and early concepts.
I then spent 4 weeks on design and iterations, designing the renter, car owner, and admin experiences while continuously refining the flows and interfaces.
The final 2 weeks were dedicated to validation and refinement, reviewing the end-to-end experience, addressing friction points, and bringing the three products together into a consistent ecosystem.
Total: 10 weeks
Research:
I started by looking beyond the interface to understand how car rental works within the Lagos market and what each side of the marketplace would need to feel confident using AffluentRides.
What do renters need to make confident booking decisions?
What do car owners need to successfully manage and monetize their vehicles?
What does AffluentRides need to keep the marketplace trusted and operational?
This helped me identify the key needs across the ecosystem and shape the journeys, workflows, and features that came next.
Key findings:
The research revealed a few recurring needs that shaped the direction of the product across all three experiences:
01.
Trust has to be visible
Renters need enough information to confidently choose a vehicle, while owners need confidence that their vehicles are being rented by verified users.
02.
Every side needs control
Renters need control over their bookings, owners need control over their vehicles and earnings, and admins need control over marketplace activity.
03.
The experience doesn't end at booking
A successful rental involves much more than making a reservation. Payments, pickup, booking status, completion, payouts, and potential issues all need to work together.
03.
Operations need context
When something goes wrong, admins need to see the full picture—not just a single transaction. Connecting users, vehicles, bookings, payments, and activity gives them the context to act quickly.
Implementation:
With the key needs defined, I moved into implementation by translating the ecosystem into three connected product experiences: Renter, Car Owner, and Admin.
01. Car Renter Experience
I designed the renter experience to help users find the right vehicle, make confident booking decisions, complete payment, and manage their rentals from one place. The experience follows a simple flow:
Discover → Evaluate → Book → Pay → Manage → Complete
-
Discovery
I designed the home and search experience to help renters quickly find relevant vehicles based on location, rental dates, vehicle type, and price.
I also used filtering and clear listing cards to make comparing available vehicles easier.
-
Vehicle Details
I brought the most important decision-making information into one place, including vehicle images, specifications, features, pricing, availability, and owner information.
The goal was to reduce uncertainty before a renter commits to a booking.
-
Booking
I designed a structured booking flow that takes renters from selecting their dates to reviewing the rental and confirming their booking.
The booking summary clearly surfaces the rental period, vehicle, pricing, and applicable charges before payment.
-
Payament and Confirmation
I designed the payment experience around transparency, allowing renters to review their rental cost, fees, and total amount before completing the transaction.
After payment, a clear confirmation gives renters immediate access to their booking details.
-
Managing Rentals
I designed the rental area around the booking lifecycle, organizing rentals into Upcoming, Active, and Completed.
Each booking provides the relevant vehicle, rental dates, location, payment information, and current status.
-
Completion and Support
I extended the experience beyond the booking itself, allowing renters to access completed rentals, leave feedback, and surface issues when necessary.
02. Car Owner Experience
I designed the owner experience around a simple goal: make it easy for car owners to put their vehicles on the marketplace, manage rentals, and track their earnings with confidence. I structured the experience around six key stages:
Onboard → Verify → List → Manage → Fulfil → Earn
-
Onborading and KYC
I started by making onboarding straightforward while establishing the trust layer required for the marketplace. Owners provide their personal information and complete KYC by submitting the required identity and vehicle ownership documents.
I kept the process structured and transparent, showing owners what information was required and making their verification status visible throughout the process..
-
Vehicle Listing
I created a guided listing flow where owners can add vehicle details, photos, features, pricing, availability, and required documents before submitting their vehicle for review.
-
Listing Management
I made listing status clear across Pending, Approved, and Changes Required, giving owners visibility into where their vehicles stand and what action is needed.
Owners can also update their vehicle information and manage availability from one place.
-
Booking Management
I designed the booking experience around the rental lifecycle, allowing owners to view upcoming, active, and completed bookings alongside key renter, vehicle, and rental information.
-
Earnings and Payout
I designed a simple financial overview where owners can track earnings, pending payouts, completed payouts, and booking-level income.
This gives owners a clear view of how their vehicles are performing financially.
03. Admin Platform
I designed the admin platform as the operational layer behind AffluentRides, giving the team visibility and control over users, vehicles, bookings, finances, and platform activity.
-
User Management
I designed a centralized user management experience where admins can view and manage renters and car owners, review verification information, and take actions such as approving, suspending, or updating accounts.
-
Vehicle and Listing Management
I created a dedicated space for reviewing vehicle listings before they become visible to renters.
Admins can inspect vehicle details, photos, ownership documents, and listing information, then approve, reject, suspend, or delist vehicles when necessary.
-
Booking Overview
I designed the booking management experience to give admins a complete view of marketplace transactions.
Admins can track bookings by user, vehicle, date, and status, while accessing the details needed to investigate escalations or resolve issues.
-
Financial Management
I designed the financial dashboard to give the team visibility into platform revenue, commissions, owner payouts, and payout status.
This makes it easier to monitor the financial health of the marketplace and identify transactions that require attention.
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Analytics and Activity
I brought key marketplace metrics and activity into a centralized dashboard, allowing admins to monitor performance, bookings, earnings, users, and real-time platform activity.
I also incorporated filtering and reporting tools to make operational data easier to understand and act on.
-
Content and Platform Management
I designed administrative controls for managing notifications, FAQs, terms, banners, roles, permissions, and platform settings.
This gave the AffluentRides team the flexibility to manage the product without relying on engineering for every operational update.
The result
Results:
The final product created a more cohesive experience across the three sides of AffluentRides, reducing friction for users while giving the business greater visibility into marketplace activity.
01.
Easier vehicle discovery & booking:
Renters can move from finding a vehicle to completing a booking through a clearer, more structured journey.
02.
Greater owner confidence
Car owners have a clearer view of their listings, bookings, and earnings, making it easier to manage their vehicles on the platform.
03.
Better marketplace trust
Verification and listing approval create stronger confidence between renters, owners, and the platform.Verification and listing approval create stronger confidence between renters, owners, and the platform.
04.
More efficient operations
The AffluentRides team gets a centralized view of users, vehicles, bookings, and finances, making marketplace operations easier to monitor and manage.
The ecosystem establishes a flexible foundation that can support more vehicles, renters, owners, and transactions as AffluentRides grows across Lagos.
Overall impact: AffluentRides moves from a collection of rental touchpoints to a connected marketplace where users can transact with greater clarity and confidence.
Lessons:
AffluentRides taught me that designing a marketplace is less about creating individual interfaces and more about understanding how different experiences depend on one another.
Working across the renter, car owner, and admin experiences pushed me to think about the product as one connected system, where a decision made on one side can directly affect another.
It also reinforced the importance of designing for trust, transparency, and operational clarity when users are exchanging valuable assets and money.
Going forward, I would explore how real usage data could further improve vehicle discovery, booking conversion, owner performance, and marketplace growth.
Conclusion:
More products, more problems to solve.
AffluentRides was one of the projects where I explored how product design can connect multiple user experiences into one cohesive ecosystem.
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