Beyond Borrowing: Furniture Rental
Bed Bath & Beyond's newest offer for college students
Opportunity
College is one of BBB's most important seasons, they specified wanting to deliver a best-in-class experience for our customers at this important life moment. How might we help students and parents with the planning process for college?
Solution
Create a furniture rental program to give students a more convenient option when furnishing their living spaces, using BBB's branding.
Beyond Borrowing simplifies the furnishing process for college students making a difficult move.
Bundling System
Bundles make renting quick and easy, especially for people who may be unsure of what to buy for their new space. Users can shop premade bundles for a concise theme, or customize their bundle to make it their own.
Plans
Users can choose from four different rental plans: one semester, one full academic year, one calendar year, or two calendar years
Price per month will be lower the longer one rents.
Prototype
User Flow
When shopping for a big purchase, users are more likely to shop web rather than mobile. They want to get all the details about the furniture, which can be hard to read on a smaller screen. Although users may browse on their phone, they are more likely to make the final purchase on their laptop or desktop computer.
Process
Testing different layouts, promotional banners for renting
What's the best way to view and shop bundles?
User Personas
Planner Penny 📝
- Freshman living in dorms
- Likes spending time picking out and researching each item
- Great fit for the dorm bundle or personalizing their choices
Decorative Dakota 🖼
- Junior moving to an unfurnishsed house
- Doesn't like planning or researching
- Excited to decorate and personalize their space
- Great for a customized bundle
Temporary Tamara 🌎
- Senior spending next semester abroad, only needs furniture for the fall term
- Not concerned for aesthetics, cares more for convenience and practicality
- Great fit for a pre-made bundle
Research
Survey Findings:
Where are students and parents shopping to furnish their college living spaces?
Do your parents help with the cost of furnishing / Do you help your student with the cost of furnishing?
"I like furnishing and redesigning my living spaces, but I didn’t want to pay absurd prices for furniture that I would use for the short time I am at school."
- Interviewed student, 22
Environmental & Economic Research:
The furniture rental industry is booming in cities like New York City and San Francisco, where people frequently move between apartments. Rather than committing to furniture, renters have more flexibility.
Renting helps to combat “fast furniture”, the culture of constantly buying new things to keep up with trends. These wasteful habits contribute to furniture waste – research shows that people are more likely to throw away functional furniture rather than attempt to resell or donate.
Illustration from unDraw
Concept Testers
We interviewed several people who have experienced furnishing a college living space, asking them what would it take to make renting furniture accessible to them?
Jack, 60 & Jill, 55 👫
- Parents that have had 3 children go through college, including twins
- Furnished on a budget, skeptical of the affordability of renting
- More inclined to rent if it includes delivery and assembly
Jamie, 27 💼
- Has graduated from college, lived in dorms and on-campus apartments
- Apartment came furnished, and she purchased other items from IKEA and Target
- Cared less about aesthetics, more about practicality
James, 21 🎓
- Current student, has lived in 3 places: dorms, on-campus pre-furnished apartment, and an unfurnished house
- Most furniture is second hand, or ordered online
- Hard to match his preferred aesthetic with second-hand options
Lessons learned
I love working on a team, especially when it comes to product design! I enojyed applying BBB's branding throughout this project, and digging through their design system Figma file to better understand it.
This project was very research heavy, and I would have loved to spend more time on the interactions and creating more a more dynamic prototype. However, I loved the research and feel that we created a product that delivered for our user's needs.
Thanks for scrolling!
