Future travel: less luggage, more experiences
“Imagine enjoying a coffee in Madrid, and suddenly finding yourself in Paris with your friends, without having planned anything and without carrying any luggage.”
That’s the long-term goal of LOOKRENT. An app that will allow you to rent second-hand clothing in your destination city, without sacrificing style, eliminating the worries of packing and helping to combat climate change.
To show you why this application could be the future of traveling, a Design Thinking process has been conducted based on this premise:
Enhancing the travel experience in the face of climate change
Surely, it happens that when you browse through social media, you come across incredible landscapes, people embarking on the journey of their lives, or you, who haven’t even returned from vacation and already find yourself planning the next destination. But, did you know that global tourism accounts for 8% of the greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming on Earth?
If you still think that global warming doesn’t exist, I invite you to review all the natural events that occurred in just 2023, and if we don’t stand up to face the future, we won’t have a planet to explore.”
And even more so when we’ve just learned that Barajas will become the largest airport in Europe, going from receiving 50 million passengers to 90 million by 2031. Now, with all this information and empathizing with this challenge, some research questions have been raised:
When searching for an answer to each of them, I encountered very different responses. Upon conducting a Netnography, I was able to evidence the discomfort of many passengers:
To analyze the reason behind this, I set out to search for the cost of a round-trip ticket from Madrid to Paris:
It’s surprising that a piece of luggage costs only €72, more than the airplane ticket itself, and the emissions produced by the flight, as airplanes are the most polluting mode of transportation, which probably very few people consider when buying a ticket. As a curious fact, did you know that a 10kg suitcase is equivalent to 7.5kg of CO2 emissions, which is like having a television on for 1 hour for 78 days?
If we consider fast fashion, a phenomenon of mass production and consumption that increases at the same speed as trends change, the lifespan of each garment manufactured is really short. Many of us dream of wearing the outfit for the perfect photo on social media. Some interesting facts are:
- The textile industry accounts for between 4% and 10% of greenhouse gas emissions.
- It takes 2,700 liters of water to make a cotton t-shirt.
- We buy 60% more clothes than we did 20 years ago.
- 500,000 tons of plastic are released annually into the oceans due to laundry. These are some of the effects of climate change that we indirectly do not see when traveling or buying excess clothing. That’s why we choose to buy second-hand clothes, which have a very low impact on the planet.
To further test the luggage theory, it’s time to go on a Safari, and there’s nowhere better than Madrid, which is among the most visited cities in the world. When taking transportation, I was able to observe:”
Many stairs, long distances, and a burden of weight that affects the travel experience for many. While traveling by land and visiting the most touristy areas and the airport, we observed the presence of lockers where you can store your luggage while exploring the city freely.
I approached one of them, and the cost for a day was €11.52, which seems a bit expensive when you add it to the price of luggage on the flight. Here are some of the alternatives offered to enhance the travel experience.
With all the information I’ve gathered, it’s time for surveys, targeting 50 people, where the following highlights are noted:
How many trips do you usually take in a year? 40% claim to take 3 trips a year.
What concerns you when planning a trip? 84% Budget. 32% Logistics and planning. 28% Luggage. Followed by Security and Weather
Do you enjoy buying clothes or accessories before a trip?
75% say YES, and the remaining 25% say NO
Now, with all this incredible information, it’s time for interviews, crucial for unearthing details, hearing different perspectives, and delving into new or underexplored topics. Interviews have been conducted with two users:
Caterina Lopez: At 35 years old, she has visited more than 40 countries and 80 cities. She considers herself a passionate Wanderlust traveler. Some of the key verbatims are highlighted:
“The trend of paying more for luggage seems completely absurd to me. Sometimes we have no choice but to pay for it, right? In the end, we need to bring clothes.”
“I never know what to bring and end up either taking too much or forgetting important things.”
“Packing is the most stressful part of traveling for me.”
For this second interview, I wanted to delve into the world of aviation, and I was able to meet with:
Alberto Hoyos: 33 years old. Flight Attendant at Iberia. (7 years of experience)
Verbatims:
“When it comes to work, it’s complicated due to the amount of luggage. With 180 passengers, around 60 suitcases usually come on board.”
“In winter, boarding tends to take a bit longer, which affects the airline.”
“Young people tend to carry more luggage. Older people usually check their luggage and request assistance during the journey.”
Alberto emphasizes that many passengers not only carry standard luggage but also large suitcases, bags, duty-free items, and more, as the spaces under the seats are increasingly limited. This causes congestion. Airlines are adapting their planes to allow for more luggage, which does not help with climate change.
He points out that passengers assume they can carry their hand luggage in the cabin when by law it can be sent to the hold. This often causes discomfort as it can take longer to leave the airport.
We are all spectators and actors of this fast-paced way of living. It’s a very contagious way of living that invades all aspects of our daily lives.
If we go back about 12 years when there was no presence of Uber or Cabify, we could expect to wait about 10 minutes for a taxi to pass by or 20 minutes for public transportation, but we are facing an accelerated modernity that consumes everything much faster.
To better analyze the travel problem, a User Persona and User Journey have been created. This will help better understand the needs, desires, and challenges of users to improve and optimize their experience.
In the User Journey, we place Valeria on a trip to Paris where she faces many inconveniences with luggage, which seriously affects her experience. Among her goals is to travel without worries but without sacrificing style and comfort, and among her frustrations, she never knows what to bring.
From all the information collected, we have reached several Insights that will spark creativity for generating ideas for the project:
- Luggage is a problem before and during trips.
- Young people tend to carry more carry-on luggage.
- Luggage delays flight logistics, resulting in losses for airlines.
- Cold destinations tend to be more complicated when packing.
- Users sometimes end up spending more with the idea of saving.
- A large percentage of the adult population checks luggage before a flight.
Now that we have all this valuable information, it’s time to brainstorm possible solutions aligned with the problems users face when traveling. These ideas have been taken to an Impact and Effort Matrix, considering the achievement of objectives and the effort required for implementation in terms of time, resources, money, etc.
The chosen idea for the project is an app that allows renting second-hand clothing. We believe that this would have a significant impact on combating climate change, and the effort would not be too high as there would be a turnover of used but still in good condition clothing. To delve further into this idea, it was necessary to create a Lean Canvas to examine the Business Model.
With all this information, it’s time to create the prototype, but before turning it into an application, I wanted to create a flowchart. This tool will help plan the structure and navigation of the application before starting to design the wireframes, and it will serve as support for developers. Any additional support or information will always add value.
When prototyping, we aim for the application to have a clean and simple appearance, where the white background acts as a neutral canvas and elements in shades of gray provide a subtle yet effective contrast.
In the first screen, the brand name appears with images and gives you the option to log in or skip. It takes advantage of this opportunity to show images of the damage caused by new clothing to the planet. In the second wireframe, HOME, the available cities offered by the service appear. In this case, we’ll work with 3 very touristy cities (Paris, London, and Lisbon). There are promotions to encourage clothing rental, and a final one for the Community, where real photos of satisfied customers would appear.
You can filter by Men or Women and add the destination, date you plan to pick up the garment, and return it.
In the fourth wireframe, there is a more extensive filter where the user can choose the condition of the garments, which varies in price, and the sizes. In this case, let’s simulate that a user is going to Paris for three days and needs a vintage outfit. When making the selection, the chosen set is displayed. It cannot be changed to have better inventory control.
When adding the outfit to the basket, you are given the option to add clothing insurance in case the garment gets damaged, and an Eco Toiletry Bag so the customer doesn’t carry hygiene products and avoids issues at airport security. When proceeding with the shipment, it asks if you prefer a pickup point or home delivery. In this case, for Pickup, it adds a nearby point to the user.
In the three remaining screens, the payment methods and a summary of the clothing rental appear. I consider the last wireframe to be of utmost importance since the user can visualize how many kilograms of O2 they have offset with their reservation, and I would like to add that all garments will be delivered sanitized.
This would only be the beginning of LOOKRENT, which would be an app that many young people or adults who are environmentally conscious and advocate for second-hand clothing would use.
In the survey conducted earlier, participants were asked if they usually take photos on trips showing off their outfits? To which 100% responded YES. This gives me a clear vision that many are not willing to sacrifice their style but are willing to sacrifice convenience. Therefore, this app would be of great help to many and to the planet.
As future prospects for this application, I would like:
- Available for all seasons of the year. (Currently, it would be available for Autumn and Winter).
- Positioning throughout Europe, America, and Oceania. (It has been shown that countries like Australia are in favor of using second-hand clothing).
- Lockers for instant access and to eliminate shipments and pickup points towards a more ecological step.
- Alliances with airlines and clothing brands.
- Rewards for carbon footprint by restoring oxygen to the planet and discounts on future purchases.
- Formal clothing for unfortunate events or last-minute celebrations (Sometimes bad news comes without warning).
- Ski wear due to the volume it occupies.
- Instant booking as we would currently work with 4–6 day reservations.
And like any good work, it is supported by Benchmarking, which is a valuable tool for improving and surpassing one’s own limits by learning from the successes and successful approaches of others.
AnyWear, Anywhere is a proposal launched by Japan Airlines in mid-2023, it can only be used for travelers taking trips to Japan with that airline. It has to be requested a month in advance and at the moment it will be tested until August 2024.
When analyzing the website, we found that they do not pay attention to the details of how the clothing is displayed, which could generate some distrust when opting for this service. At LOOKRENT, we focus on providing a quality service, ensuring that each selected piece has its own category but at a good price.
In conclusion, we want to emphasize that LOOKRENT is more than just an innovative solution; it’s a shift in mindset towards sustainable travel. Each booking not only entails convenience but also a small step towards a greener future. With this platform, we aim to provide a lighter and more mindful experience from one place to another.
“Think green, dress LOOKRENT”
