Mobile Car Shopper
Using UX to help vehicle shoppers purchase vehicles online.
The Story
Shopping for vehicles can be a long and stressful process. Driving to local dealerships to determine vehicle prices, safety ratings, and features costs people valuable time and can be intimidating.
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CNS is a concept app that allows users to shop for vehicles remotely, understand vehicle safety ratings, and search for vehicles in a specified price range and in a specified geographical area.
How might we mitigate the poor experiences of in-person vehicle purchases?
RESEARCH
Project Goals
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Provide users a way to search for nearby vehicles online
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Help users understand the safety ratings for vehicles
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Offer a way for users to filter vehicles by price
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Bring user visibility to the reputation of the vehicle seller
UX Methods
For this project, a scenario was provided to me from existing user research. Frank is visiting Dallas to see one of his daughters. While there, Frank wants to get his grandson a safe and affordable car. He relies on his daughter to drive him around but takes her safety and busy schedule into consideration.
Meet Frank, the CNS persona
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Frank is an 80-year-old retired architect from Seattle
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Technically capable
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Late adopter
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The wife relies on Frank to operate the technology
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Frank wishes to see his daughters and grandchildren more often
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Frank often struggles with technology interfaces
Meeting User Needs
By understanding the persona and his needs when it comes to purchasing a vehicle for his grandson, I designed the resulting key insights and used them to inform product features.
Key insight No. 1
Frank needs a way to search for vehicles remotely when traveling to cities abroad.
Resulting feature
I created a feature that offers a way for Frank to search for vehicles from his mobile device.
Key insight No. 2
Frank wants to be sure the vehicle he purchases for his grandson is safe and reliable.
Resulting feature
I created a user-generated star rating feature that helps Frank understand the safety ratings for the vehicles he is interested in.
Key insight No. 3
Frank needs to search for vehicles within a specific price range.
Resulting feature
I created a filtered search function in which Frank can search by vehicle price.
Key insight No. 4
Frank needs to search for vehicles within close proximity to him.
Resulting feature
With geolocation, Frank can search for vehicles nearby.
Key insight No. 5
Frank desires to know the reputation of the vehicle sellers.
Resulting feature
Created a feature that offers a visible rating system for each vehicle seller.
Getting in the flow
Wireframe sketching explored how the interface might meet users' needs. Flow diagrams were created for each scenario, covering decision paths, points of failure, and escape routes.
Considered features beyond browsing, e.g. how to meet in a safe location, paying for the item after seeing the product. Considered how to return items or leave seller feedback
Usability Testing
Usability testing of key tasks revealed room for improvement in the application. Key insights were captured and improvements were made.
Task 1
You want to shop for vehicles on your phone. Try to arrange the purchase of a 2017 Honda Civic for no more than $10000.
Key finding
PARTIAL SUCCESS: The user understood the flow overall, but some key points were difficult for them (covered below).
Task 2
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You want to shop for vehicles by the safety rating. Please try this now.
Key finding
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CRITICAL: The user had great difficulty finding the filter for safety ratings.
ITERATION: Add a filter icon to the home page that immediately activates filter sets.
Task 3
You want to shop for vehicles by price range. Please try this now.
Key finding
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CRITICAL: The user had great difficulty searching for vehicles by price only.
ITERATION: Add a filter icon to the home page that immediately activates filter sets.
Task 4
You want to search for vehicles in Huston, Texas. Please try to do this now.
Key finding
SUCCESS: The user easily changed the location on the app by typing into the input field.
Task 5
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You want to get a sense of the seller's reputation. How would you do this in the app?
Key finding
SUCCESS: The user was able to see the reputation of the seller when investigating vehicles of interest.