Redesign for Auto Trader New Car
Background
With the new car market being a vital part of Auto Trader's business this project shows the importance of providing the consumer all the information they need when buying/configuring their new car whilst offering a simple and seamless experience between the consumer and car dealer.
PROBLEM
New data + New UI = Better experience
Three quarters of car buyers are open to buying a new car and with the car buying journey being complicated and stressful it is important to provide reassurance through the products we create at Auto Trader.
Our goals/objectives were to:
Improve UI to transmit reassurance, trust, transparency and simplicity throughout the whole journey.
My role
I led the UI design of this journey from beginning to end so that it can be used for user testing. I worked alongside the Lead UX Designer, Product Manager.
What I did
User flows
Sketching and prototyping
Pattern documentation and best practices
Scope and constraints
The scope of the project was to build the new UI for the mobile “New car“ experience. It had to use existing elements from the design system and follow the new brand look and feel. Any new UI elements had to be documented and updated in the design system with appropriate guidelines.
insights
Customer feedback
The research carried out on the new car market included evaluating existing manufacturer configurators helped to find out the good and bad/pain points from a consumer perspective.
The data feeding the first design wasn't ideal for the consumer. The problem with it was it lacked descriptions of options and accessories which was a concern as this was a key user requirement for consumers using this product.
As our data shows, the journey of buying a car is time consuming therefore simplifying the process is crucial and the overall challenge for this project.
With this information it allowed the team to work out the optimal user journey and information hierarchy.
“Over half of all car buyers surveyed said that Auto Trader was the most influential website whilst searching for their latest purchase.”
The approach
New data provider
To overcome this challenge a decision was made to find a new data provider which could provide that extra level of detail which allowed us more flexibility in managing the raw data.
Working with our data specialist we grouped and organised the raw data for the best experience. The designs were then updated with real data and stress tested to make sure it could scale.
Ideating
Sketching & User flow
The redesign
New interface, new experience
The Auto Trader new car experience needed to be intuitive and simple for consumers with the aim they should be able to go through the process without realising they are doing a task.
A high fidelity prototype with real data and interactions was created to provide a realistic experience for our users during testing.
conclusion
Still much more to do
After my involvement on the project, the team continued developing and improving the visual design. Although I wasn’t part of continued development of this journey it was great to be involved in the future of how cars will be purchased online.