Reimagining the car buying experience in a simple and interactive way.
I recently started the job hunt, in hopes of landing my first job in UX Design. To finally be reaching this point in my journey feels invigorating. One of the first roles that I have been invited to interview for required me to create a 1-2 page mobile app or website wireframe concept for buying a new car. The site needs to help users sort through potential cars that fit their lifestyle.
After lots of research and interviews with a couple of people, I sorted through the results and looked for patterns to what could make the car buying process fun and interactive. At a high level, I needed to understand the buying habits of my primary users. According to AutoTrader and KBB, 7 out of 10 car shoppers knowing little to nothing about what they want. So, how can we help reduce the stress of the research process in the quest to find the perfect car? Through a journey of discovery into what they want, what they need and what they can afford, we can help narrow down the fleet of choices to a handful of best matches.
The easiest way to find answers to these questions is to give the user a plain old survey. But what fun would that be? So the concept I came up with was a deconstructed survey that aims to overcome a user’s decision paralysis with a fun, simplistic design.
My approach to designing a solution incorporates a fusion of Mindfulness and Hick’s Law. By prompting simple, straightforward questions in a conversational tone, users can answer purposefully while suspending judgement of unimportant details. Additionally, limiting the number of questions helps to reduce time and streamline decision making. The goal is to arrive at a results page with considerably limited, but relevant options for the user to focus on.
This page is organized into two categories: best matches and runner ups. It also serves as a list managing workspace for users to sort potential options from ones they don’t want.
The former category is structured as a swimlane so users can evaluate results on a car-by-car basis, rather than being overwhelmed with a deluge of options. The horizontal layout also provides a way for them to easily compare specs via the drop-down drawer.
Like a Google results page with too many search terms, the runner up category shows users other potentials that may not fit all their criteria. These range from dream cars that are out of budget to cars that lack certain features. By including this category, users can feel like all their feedback was considered, while simultaneously understanding why certain options may not have been the best fit. Seeing this will persuade users to stay in their “lane” and come to a decision quicker.
With the limited time allotted to create the wireframe (1 week), I feel like this is a good start for the potential a website like this could offer car buyers. There is definitely room for improvements after having a chance to test with potential users and get feedback from other designers. I’d also like to see what other alternative solutions I can design.
One of the challenges I faced in submitting the final wireframe, was how to communicate the responsive motion design I envisioned for the website. There was a good amount of motion prompted interaction that I wanted to communicate and did so in the best way I could. This is one area I know I can keep working on for future projects.
Getting a chance to work on a problem like this was a lot of fun. It stirred up some creative juices and I actively explored the world of responsive motion design. It feels like just the tip of the iceberg as far as the potential responsive animations could bring to a solution like this.
The hiring team loved the concept and will let me know next steps. Crossing my fingers!
