1 - Discover

Before we could get to work on designing the mobile app, we first had a client interview to understand the goals, challenges, needs and constraints which our client might have.

We developed a research plan in the beginning - outlining the research objectives, methodologies used, and the research questions to answer. The team decided to conduct user interviews, user surveys and analyze the analytics provided to help develop our persona and get a clearer understanding of the problems.

Here are some research questions we had:

1. What are the needs and challenges of purchasing a car online?
2. What are the needs and challenges of selling a car online?
3. What are the general behaviors surrounding buying and selling a car online?

Hotjar & Google Analytics

Looking at current UCARS site browsing behavior on Google Analytics was very helpful in enriching our interview findings. Through recordings on hotjar, we were also able to see the typical browsing behavior of a user and notice patterns in navigation.

Key Findings

1. 76% of users browse on mobile
2. Popular browsing times are lunchtime, after work hours and weekends
3. 28% of the users are 25-34 years old while 24% are 35-44 years old

User Interviews

Due to the time constraint, the team interviewed 6 participants, consumers who have bought or sold cars online before.

Here's a sample of our interview questions:
1. Could you walk me through the process of searching for a suitable car and finally making a purchase?
2. What information would you need when browsing online for cars to purchase?
3. What are some of your needs when looking for a dealer to sell your car?
4. How do you think your experience could have been improved?

Key Findings

We recorded down the interviews and drew insights from affinity mapping, which will be described and further elaborated below.

2 - Define

We then synthesized our insights that we got from the user surveys and interviews by conducting affinity mapping.

Affinity Mapping

We used Mural, an online collaboration tool to note down our observations on "sticky notes". Followed by organizing and grouping the sticky notes according to similar pain points and themes, and coming up with "I" statements.

Persona

We distilled our affinity map and analytics findings into the following persona, Andy Chan. We were able to better empathize with our main user group, who first tries to replace his old car with a new one.

User Journey

Our team came up with a User Journey map to visualize a customer's relationships with car marketplaces over time and across different touchpoints. This allows us to adopt a user-centric approach when designing the mobile app.

Problem Statement

After gathering the findings from the research, we framed the problem statement using the goals and frustrations of our persona, Andy Chan. We then came up with a solution statement of how we can solve the current challenges.

Competitive Analysis

The brands used in the Competitive Analysis were brands identified from the user survey and brands mentioned in the user interviews.

Task Analysis

To make the selling process more efficient for users, we aim to reduce the information needed for users when listing their car up for sale. A critical piece of information required across all platforms would be Carplate number and Owner Details. Both Carousell and SGCarMart offers free valuation of cars within 24 hours. Thus to be competitive, we should similarly aim to give users their car valuation in 24 hours or less.

We also found that Online Bidding was common among the different platforms to sell cars as Carro, MotoristSG, SGCarMart and eBayMotors encourages users to sell by bidding, where offers are ready from 1 day to an hour.

Feature Analysis

We looked at the different features which these apps have, namely Signing in, Signing up, Chat, List of saved cars and a News Feed or Notifications section. The ones highlighted in green would represent the features that are present and the ones in red are features which are absent.

To sign up for an account, Carousell requires users to sign in immediately after launching the app and the rest of the apps would get users to sign up to enjoy more features. Only Carousell allows users to directly communicate with buyers in 'Chat', which proves to be helpful in facilitating quick sales.

Filters Comparison

Because there are so many different factors when it comes to buying a car, we looked at the filters across all the apps. We distilled the indispensable filters to be: Price range, Depreciation, Registration and Mileage.

Comparative Analysis

Additionally, we did a Comparative Analysis across brands outside of the automobile industry. We looked outside of the category for inspiration for our 3 main features (Live Chat, Live Streaming and Live Bidding), and for other interesting features we might include.

3 - Design

Before we could come up with the sketches and wireframes, we first had to design the information architecture.

Information Architecture

An Open Card Sort is a method where participants organize topics into categories that makes sense to them and help name the groups. I started off with conducting an Open Card Sort - this means allowing participants to come up with their own labels for the categories. We pulled content from the current website and new content which we were thinking of incorporating into the mobile app.

What I was hoping to achieve was to observe how participants would label and sort the 'cards' into different buckets of content, which would help in organizing the app navigation. This gave us a lot of insight on our participants' thought process and allowed us to design an intuitive information architecture.

Key Findings

We conducted the Card Sort with 15 participants - people who have previously bought cars or who are potential car buyers.

The standardized categories we got were:

1. Buy
2. Sell
3. Go Live
4. Resources
5. Information
6. Car Dealer

Site Map

Having synthesized the results from the Card Sort, we came up with the bottom app navigation consisting of tabs - Buy, Sell, Resources and Profile. We thought of including Watchlist and Chat in the top app navigation.

User Flow

Having visualized the flow for users using the app, we mapped out two 'happy paths' for the successful 'Sale' and 'Purchase' of a Car. Through the user flow, we were able to foresee any problems users may face and make improvements to the user experience.

Sketches - Design Studio

Our team held a mini design studio to brainstorm on the new feature - Live Chat. After iterating with a few rounds of the design studio, we came up with our final sketches.

Style Guide

Our client - UCars, had an existing brand guidelines in place. However, when designing the new mobile app, the client gave us the freedom to explore other possible options and style. Therefore, we came up with a new set of UI Pattern Library utilizing colors from the brand logo, and not straying too far from the existing guidelines.