Auto Trader New Car
UI design of the improved Auto Trader New Car journey for mobile web. team consisted of the Lead UX Designer, Product Manager and myself as UI designer.
Introduction
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.
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.
“Over half of all car buyers surveyed said that Auto Trader was the most influential website whilst searching for their latest purchase.”
— Auto Trader Marketplace data
Brief
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.
The UI needed to transmit reassurance, trust, transparency and simplicity throughout the whole journey.
Research and Discovery
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.
With this information it allowed the team to work out the optimal user journey and information hierarchy.
The challenges
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.
The approach
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.
The outcomes
Once the team was happy with the user journey and designs I used Sketch and Principle to build an interactive prototype to test with consumers.
My goal was to create a high fidelity prototype with real data and interactions to give users a realistic experience during testing.
It also gave us the opportunity to implement the new brand look and feel, providing a consistent for the mobile web visitors.
