Carsales
In January 2020 I completed a Certificate of User Experience Design. Having spent years as a UI designer meant I also wore the hat of a UX designer sometimes and felt it was time I got myself formal training.
The following work was completed as part of the final assessment for my UX Certificate at RMIT. This assignment focuses on the 6 stages of UX Designs
Defining the problem, User Research, Ideation, Concept Designs, Usability Testing and Prototyping
Defining the Problem
I have a hunch that the way the 'Carsales.com.au Android App' displays it's results is only best suited to users who have completed a very detailed and specific search to which the results page would return roughly 25-35 cars. The reason for this is because on the results page, each car item takes up the majority of screen real-estate. There is currently no filter options, you are forced to go back to the search page to provide more details in your search.
Desk Research
Since Carsales are already the market leaders in the Online Marketplace for Vehicles, our desk research was primarily focused on other marketplace applications that sold different products. But the intention was to study how they handled the user flow of returning a large some of items on their result page.
Other apps we looked at were; Iconic, Bookings, Expedia, Airbnb and Domain
User Research
I will interview and observe 5 people of different demographic using the Carsales Android app. Each participant will be provided two scenarios.
1) You are looking to buy a 2012 Mini Cooper S Manual Transmission with a budget of $15,000
2) You are looking to buy either an Audi or BMW Sedan.
Target Audience & Personas
These are personas that were developed as a result of the people that we interviewed for our research. Our solution must meet a broad spectrum of persona and user goals
"If 70% of the people think that the experience was difficult when they don't have a specific make and model in mind then we will proceed to find out if there is a case here to implement more design features to the app to improve this experience"
User Insights from synthesising the interview notes
(Notes were taken on Users verbal response as well as observations notes of their behaviour)
Ideation
What ideas will be taken into prototyping?
We have to identify which features will make the most impact as well as assessing the effort and cost association with development. This helps us focus on the most attainable outcomes
The 2 recommendations that I'll be taking into the concept design stage are;
1) Tile results page that offers users the display of more results on the screen at a time (Currently can only display 1).
2) Quick filter option will also be introduced to easily minimise the amount of search results.
Concept Designs
Paper Lo-fidelity to Mid-fidelity Designs
Lo-fidelity prototypes were initially done to work out ideas internally. In order to test our designs, using Figma was required to create prototypes and then send them out to other people to test and gain their feedback
Paper Lo-fidelity designs
Mid-fidelity designs
Usability testing & iteration
Both Remote and Face to Face testing was conducted using the Figma prototype. Remote testing was done by sending various selected users the link to the Click-Through Figma prototype. Every tester was encouraged to make comments where it be negative or positive.
Face to face (Lab-Based) testing was done with 3 people that were initially used in our User Research. We wanted to get their feedback and opinion to compare it to what they had originally said about using the CarSales App.
“Continued interations were made based on feedback. And further remote testing were done with each iteration until we attained a 80% satisfaction rate with the designs”
Hi-fidelity designs
Having been a UI designer for many years I included a hi-fidelity design for how the final product may look and be intergrated into the current CarSales app.
Solution 1 - Toggle views
Solution 2 - Quick filtering
The Result
Play the video to see the prototype in action
Style
For this concept I made some slight tweaks to the current CarsaleApp styling to give it a more modern feel
