Cox Automotive
Delivering automotive digital retailing
Role: Experience Director + Strategy + Research
Cox Automotive and Autotrader were looking to improve the experience of their digital retailing channels while increasing the overall lead conversion and lead quality of their platforms. I headed up a full stack team of researchers, designers, and developers brought in to understand current customer needs and where automotive digital retailing was headed in the future, and then to deliver an experience that would make users happy and comfortable with their online vehicle purchase process.
Make it “less scary”
Car shoppers told us that buying a used car was a scary, stressful process even in the best situations. We designed a simple, step-by-step flow that would let them spend less time sitting in a dealer’s office and maybe save a little money too.
Our team conducted a series of user research activities with recent and prospective car buyers. Through cognitive walkthroughs and other qualitative and quantitative methods we reached a well-rounded understanding of user needs and pain points. These insights were instrumental in defining the issues and opportunities for improvement.
Our redesign focused on creating a simpler, more intuitive navigation system, providing easily accessible and comprehensive vehicle information, that let users enter and exit the experience wherever they needed based on where they were with their personal car buying journey. Users could accomplish as much of the online car buying experience as they were ready for and complete the purchase online or in person at the dealership depending on their needs.
By working directly with dealerships and learning from car shoppers about their wants and needs, we delivered an experience that made shoppers happy to brave the online car buying experience while helping both Cox Automotive and dealers achieve their business objectives.