Audi USA UX Revamp

The AudiUSA UX Revamp was a project partnership with FactoryLabs to improve the user experience of their customer's (Audi USA) dealership sites. The goal of the initiative was to understand how potential buyers navigated the site, ultimately culminating in a "lead" for the dealership with the customers contact information. The findings were surprising to the entire team, and lead to several creative design directions.

User Testing

The first step in the process was to test the AudiUSA site with participants on at a high level to understand where the pain points were in the user flow. Side-by-side tests were conducted on both the client site as well as a cookie-cutter Audi dealership site for comparison. Participants were asked to click through the sites as if they were shopping for an Audi in order to pick an appropriate vehicle. The participants actions were screen recorded/videod using using Silverback. The test was conducted using the "speak aloud" method, which asks participants to say aloud the actions they are taking in-situ.

These initial tests were followed-up with some potential screen mockups of new features: a "Call Me" feature where the user would enter their phone number, and a "Share with a Friend" feature where the user could share their selected car on Facebook. Participants were asked for their opinion on these pages ("would you find anything on this vehicle page useful in your search?")

Findings

The findings from these tests were revealing. Most surprising was the users dislike of the new features ("Call Me" and "Share with a Friend"). The value of these tests saved AudiUSA and FactoryLabs precious man hours and most importantly, secured their on-going lead generation

These findings highlight the power of UX: testing mock-ups with a select group of users saved AudiUSA and FactoryLabs untold dollars in time, money and lead generation.

Design Recommendations

Recommendations at the moment are confidential, though may be revealed in the near future. What I can include are some mock-ups generated for the "conservative" recommendations.