Project - AutoTrader.com's Deal Explorer
This was among a few Innovation projects I designed for while working within ATC's Product Management group. Deal Explorer was among the first in the automotive space for moving the market closer towards purchasing vehicles, both new and used, 100% online and not just as a lead generation tool.
Purpose
In addition to being a race to market, this product was to help consumers find and understand both purchase or leasing options for selected vehicles while being the beginnings of a fully online shopping experience for new vehicles.
Challenges
Early in the space
Legal paperwork made available for every state
Allow for leasing while making it as easy for the consumer to understand as possible
Differentiating actual inventory from representative (research)
Successes
Filed for patent (since abandoned)
Formed the basis of future products produced in the space by AutoTrader
While it was not a complete ecommerce solution yet, the pieces for the consumer to be able to shop for a vehicle were established with this project
Great teamwork throughout the process
Opportunities and Goals
Provide a means to allow car shoppers the ability to find vehicles via price, monthly payment, or leasing terms while accounting for any specials, sales, or trade-ins values and be able to do so off of actual or representative inventory
Look to pursue full online ecommerce for vehicles and not just lead generation like so many others were doing at the time
This would be AutoTrader.com's foray into the space to get a head start and at least compete with the likes of Carvana and others, who were also just getting their start at the time
Roles and Collaboration
Acted as Sr. IxD
Worked closely with Product Management leadership to understand directionally where we wanted to take such a tool
Partnered with market research guru on Innovation team to bounce ideas off of them and to work through the details of the design and functionality
Research
Competitive analysis of Carvana, GMC, and many others for what was being done in the space currently
Deep dive to try and learn about vehicle leasing so as to include all of those moving parts into the concept
Wireframes and Mock-ups
While this project was born on a whiteboard in a conference room with a co-worker on the Innovation team, here are some of the wireframes and very early visual designs for the tool.
DealExplorerOverview111412.pptx.pdfWireframes (pulled from prototype) and early visual designs for Deal Explorer.
Overview
I wrote this overview of the Deal Explorer earlier in the process. This was likely done in preparation for filing for patent and pull a general overview together.
DealExplorerOverview.pdfDeal Explorer overview to describe parts and general functionality.
Prototypes
I built out a few different prototypes over the course of the project using Axure.