Introduction
A key differentiator of Millennials from other target groups, is their tech-savviness and conscientiousness.
Hyundai Canada can better appeal to this market by taking into account these characteristics when designing a User Experience on its mobile and desktop platforms as users buy their first car online.
We started with a few preliminary questions:
What are first time car buyers looking for in a car website?
Should the focus be on deals and special offers? Customization? Ease of access?
Should the focus lie on how quickly and seamless the transaction is completed?
Problem & Opportunity
Our focus was broken down into three scenarios that focused on the following:
What are the user's initial impressions of the Hyundai Canada site?
How do users use the "Build and Price" tool when purchasing a car?
Does the "Book a Test Drive" Tool sufficiently allow users to complete all tasks necessary to book a test drive?
Planning Phase
We wanted to focus on usability testing of these key areas by recruiting participants that fit our target demographic and have them run through a series of structured scenarios.
Our task scenarios were laid out in such a way to maximize the research findings related to our research questions.
Eye-tracking data and a number of satisfaction scales/ratings provided us with qualitative and quantitative data which we used to find out which usability issues to focus on, compare our research findings to previous research and measure how our findings fit with the User Experience objectives.
A digestible and concise report of our research findings and design recommendations was presented to Hyundai Canada stakeholders for feedback and further iteration.
Recruitment Phase
User personas were first developed to provide a hypothetical foundation for recruitment. A number of screener questions were then employed to make sure we were screening the right participants:
Is the user between 20-30?
Does the user live in a suburban area (ie. Vaughan, Mississauga?)
Does the user have at least some post-secondary education?
Do the user have the intention to buy a car within a year?
Is their commute to work > 30 minutes?
Does the user own a smartphone?
Usability Environment
We set up testing for the user task scenarios on both mobile and desktop platforms at the Usability Lab in Humber College.
All participants were introduced to the research, the eye-tracking and recording equipment and guided through the 3 scenarios.
Participants were asked to voice their thought process as well as provide feedback and comments about each experience.
In addition, they were allowed to use their own mobile devices to mimic as real as an environment as possible.
Satisfaction ratings were collected at the end of each task scenario and at the end of the session.
Usability Tools & Materials
EYE-TRACKING SOFTWARE
Using the Tobii eye-tracking software, we were able to follow the eye movements of our users as they walked through each scenario, giving us a visual depiction of the user task flow.
The Tobii Glasses allowed us to do this for mobile in the most natural way possible, while the Sensor Bar allowed eye tracking in a desktop platform. We used this software to identify and gather data on:
Where users' attention is being directed
Completion rate of each task
Time spent on a task, page or feature
Number of errors
USER TESTING SCENARIOS
Structured scenarios provided consistency in the data being collected, allowing us to better identify areas of concern and insights into how these users interact with the site. Interactivity patterns were also easier to identify:
Do several users tend to look at the same page/image/feature more than others?
Do users follow a specific task sequence within a scenario?
How similar and/or different are users' mental models?
Does a certain feature/page seem more intuitive than others?
SATISFACTION & USABILITY SCALES
Two sets of scales, The Satisfaction Scale and the System Usability Scale, allowed us to quantify the satisfaction of the Users' Experience on each individual task and overall User Experience with the site and its functions. Feedback and comments provided complementary qualitative data to these ratings.
Analysis Phase
Scan Paths, Heat Maps and Task Scenarios were used to investigate the User Experience of first-time car buyers on both the Hyundai mobile and desktop platform.
Our research demonstrated that our target demographic values a simple and straight-forward design and User Experience.
Improving the functionality of the desktop and mobile website will include simplifying the page layout in respect to how information is displayed and digested by the user, as well as improving the responsiveness of the navigation.
Based on our research five opportunities for design improvement emerged:
SEARCH BAR
Users instinctively looked for a search bar while browsing the website. Adding a search bar would make the purchasing experience quicker and more efficient.
SIMPLIFY
Simplifying the platform in such a way that the navigation bar is more accessible, unresponsive elements and repetitive elements removed would improve the User Experience (UX).
DROP-DOWN HOVERS
Enabling the drop-down menus to appear when a user hovers over a category would decrease confusion as most users expected the drop-down menu to appear when they hovered over a category, assuming the link was either down or slow if nothing happened.
MORE OPTIONS
When users click on the "Find" button on the "Book a Test Drive" feature, it should geo-tag their location and input their postal code automatically.
Time slots should be more precise rather than giving the user segments of the day to chose from. This option proved to be very inconvenient amongst users.
LOCATION ASSISTANCE
Users would benefit from knowing how far (miles or km) dealers are from their location. Integrating a maps option (ex. Google Maps) would provide a visual aid and a quicker way to locate a dealer.
SATISFACTION RATINGS
Based on our results, it seems that most users are satisfied with the experience of each task and the overall experience, although there seems to be a slight preference in users using the desktop version.
The "Book a test Drive" feature was more satisfying on mobile, perhaps because it involved less steps as opposed to the previous tasks and could thus be done on the-go.
Next Steps
WIRE-FRAMING AND PROTOTYPING
After having gathered feedback from stakeholders and other colleagues, the team will prioritize which areas to focus on and further develop our design ideas through wireframes and interactive prototypes.
USER TESTING
The results obtained from user testing sessions will provide feedback on changes made and opportunities for improvements leading to changes in our design iterations.