Elmo: Project Summary
Redesigning the user flow to purchase an electric vehicle through user research, testing and design.
UX Client Project | 3 Weeks | 3 People
The below case study showcases a summary of the project. To read my full UX process please click here.
Overview
In the UK, purchase consideration for EV’s (electric vehicles) is high, but it hasn’t exactly translated into sales as consumers still have questions about the benefits and operational elements. Enter Elmo. Their mission is to help everyone drive an electric car as soon as possible by making that first step into the world of EV a little easier. They do this by offering total cost of ownership EV subscriptions.
Why this project happened
Elmo needed to test the operational process, technical functionality and user experience of their website before scaling the business. Our goal was to deliver a high fidelity prototype of the revised customer journey through a UX design process, with a final presentation to the client. This project was part of General Assembly's design course, which was fully online due to Covid-19.
My Role
I led a team of 3, and was heavily involved in the user research and usability testing, competitor analysis, affinity mapping, ideation and creating the wireframes. I took the lead in being the point of call for the client, facilitating and participating in the design studio, creating the customer journey map, building the visual designs from low to high fidelity and prototyping.
Highlights + Challenges
I started this project knowing little about the EV space and truly allowed user research to be central to the UX process. I was proud of myself and my team for going beyond the brief by re-designing Elmo’s current homepage, as it played a big role in the customer journey to purchase. We did this by addressing user’s pain points and our knowledge of gestalt theory to make information as visually digestible as possible. The challenging part was designing a user flow where pricing information was given upfront without reducing drop off rates. We tackled this by designing a journey where information was drip fed to the customer through the homepage first.
Process
We used the double diamond model to discover, define, develop and deliver the project.
Software
Sketch and InVision to create the wireframes and prototype, and Miro for collaboration and the design studio.
Research Methods + Deliverables
Usability testing on current website, survey, user interviews, competitive analysis
Affinity map, persona, problem statement, customer journey map
Design studio, impact vs. effort matrix
Usability tests on low/mid/high fidelity prototypes and a style guide
Business + Research Constraints
I planned to design interactive features which would change the way users interacted with Elmo’s website, however the client needed easily implementable yet effective features to handoff to the developers. It needed to be browser-based due to cost and technical limitations so an app solution wouldn’t be a viable option at this stage. I’m also aware of our interview findings being subject to bias, as we could not get hold of anyone who was actively in the process of purchasing a car. Thus, in our next steps we would need to conduct more interviews with those users to get into their mindset.
Who did we design for?
The research findings led to the creation of our persona, Laura, who wants to purchase an EV subscription but wants full transparency of the process because she is new to the EV space. She’s 35 and interested in EV car ownership without the hassle.
The problems that needed solving from the brief
At the time of this project, Elmo were trying to streamline their user flow from someone selecting a car to purchasing a subscription. They wanted some quick-wins to implement for their website launch the following month.
The current purchase flow asked for too much information upfront with too many steps.
We needed to explore how best to integrate new features into the flow.
The pricing wasn’t clear and needed to be addressed as early as possible in the flow for transparency.
User research, usability testing and ideation through a design studio led to the redesigned solutions
The end result answered the brief through a user-centred approach to dig deeper into the true problems at hand. For example, there were no specific details in the brief about new features, but from analysing interview data and spotting trends we were able to create solutions that helped users make a more informed journey to purchase an EV. We successfully did this by:
Combining the existing customisation process into one flow and introducing it at an early stage.
Adding information buttons which guided users, but did not overwhelm those who were already knowledgeable in the EV space.
Adding a comparison feature which allowed users to compare models, features and prices.
I ensured all designs were scalable when more cars would be added to the site by taking development and business limitations into account.
The final prototype was able to provide a potential overall solution to what the flow would look like when using a user centred approach
Measuring the potential impact of the redesign
The key business metric which I would measure for this project would be the conversion rate between each stage of the core user flow funnel over a 6 month period, which ultimately translates into sales. Using heat maps and Google Analytics data, I would be able to identify the sections of the website where users spend the most amount of time. I would then conduct interviews to investigate users’ pain points if the conversion rate was dropping at a specific point due to uncertainty or other factors.
Next steps
Considering this was a 3 week sprint, we only implemented a handful of quick but important changes that the client could handoff to his developers. With more time, I would introduce a more interactive customisation feature, build out the reward benefits and referral system by including discounts from Elmo’s partners, and introduce a functionality for companies to lease cars to their employees.
Conclusion
The client made it clear that he was more interested in optimising the user flow of their website rather than user’s views on subscriptions, however, the research and usability tests were crucial in informing the design. The end result was a prototype which solved the problems at hand, and a very happy client!
“I was impressed with Roshni’s professionalism and high standard of work. She worked diligently and efficiently to improve our customer journey, functionality, and features on the existing site.
Her and her team demonstrated an excellent level of user testing and critical thinking to evaluate design decisions and ensure scalability, while addressing the research undertaken. Their work has now formed the core part of our UX pipeline and will be implemented over the next 6 months. The wireframes that were a core output from the project are a marked improvement of the current site and we expect will contribute greatly to increased conversions.”