Case Study: Shift VDP Redesign

VDP Background

 Shift Current Desktop & Mobile screens
fig. 2.1: Shift Current Desktop and Mobile Screens 

VDP Redesign Background

Information hierarchy and discoverability in the current VDP is problematic. While the VDP does contain a wealth of vehicle information, information important to the customer is difficult to find, hidden inside modals, accordioned sections, or on altogether different subpages. Despite the increase in visitors, there was a decrease in visitor action and an upward-trending bounce rate.

The fulfillment module (where the user can take action to a.) begin purchase or b.) schedule a test drive) was visually crowded and confusing, with potential user actions varying from vehicle to vehicle with no clear explanation of the differences in methods.

Shift Current Fulfillmentfig. 2.2: Shift Current Fulfillment

Usability testing revealed these user pain points:

  • Users did not know Test Drive at Hub was an option on the current VDP. 60% of these users would have preferred this to the Test Drive at Home option
  • Users expressed uncertainty around vehicle and/or hub location

And as a sticky fulfillment module (in web view), this confusion of actions was ever-present to the user.

Problem Statement

As a Shift customer, I want to see all vehicle information in a clear, well-organized way so I can make the best-informed decision about my purchase.

Understanding User (Empathize & Design)

A round of qualitative research (November, 2020) led to several key takeaways:

  • Users are most interested in understanding history, accidents, and maintenance of the vehicle
  • History, price, mileage, year, model, and photos were consistently the most important things shoppers immediately looked for on the page
  • Users did not readily understand Shift ships vehicles directly to them
  • Users are interested in more financing information, looking for the lowest APR, length of financing, and necessary down payment

The following opportunities for VDP were identified:

  • Vehicle location: provide clarity that vehicles are shipped directly to the customer
  • Vehicle images: clearly indicate the VDP photo viewer provides a 360° spinner in addition to static images
  • Vehicle inspection: provide details about ‘when, where, and who’ to build trust and credibility
  • Pre-qualification: users are unclear about how/when in the purchase flow to get pre-qualified for a car loan. Make this clearer on VDP
  • Inspection Report: provide clarity in the report sections and user education to make the report understandable and easily digestible
  • Vehicle fit: provide information in VDP related to how a user might physically fit in a vehicle and explain the roominess of the interior
  • Vehicle shipping: Clear confusion in the fulfillment module around free test drives vs. delivery fees for purchased vehicles

Low Fidelity

With a very clear set of categorized user requirements, we undertook execution of mid-fidelity web and mobile web concepts in Sketch.