RV Trader Case
study
People like to travel but also wants to feel like they are at home, everywhere they go! RV Trader is basically selling RVs which feels like home. Using this website any dealer or private seller can sell their used or new RV. Anyone can buy RV by contacting the seller.
Business requirements
I joined Trader interactive as their first in-house designer to work directly with the Head of Product on a complete redesign of the platform. Company needed more conversions and more users. I was told by my manager that, the website getting less response. There was some decrease in revenue too. Dealers not getting many buyers.
My process
Identification of the problem is the very first approach. Some problems are identified after user research and some while conducting meetings with product manager, problems in websites not only includes users but also business needs. If users aren't happy, conversions would be low, user won't want to use the website, so number of revenues would decrease.Each process adds significant value to give best results. I personally sit with developers and explain them my designs and how exactly I want it on production. Anything they disagree with or any design they can't code I reconsider my designs and redesign it.
Let's find the problem!
Research & discovery
By using Hotjar, we analyzed the behavior of the user as well as how well the website is doing. The website wasn't doing well. Conversion rates were very low. Started by setting up session recordings. The recording of individual user sessions, providing insights into how users navigate and interact with the site.
Recordings of user interactions
Watched selected recordings to understand user behavior. Common patterns, such as areas where users frequently click, scroll, or encounter issues. Identified usability issues, like confusing navigation or broken elements.
Survey report
The survey questions led us to know user better as well what they want to keep and what they don't. After going through the survey report we came to know that they were happy with PAA experience. The response for what they don't like were mainly login process, search result page layout and VDP contacting dealer/seller also, with less description of the vehicle.
Users' feedback
I used Hotjar for tracking behavior analytics and product experience. While researching I got lot of user feedback and went through each feedback. Considered every user's feedback and found solutions for each of them. There were some technical issues as well as design issues. Technical issues shouldn't be ignored even if doesn't include design, we had gone through each issues and conducted meetings to resolve the technical issues as well as found ideations for the design issues.
Sorted feedbacks
Meet the Users
Categorizing the target audience into these categories allows me to personalize the website, functions, and user experience to each segment’s individual needs and preferences. This strategy ensures that the website delivers appropriate answers to a broad range of customers..
Dealer
Dealers are basically middle age or old age, who are business owners or manufactures. Who posts their RVs on RV Trader.
Private Seller
Private sellers are mainly old age people, who had RV and then thought of selling it .
Buyer
More than half of buyers are old age or middle age people.
User personas
We need to know our users. As now we have to redesign, we need to start from starting and we wanted to form a deeper understanding of our users' goals, needs, experiences, and behaviors. So, we created 4 personas for each of our user segments. They were based on user surveys, and we kept updating them throughout the project as we gathered more data. We used these personas whenever we wanted to step out of ourselves and reconsider our initial ideas. Here's one of them.
Empathy map
User journey
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Problem
After researching and going through users' feedback, we got to know seller couldn't find their posted RVs and user couldn't find how to contact seller due to which they leave the website. There wasn't any heuristic approach due to which user experience wasn't very good.
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Complicated navigation
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Insufficient and unclear product descriptions
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Ineffective SEO strategies
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Lack of relevant keywords
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Inadequate customer support
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Unresolved customer issues
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An outdated or unappealing website design
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Lack of modern features and functionality
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Failing to analyze website analytics
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Website crashes, broken links, and other technical issues
Task
Redesigning the website with heuristic approach was the only solution. Seller/dealer should be able to see their posted RV and should have track about their posts. User shouldn't have any problem while finding their RVs and contacting to seller.
User flow
User flow is very important in any website or app, to know about the website. We need to know what user needs from start to finish. Whether we are redesigning or designing any website or app from scratch, we need to know our users. For example, for any website or app user needs login page, account page and profile page for sure. Here I've made a journey of user more like a information architecture. This helped to know about the website to its core and about all of the pages. With the business goal in mind, we make sure that our users reach the checkout screen without any hiccups. So, we sketched a current-state user journey map, to identify opportunities for improvement. We identified 2 unnecessary steps and potential drop-off points in the flow. By eliminating these from the new design, we ended up with a much faster checkout experience that contributed to conversion rates.
Heuristic evaluation
After researching I got to know that users are facing lot of problems which could be solved by heuristic approach. Measuring the usability by the heuristic evaluation from login process to all the pages of the websites. For the login process, user found hard to login. This page got more attention and more problem from user perspective.
The login process
Login is very problematic process for the user. They got so frustrated, they just wanted to leave after some point. This has of course some technical issue but from design perspective we could provide the flexibility and efficiency of use heuristic, means that systems should be versatile enough to accommodate the different needs of different users.
So, we added two more processes :
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Social sign in (what we had)
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Email sign in (without password)
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Classic sign in (with password)
Before
After
included social sign in
at the top as it's a
easy way to sign in
Classic login is a email login with password, we had to keep it for the users wo were used to it and also for users it worked.
Email login without
password, would help user to sign in without anymore clicks and without recalling their passwords.
Search result page
User feedback about the SRP wasn't that many but dealers weren't able to find their posts and after user interviews and surveys we got to know that the users were very confused while looking for RVs. Filter has to be clear for users to use it. Right now it's hard to search, the whole page is confusing. From heuristic evaluation, we need to show information in ways users understand from how the real world operates, and in the users' language.
Before
After
Used toggle to divide two main category that is, type and make
Left filters are
very useful when it comes to ecommerce websites, as it makes user to choose their preference without scrolling back.
Vehicle description page
VDP is not well organized today, important information is missing. The contact page is not clear. From heuristic evaluation, like for SRP same for VDP that is, we need to show information in ways users understand from how the real world operates, and in the users' language.
After
Before
Sticky form to contact seller, so it could stay and user don't have to scroll all the back up.
RV specifications and basic details before description was more important.
More from the dealer section is added,
this could help dealer as well as buyers.
looking RV
Usability testing
Handing over design is the final process but it's not final until the design has passed all the tests. I underlined my objectives and goals then checked whether my design meet the goals. The objectives were very clear:
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Improve user experience (UX)
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Increase Conversions
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Enhance visual appeal
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Update Content
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Improve Navigation and information architecture
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SEO Optimization
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Integrate New Features
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Accessibility Compliance
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Improve load time
Correction after testing
Gathered all the data collected during usability testing, including observations, user feedback, task success rates, and any recorded issues or challenges. Correction we needed were mostly some accessibility issues. We made two more versions and then the design went to AB testing again. After re-testing we finalized the design and hand it to developers. Explained them the whole design process, stayed connected with the dev team, looked after the codes, if any process needs correction or not.