About


During the Summer of 2023, I interned as a Product Design intern at General Motors in the CX Studio. I worked on a full-scale redesign of the vehicle ecommerce platform, from research, user testing, and design. The goal of the redesign was to create a contemporary, accessible design that would boost user satisfaction and decrease user pain points.

My design and research influenced the current vehicle experience, viewable anytime you look at vehicle inventory and hit “view and buy”!

also, met a lot of cool people and found a new appreciation for cars!

UI/UX UX Research User testing


Process

Over my 12 week internship, I developed my final project of a full-scale redesign of the e-commerce platform. This can be broken down into four larger categories of the design process, broken down into the specific actions I performed during each step. The learning experience was extensive, giving me the opportunity to create through the design process, perform real user tests, and present not only to GM executives, but the key platform stakeholders for future implementation in 2024.


Research and Conceptualization

The first thing I commenced on when tasks with reimagining the Shop Click Drive experience was to do my research on not only the product, but the competitive landscape and journey the user would go through. I collaborated with not only the stakeholders of the experience, but also the designers, writers, and developers in order to get a full idea of the product from all perspectives. Later, I would interview users who have purchased through this experience before as well as those who have done so for other brands and products.

    Benchmarked competitors and other ecommerce shopping experiences, compiling a 3 page report and presentation. The important part of researching was to avoid personal bias, and rather see what is the landscape that the users are entering.
Then commencing on interaction mapping the current state vs. future ideal state that a user would go through in order to own a vehicle in the Shop Click Drive experience. The current state calls out major road blocks in the process, as well as specific commentary call outs on certain pain areas that may cause a user to drop out of the process.
To get a better grasp of the full user experience, I created a user journey map, taking users through an ideal state of the process. This was used when considering how the process would be reimagined in an ideal world.
Current State 


Through the research, I identified some key roadblocks that I wanted to address:
  • Long, gruelling process. As seen above, the entire journey itself is 7 steps, with multiple selections within each step, credit applications, and cirrcular buttons that jump you forward in the process. There was decision fatique, in that each step had multiple sub steps that may help you in the future, but feel unnecessary in the beginning. Is there a way to simplify this?
  • Blurred concept. When going through Shop Click Drive, the process to the end does not make it clear if you are actually purchasing a vehicle that will end up on your doorstep, or the reality in which you are sending a request to your local dealer to buy this vehicle. One of the first questions to go beyond the first step is signing up for texts. How do we make sure the customer feels informed about what they are doing, and feel comfortable proceeded?
  • Overwhelming financials. Let’s talk about money, the biggest anxiety inducer on the second biggest purchase of a user’s life. When you first open the webpage, your initial impression is 10 different ways you can pay for your car and 15 different add ons, taxes, and numbers. 

Ideation & Design

After all the research, I began ideating and designing what a new experience may look like. I collaborated with product designers and cross-functional teams to design wireframes and create a prototype that reimagined and modernized the ownership and shopping experience across brand websites. I ended up with two mid-fidelity prototypes, one with a focus on a “no steps” experience, and one with 3 steps in manageable chunks. To address some of the blurred concept concerns, I created a confirmation page the outlined the next steps as well as something that people could review to feel like their work in the journey was completed.


Iteration & Validation

I designed two concepts to help address all of the main identified roadblocks, but now wanted to see what actually works. While both have solutions to the proble,s do either come out on top? I put on the hat of a UX researcher in order to find out and collect insights with a group of 10 participants.

  • Performed A/B user testing and empathy interviews from a selected pool of GM customers.
  • Analyzed data to gather key insights on the prototypes.
  • Presented a user testing presentation and report to key stakeholders.
The answer to the question in the end was a mix of both. Users enjoyed the increase in security, readability, and ease of use. Some issues did arise in the “no steps” concept, there were times where the experience felt too open and the users got overwhelmed with decision, but enjoyed the seamless design from a visual perspective. The second prototype felt like it reduced the experience into manageable chunks, but some failed to view details below the vehicle image and rather go straight to the steps.


Refinement & Handoff

To prepare for a final prototype, I asked the Vehicle Ecommerce team together for a full critique. It created good dialogue, to analyze from not only usability and design, but also gain insight from a cross-functional team all with different experiences and perspectives.

The key changes that stemmed from this were specifically regarding usability and copy. What are the key CTA’s? Are these clear? Ensuring that I am designing for every customer, including accessibility wise. The biggest changes occured in the financial calculator-something my user tests didn’t pick up on. People wanted to know what happens when they expanded, as well as have clarification in the financial details on what they should be focusing on.

For the final product, I began focusing on the “no steps” visual design, but began adding more step-focused indicators as well as added more detail copy to the process. For example, as you scroll through, the banner changes to indicate you are now in a selection process that can be saved. The order of information also changed, moving protection plans toward the end as an “add on”. The financial calculator was updated to be more discriptive as well as focus on customer-friendly hierarchy. 

All the research, testing, and feedback culminated into the final designs:

Scrollable View


Shopping Page
Confirmation Page
Mobile View
Brand Home Page Variation
Accessories Pop Up View
Financial Calculator Pop Up View
Vehicle Trade In and Test Drive Pop Ups
Brand Home Page Variation
Financial Calculator Pop Up
Accessories Pop Up

Key Solutions:
  • Long, gruelling process to a one-stop shop. Simplifying the process into a “no steps” page, but with new indication you’ve moved to a new part of the process, as well as detailed CTA’s. All of it allowing the user to freely jump around step-to-step without hitting roadblocks, and making the decisions important to them first. The financial process is something that they can play around with with clear cut focus, and the rest is the cherry on top of customizing your new car.
  • Blurred concept to quick understanding. A key call out at the top of the page explaining the purpose of the page-to send a request to the local dealer with all the annoying details done ahead of time. A new confirmation page that empowers the consumer to take charge, and feel like thy have made progress in their buying journey.
  • Overwhelming financials, into a focused, clear journey. The new financial calculator is opened willingly, without the intial jumpscare in the original version. The new calculator has a clear hierarchy and positive indicators for incentives/money saved.


Takeaways

1. You cannot design in a vaccum

    Designing for General Motors meant that I would be considering a plethora of perspectives, issues, and guidelines that I had never faced before. It was important for me to receive diverse perspectives from fellow product designers, visual designers, user researchers, and project managers in order to best reach my goals for this internship. I found myself realizing that I had a team to support me, and that wanted to help give and receive feedback on a lot of work that was going on. Through working with a diverse group, I was able to grow as a designer. Even working in a remote environment, I fostered positive work relationships and culture with those around me. Whether it be accessibility considerations such as color contrast and font size, or targeting the correct prioority audience, I learned that design has a diverse range of factors to always consider.

2. Test once, test twice, then test til you can’t test anymore

    A big thing that I had never previous done was user testing in a real world environment. It was scary. But, I knew it was important to the process and so I undertook 6 empathy interviews and 6 users tests of my mid-fidelity prototypes. By the time I’d got past the 3rd interview, I felt more comfortable and like this was a task I could learn. I was getting valuable feedback that team critiques and staring at a screen couldn’t do. The best idea was to get as many tests as I could, as users would run into problem I could never imagine. Or even that their chosen path was different the one I intended, and how further tests couold show how I couold get them back on the desired path. While scary, testing gave me so much valuable experience not only in the work place but in life.

3. It’s okay to not know what you’re doing. What matters is you learn

   Going into this internship, I was ecstatic to get started. I had full confidence in my design and presentation abilities. What I had never done before is a user test with complete strangers who, if they wanted to, could tear my design into shred. And that was scary. But, I knew that the benefit-getting real, unfiltered feedback was pure gold that designers could only hope for. So I wrote a interview script and soon sat down for my first user interview. 
   Even writing this now, I funnily enough still have butterflies in my stomach thinking of how I felt. I was nervous, yet excited to take on this new challenge. After my first user interview, I was shocked about how smoothly it went. I didn’t miss a step, I didn’t confuse the user, and they even seemed to like the design! As the day went on, I felt more confident and at ease with the interview. I could make small talk, I could get through the test within the time limit, and I learned that it would all be okay. I did not know what I was doing, I ran over time during an earlier test, and I wanted this to work so badly. In the end, it worked out. And I learned that it doesn’t matter how nervous you are, how much you don’t know, but if you prepare and put your heart fully into it, you will learn and thrive.