Hyundai is one of the largest automotive import brands to the United States, and their HyundaiUSA.com web site is their primary destination for shoppers when considering the brand, evaluating product, shopping local inventory, plus more – supporting such channels as in-market media, paid/organic social, CRM, paid/organic search, etc.
With me and my team having supported Hyundai for over 5 years prior to this redesign, the HyundaiUSA.com website was in a relatively solid place (from an experience standpoint); however, since enhancements were continuing to be built on an aging infrastructure, that held separate codebases for desktop and mobile, among other inefficiencies, it was time for a re-platform.
Serving as Director of User Experience, I provided guidance throughout the research, design, implementation and post-launch stages of this project – including, but not limited to, direction with 5 years vested knowledge of Hyundai's historical behavioral insights, specifications of interaction requirements and patterns, user expectation, pathing based on shopper's top tasks, and so on.
With insights and data as drivers, we analyzed, conceptualized and designed various improvements to support one's Hyundai vehicle shopping experience – making it easier to find a model/trim based on their needs (via intent-based vehicle filters when browsing), enabling a better understanding of product differences (via contextual comparisons), plus more.
The overall redesign was well received by stakeholders, shoppers and third-party evaluators, such as JD Power.
To ensure the teams were able to confidently focus on meaningful problems throughout each design sprint, me and my team gathered and distilled a culmination of historical learnings, including 100+ un/moderated usability tests and benchmark studies via UserTesting.com, behavioral analysis via SessionCam (heatmaps, funnels, etc.), and quantitative insights from Adobe Analytics.
Additionally, as we made our way through each sprint/wave, we worked collaboratively to gain insights through cards sorting and tree tests via Optimal Workshop (to support the site's information architecture), plus continuous user testing to guide and validate designed solutions.
Shoppers repeatedly spoke to wanting an easier way to find a vehicle that met their needs – allowing them to essentially filter out products that didn't have the features they were looking for – for example:
"I want to start to filter out results — looking at vehicles, I am not sure which one is good for me."
Through insights and discovery, we were met with the following areas of opportunities:
In addition to the much needed re-platform to Adobe Experience Manager (AEM), there were so many great solutions brought forth throughout the design process. Below are some highlights of those that went live.
We introduced filtering capabilities throughout various areas of the site, so shoppers' could distill vehicle model and trim options down based on their wants and needs – making it easier for them to see which vehicle best fits them and their lifestyle.
Supported by our research, shoppers naturally seek comparative information between products. These comparisons naturally span various lenses, such as:
Leveraging already established design patterns, we provided access to compare, contextually, throughout various touch points of the shopping experience.
As more of an iteration of our previous well performing site structure and navigation (produced for Hyundai over the years), we prominently expose and organize primary navigational paths that best support the shoppers' top tasks – popular pathing and actions taken (based on quantitative insights), taking into account both object and subject oriented pathing – within a hybrid menu (exposed links + overflow menu); making it easier for shoppers to find what they are looking for, quickly.
Ability to save both Built/configured vehicles, but also local inventory, so shoppers' no longer need to replicate previous actions.
Initial personalization included such anticipatory design approaches as a "Welcome Back" component that was shown to returning visitors on the homepage – showing vehicle information and popular paths based on the specific vehicle they last engaged with – served via Adobe Target.
Upon launch, the newly redesigned website performed quite well – based on measured success through KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), HVAs (High Value Actions) and third party evaluations.
At launch, the redesign resulted in an improved ranking to #3 in JD Power's Manufacturer Website [Mimic] Evaluation Study in the United States – out of 18 automotive sites.
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