CarGo Mobile App Experience
Using the onboard computer in your vehicle, CarGo would connect your vehicle with a smart phone app. Then what?
Our client, a start-up, wasn’t entirely sure what would happen next. That’s where we helped. We worked closely with them and potential end-users to identify and conceive of features for the app to provide value.
We used different methods of moderated user testing to vet those features and determine the viability of the product—before it was brought to market.
My role:
User interviews & research
User testing
Wireframes & user flows
Creative proof-of-concept
Details:
2017 for Connective DX
Imagining & iterating
Working alongside the Director of User Experience, we created scripts that allowed us to interview participants by walking through scenarios—for example, getting a flat tire.
The users would articulate what they thought, felt, and wanted to be able to do in context to the scenario. From this, we were able to take the user feedback into ideation workshops.
We we imagined different features for the app and hardware when used together. We pursued several ideas around using the smart car features to provide crash alerts for emergency contacts and first-responders, as well as some other features for parents of young drivers.
After ideation, we began wireframing—visualizing every step in the flow for each feature. We wanted to explore every “what if” and “what next” we discovered. Our goal was to find place where the app experience would fall down, then iterate on it. If we were going to recommend this app as viable, we wanted our guidance to be airtight.
The app concept included features like adding/removing:
Vehicles
Drivers
Emergency contacts
Insurance information
Roadside assistance information
Driving perimeter
Driving curfew
Using the wireframes, we built prototypes and conducted further user testing. As we evaluated the different app capabilities—and the feedback we were receiving—we began assessing the uniqueness of the product offering against the competitive set already in-market.
Ultimately, our pre-market research gave our client the information, rationale and confidence to pivot away from a direct-to-consumer application—choosing instead to targeting fleet-based companies with more of a business-to-business model.
