A design vision for buying cars
OLX is the world's leading classifieds market place. In the automotive vertical millions of users buy and sell cars, bikes and parts.
OLX discovered that the user experience on the automotive app and mobile web were unsatisfactory. They hired us an external UX/UI consultant to create a long term design vision for their in-house design team.
We worked on the UX and UI design of selected modules. By creating UX concepts and UI designs we got to the point where we equipped their design team with a fully functional design system.
OUR CONTRIBUTIONS
UX Design
UX Flow
Prototyping
Concept Design
Interaction Design
UI Design - Design System
Design Validation
Quality Assurance
THE DESIGN KICK-OFF IN LISBON
Two designers and the project manager visited OLX in Lisbon for a 3-day workshop. We dived deep into the user research results they had accumulated, marketing insights and their design team’s previous attempts at solving the problem. We were able to speak to the various stakeholders and to departments in different countries where the automotive vertical is essential.
We agreed priorities and a roadmap for the coming weeks.
A LOGIC THAT BRINGS FEATURES AND JOURNEYS TOGETHER
The purpose was to create a long term vision for the mobile experience. Thus, we reconsidered the feature stack, drawing on market research, trends and the likely evolution of technology to present a new perspective on how the app can offer value to users.
Taking a behavioural perspective, we conceptualised user journeys that show how individual features add up to more than the sum of the parts. By being in constant contact with the OLX team, we reconciled this futuristic vision with a realistic take on their development pipeline.
DESIGN VALIDATION FOR THE NEW UX CONCEPTS
Next we created UX design concepts for individual journeys. We expressed our design thinking in the form of wireframes and interactive prototypes.
Every two days we provided an update to the product team and at the end of every week we presented to the wider OLX project team that included marketing, VPs and development.
We let them in our design thinking and the reasoning behind design decisions, highlighting expected outcomes, alternatives that were considered and recommendations for roll-out. The decision making process was documented in Confluence, and in the weekly calls we had fruitful exchange with multiple views being shared.
Design training for the client's team
Once we had stable UX design concepts and initial UI styles, we co-located again in Lisbon for a week. In this time, we conducted sessions with the VPs, marketing and development to integrate the new design and product vision into their wider strategy.
Additionally, our designers trained the OLX in-house design team to use the design concepts to further develop the app. Together we agreed a plan to roll out the designs gradually with careful testing at every step.
UI DESIGNS AS A VISUAL LANGUAGE
The UI design style we created had to be brand agnostic, to enable OLX to develop one code library to be used in countries with different brands. Additionally, we reduced the UI library to a minimum, to keep code straightforward and to support a fast loading app.
We tested all designs to ensure accessibility standards in different jurisdictions are met and documented all styles in a library that can be used by multiple designers at the same time.
It meant a lot to work with such high caliber experts to translate our ideas into an implementation ready design and I really appreciate your open approach.
A NEW DESIGN VISION READY TO BE IMPLEMENTED
When OLX approached us they were torn between the need to reinvent the app and the need to start development soon. They were unsure how to reconcile long term thinking with the pragmatism needed to make things happen.
In 10 weeks we set them up with a vision about how exactly features and an improved user experience will set them apart in the marketplace in the coming years. Additionally, we equipped them with a set of designs to be coded and a design system to be used by their design team to elaborate the rest of the app.
Throughout the project we worked closely with the product and design teams, sharing our insights our way of thinking and our tools. On multiple occasions we worked side by side from their office in Lisbon to facilitate knowledge transfer
OUTCOMES
User flows and UX interaction logic delivered in 6 weeks
Brand agnostic design system delivered in 4 weeks
Feature roadmap with testing protocols
All design thinking documented in Confluence
Design and product teams trained to roll out the design vision
See Also
The application is used by 7 million users per month to buy and sell cars.
The brand is used in Romania and it has been in existence for 18 years.
The South African car vertical brand is used by millions of users.
The Portuguese app is leading in the car vertical.
