CarMax Information Architecture Redesign
Roles
- Wireframer
- UX Designer
- Information Architect
Tools
- Balsamiq
- Visio
Methods
- User Interviews
- Information Architecture
- Competitive Analysis
Problem: Carmax wants to increase their sales by connecting with college age car buyers. They want to keep up to date with social media, while getting college age users to use their website as a platform to buy cars.
Solution: College age buyers typically build lists of candidate cars and find social media to gather data on their list. We also found that users don't know what they're looking for and typically avoid parents suggestions. We built a wizard with social media access that would allow users to quickly narrow down cars and share them with social media.
Takeaways: Competitive analysis are key to seeing how you can differ from the competition. Much of my work involved understanding other websites and then synthesizing the data into a tangible solution, in this case a wizard.
Process
To redesign the information architecture and design, we first wanted to pinpoint where users had the most problem. We interviewed several university students and recorded them attempting to choose a car on the current website. We then looked at what competitors used and how their sites worked. I was in charge of analyzing competitor websites and designing a new user flow. After my teammates finished their interviews and heuristic evaluations, I worked with them to redesign the website. I drove the idea of using a wizard to allow students to input their needs and see what cars the wizard can find. In the end, I helped design the wizard wireframe according to some of our other features that we designed.
Case Study Excerpts
