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Project Overview

Problem Discovery 

  • What assumptions can we make regarding users of Autotrader?

  • What potential business problems stem from these assumptions?

  • What hypotheses can we test that can lead to proposed solutions for these business problems?

Usability Testing 

  • Send screener surveys to find ideal candidates 

  • Conduct usability tests with chosen candidates 

  • Observe tests and record observations via rainbow sheets

  • Conduct cooldown interviews with participants after usability test

  • Administer system usability scale questionnaire 

Data Analysis

  • Review rainbow sheet observations 

  • Review system usability scale questionnaire responses

Recommendations and Discussion

  • Propose changes to Autotrader website based off usability test observations, responses to cooldown question, and system usability scale questionnaire responses

Problem Discovery

Assumptions about Users

  • Users want to compare and contrast multiple vehicles

  • Users browse multiple sites to ensure they find best deal

  • Users have price range in mind

  • Users know make and model of car they are looking for

  • New users have difficulty finding useful tools and info on the site

  • Users who don't know market value of their car are less likely to list their car online

  • Users want to sell their vehicle quick and efficiently

Potential Business Problems 

  • If users compare and contrast vehicles across multiple sites they'll spend less time on Autotrader, resulting in less leads

  • Users with little to no knowledge of their car value are less likely to sell their car 

  • Spending time filtering through cluttered search results may lead to increased likelihood of user bounce rate 

Hypotheses

Improved Navigation and Findability 

  • If the car comparison tool is easily accessible then users time on site will increase and may result in more leads (less likely to compare across sites)

  • Listings from private sellers will increase if the "Price a Car" tool is easier to find
     

Declutter Site

  • General inquiries, appointment bookings, and offer submissions will increase if search results page is decluttered and organized more intuitively

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Usability Testing

Screener Survey 

Our list of screener survey questions can be found here

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USABILITY TEST TASKS

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Find "Car Comparison Tool"

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Filter Search Results

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Find "Price a Car" Tool

Data Analysis

Usability Test 1 - Find the Car Comparison Tool 

Observations 

  • Users struggled with this task the most 

  • 3 users rated this task as a 5/5 in terms of difficulty to complete

  • 2 users failed to complete the task entirely as they did not look in the navigation bar under "reviews and advice"

  • All users reported feeling lost while trying to complete the task as they switched between multiple pages

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Quotes

  • "I'm assuming the tool is on the navigation bar or... hmm it's not here."

  • "I really don't know where it could be at."

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Usability Test 2 - Filter search results to ensure results only include Black Honda Civics with 4 Doors 

Observations 

  • Users scored this task as being the easiest 

  • 3 users scored this task as a 1/5 in terms of difficulty to complete 

  • All users completed the task 

  • Only struggle was finding the "colour" filter as it was listed as "exterior colour" 

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Quotes

  • "I guess this is pretty straight forward."

  • "Looking at doors, 4+ doors...we'll apply that ."

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Usability Test 3 - Find the "Price a Car" tool

Observations 

  • All users completed the task

  • One participant struggled to find the tool due to them not associating the navigation bar label of "What's my car worth?" with the "Price a Car" tool

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Quotes

  • "Price Index? No... Oh here"

  • "Well if I want to sell a car... the first thing I see is 'Whats my Car Worth?', so I could click on this"

  • "We are looking to estimate value so it would be 'What's my Car Worth?'"

Post-Test Cool Down Questions

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System Usability Scale

Our post-test SUS questionnaire can be found here

System Usability Scale Questionnaire Results

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Recommendations and Discussion

Key Takeaways

  • The navigation bar was not intuitive 

  1. No drop down arrows for navigation bar headings, impossible to tell there were hidden drop down items

  2. Click-to-reveal requires users to click on the navigation bar headings in order to reveal hidden drop down menu items

  3. Navigation bar headings are titled in ways that can confuse users

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  • Filtering Search Results

  1. Filtering by colour is difficult as it is labelled as "exterior colour" and users were looking for "colour"

  2. Although "exterior colour" is an accurate description it is unnecessary because there is no "interior colour" option​

Recommendations

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Discussion

Pain Points: 
We discovered that the navigation bar for the Autotrader site is a source of pain for users, especially those who are new to the site. Autotrader offers lots of information and tools for users looking to buy or sell their vehicle, however, being unable to find these tools forces users to check other sites and ultimately reduces time spent on Autotrader. Adding drop down arrows, hover options, and renaming headings may make the navigation bar easier to use and help increase time spent on Autotrader. This increased time spent on Autotrader may subsequently lead to higher likelihood of offers, inquiries, or postings being created by users. 

Future Research:
Future studies should be done to see whether or not our recommendations improve the ease of finding tools on the site and improve filtering search results. This future research should also focus on finding correlation between our recommendations and whether or not they influence users' likelihood of submitting offers, inquiries, or creating new postings for their own vehicle. 

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