AutoScout App
Reimagining the current car maintenance experience by using real time problem diagnostics and connecting vehicle owners with mechanics.
Reimagining the current car maintenance experience by using real time problem diagnostics and connecting vehicle owners with mechanics.
For my final year in the Interaction Design program at Sheridan, I was given an opportunity to find a meaningful problem in the world, that I could attempt to solve with the power of my accumulated design skills. This meant that I was responsible for all the research, testing prototyping and design found in this project. I was likely drawn to automotive maintenance at the inception of my journey because it was around the same time that I had purchased a used car and experienced first hand the struggles of dealing with unexpected technical problems.
A large percentage of Americans feel intimidated when taking their car to the mechanic due to their lack of automotive knowledge and fear of being taken advantage of. As a result they prolong dealing with issues and spend more in the long run.
A mobile app that notifies drivers about problems their vehicles are experiencing with an OBD2 scanner and connects drivers to mechanics that can fix the problem for the best price.
When a problem arises in a users car, a report will be generated containing an error code and brief explanation for the possible causes. The report will also specify the level of severity of the problem as well as the average price others have paid to get this problem fixed.
AutoScout was designed to provide drivers with useful information about their vehicles. By giving people the ability to see how their car's performance compares to other cars of the same make and year, we are able to give people a reference point for the overall health of their vehicle.
By clicking the ‘Get a quote’ button on the report page, users can begin generating quotes from local auto shops based on the reports that have been made for them. This allows users to quickly compare quoted prices amongst local auto shops and select the best offer.
I started my research phase by collecting data from various sources about the automotive industry and its participants. This helped me begin to uncover the behaviours and pain points of the users I was designing for.
Were worried they would be recommended
unnecessary services
Had negative past
experiences
Thought they would be
overcharged for services
I created a persona spectrum based on automotive knowledge and fleshed out the different types of users. I picked the average driver to be my primary user group as I found them to have the most amount of pain points within automotive maintenance from my initial research. I picked autoshop mechanics as my secondary group as they have a direct relationship with the driver.
I decided to gather more data and created a survey that I posted across social media. I wanted to get a general understanding for how open people are about learning to perform car maintenance themselves. This gave me the following key takeaways:
The participants were first asked their level car maintenance knowledge. Over half of the participants said that they have some car maintenance knowledge.
The participants then rated their past car maintenance experience on a scale 1 - 5. All participants with no car maintenance knowledge claimed they had had negative past experiences.
When given the option of performing simple car maintenance 75% of the participants claimed that they would prefer if someone else performed it for them.
I talked to an expert in the automotive industry to answer some research questions and validate previous assumptions.
Would an app with different car maintenance tutorials encourage people to perform their own car maintenance?
"An app with tutorials won't convince people to perform their own car maintenance. You can find how to do most things on YouTube already but people still come to autoshops."
Is there any a way a person could verify which problem their car is experiencing before coming to an autoshop?
"Not for all problems but if you have a check engine light you can use an OBD-2 scanner to read the engine code and search up what it means online."
My expert interview taught me about the existence of OBD2 scanners which turn out to be affordable devices that can provide users with real time diagnostics of their vehicles.
What is an OBD2 Scanner?
An OBD2 Scanner is small Bluetooth compatible device that is universally compatible with almost any car made in the last 25 years. It works by reading check engine codes that your car outputs and gives you a better understanding of what part is malfunctioning.
Why does it help my users?
After learning about how useful an OBD2 scanner could be, I began to wonder if there were already products in the market that people were taking advantage of. Through my exploration I found that many of the current apps using this technology felt outdated, clunky, and overwhelmed users with technical information.
With a solid idea of who I was designing for, I began to model my findings with user personas. I created one persona for the average driver and one for a mechanic. At this stage I envisioned both of these user groups to be a part of my final solution.
To get a more concrete understanding of where my primary focus should be for the design, I created a user journey map to identify where the pain points were found for both user groups. It turns out that for each user group the main points are found in their first interaction with each other, where the problem is analyzed and a cost to fix it is determined.
Using the opportunities in my journey maps, I began to translate them into features that I would implement into my final prototype. I did this through rough sketches and wireframes on a whiteboard.
After brainstorming features for the final solution, I organized the best ideas into a system map so that I could better visualize the user flow of my solution and if there were additional gaps I needed to fill in the greybox prototype.
With a grey box prototype I was able to layout some of the core ideas that I initially deemed most important to helping my users meet their goals. The initial prototype's main focus was on the pairing process and problem identification.
I then conducted some moderated user tests with 5 different participants. I gave the participants some scenarios and had them try and navigate through the prototype. I included some highlights of what went well and what didn't in the image below.
After the first round of testing was completed I used the feedback I received and began to make improvements to the design of the solution. I also began to experiment with color and other high fidelity components to see how I can make the content more palatable and easier to understand.
I did a second round of user testing to see if I was on the right track and what still needed adjusting.
With my prototypes and user testing completed, I began to make the appropriate changes based on user feedback and create my final high fidelity prototype. In addition to restructuring how some of the content was presented, I revisited the apps branding to try and revitalize the colors and give AutoScout a more modern and aesthetically pleasing interface. It was at this stage that I finalized a style tile that applied to the rest of the screens.
The final design contains 14 unique screens with functional navigation. It has screens designed both for the driver and the mechanic.
My Cars (Homepage)
The homepage of this app gives users useful information about their vehicles such as the distance / time they've spent driving and how much fuel their vehicle is consuming compared to others of the same make. When a problem arises the user will be notified via a notification on their phone and the 'Problem Detected' card at the top of the page.
Problem reports
The Reports page contains a list of all active and inactive reports that have been generated for the selected car. The report itself contains all information about a problem that arises such as the date, engine error code, explanation of the problem, problem severity and average cost for getting the problem fixed.
Autoshop quotes
The quotes page contains all quotes that are sent in by autoshops for a generated problem report. The user can scroll through the different quotes and access a chat with the autoshop where both parties can communicate and ask questions.
Autoshop Reviews
The Autoshop reviews section allows users to browse through the different user submitted reviews of relevant autoshops in any given area. Users are also able to submit their own reviews sharing their experiences and the amount they paid to geta task maintenance task done.
What the autoshop sees
If the user is a mechanic, the apps content and features are different than that of a regular driver. The reports page will now show all relevant problem reports in chronological order submitted by users that the autoshop can reply to. The autoshop can also respond to reviews posted about their autoshop on the reviews page.
I used to think that operating within a framework and implementing structure stifled the creative process and yet I found that under these circumstances I came up with my best ideas. It was through following the design process and implementing the various brainstorming and development tools I have learned in these last few years, where I found a problem worth solving and created a concrete plan grounded in research.
Moving forward I believe this project still has some areas that can be improved to optimize the user experience and with the right team this can become a useful tool for drivers and mechanics alike.
