The Industry's #1 Digital Vehicle Inspection Solution

Project Overview

Redesigning Digital Vehicle Inspection for Enhanced Transparency and Trust

In the auto service industry, transparency and trust are paramount. My goal was to redesign the digital vehicle inspection process to be more transparent, making it easy for customers to understand what services are being performed and why they are necessary.

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What We Think Problem Is...

The automotive repair industry often struggles with customer trust due to perceived opacity in vehicle servicing and inspections. This mistrust can lead to customer dissatisfaction and decreased business loyalty.

Users are experiencing difficulty with the current DVI due to excessive scrolling on mobile devices, which leads to a less efficient and more frustrating experience. There's also a lack of clarity in technician notes and no illustrations for empty states, making the interface feel less interactive and informative.

• Not visually engaging
• Endless scrolling
• Cognitive overload: presented information is not clear
• Not clear what to do with this information

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The Real Problem...

There's actually 2:

1. Negative Sentiment: At the end of service visit, customers feel deliberately confused as to what the repairs are, and what the cost is. This creates a negative sentiment.
2. Industry Deadlines: As an agile software company, there are relatively few sprints before the product is expected to launch. The product manager creates the acceptance criteria, and it is my job to verify it.

Acceptance Criteria

1. The redesigned DVI must maintain the general flow of the current system, including sections for the reason for visit, vehicle health report, and tire inspection.
2. The information must be organized in a way that reduces the need for endless scrolling, possibly through collapsible menus or tabbed interfaces.
3. Empty state illustrations must be added to guide users when no issues are present in particular sections.
4. Technician notes must be presented clearly, with an emphasis on legibility and succinctness.
5. The design must be responsive, ensuring a seamless experience across both mobile and desktop views.
6. The layout should be tested for user satisfaction, ensuring the new design meets the needs and preferences of the majority of users.
7. Feature enhancements suggested during the rollout must be documented for potential inclusion in future updates.

Research

Studies show that DVIs enhance customer understanding by providing detailed visual and textual explanations of detected issues. These inspections use software tools to deliver precise reports with images and videos, enabling customers to see and understand the condition of their vehicle rather than relying on verbal explanations from technicians. This transparency helps in building trust, with customers appreciating the clear communication of what work needs to be done and why ​ (PartsTech)​​ (Ravin AI)​​ (Autoflow)​.

Interviews

We conducted 4 different interviews across different auto-service experiences.

Pain Points

• Sense of urgency to know what the cost is and what needs to be fixed
• Decision making whether to repair or not
• Knowing when the repair is finished

Iterations

1. Initial Design: Started with a basic digital report that included text-only explanations.
2. Feedback Implementation: Incorporated customer feedback to include images and videos for a more transparent inspection process.
3. Enhanced Features: Added detailed checklists and the ability to view the service history over time to keep the customer informed about their vehicle's ongoing needs.

Why we chose iteration 2

With its pop-up chatbox, successfully balances communication efficiency with inspection accuracy. The chat box keeps the service team connected and builds customer trust.

• Chat box is less intrusive
• Customer can focus more on what the digital vehicle inspection is meant for
• Chat boxes are typically an enhancement, not a minimal viable product item

Final Design

Figma Component Creation

I started with creating the components in Figma for the pages using variants. This helps the flow of the prototype, as each variant uses underlying swappable base components.

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Prototype

Project Outcomes

In working on the Autoflow project, I learned that providing transparent digital vehicle inspections (DVIs) is crucial for all customers due to widespread fear of being ripped off, which greatly affects trust in the auto service industry. This skepticism stems from a history of inadequate communication between service providers and customers, often leaving customers confused about pricing and uncertain if they're being charged fairly.

A transparent DVI system directly addresses this by:

Next Steps

Technical Challenge

Integrating pricing models within the Digital Vehicle Inspection (DVI) system presents significant technical challenges due to the diverse APIs (or lack thereof) in existing auto-service systems. Key tasks with the engineering team include:

• AI Chatbox Integration: Implementing a real-time AI chatbox that connects with the current system.
• API Integration: Enabling compatibility with various software APIs to fetch accurate pricing and parts availability data.