The inspiration for this project revolved around a digression from the big-box, marketplace model that PSP Motorsports (PSP) originally planned. This site model did not resonate with their customers who expected to find a more personal interaction indicative of a small brand. The project revolved around a reorientation of perspective, seeking to tell the story of a luxury brand deeply rooted in quality, community, and innovation.
The light-duty diesel truck industry has evolved from the blue-collar, farm and work truck segment most common over the past 30 years, to a refined, high-end consumer base who demands a vehicle platform that sits comfortably alongside the traditional luxury class. In order to pace this shift in consumer expectations, manufacturers in the aftermarket space needed to better understand the opinions and behaviors of their customers in order to design better products and better experiences.
As the existing e-commerce site was developed under a number of false assumptions, both pertaining to customers AND brand owners, my discovery sought to find insights about the average user, how they searched for parts, and what product features were important to them. I also sought to understand the brand owner's vision of their own products and how they had historically interacted with users.
Insights from this survey confirmed some assumptions, but surprised us in other regards. The quality of the PSP product line was the leading attractor for consumers, as expected, but the brand owners were surprised that product users rated their satisfaction as 'moderately satisfied' instead of 'extremely satisfied'. We were also surprised by the volume of +45 aged customers, as the brand has traditionally been focused on younger demographics.
Follow-up interviews with customers who completed the survey reported these reasons for being satisfied to moderately satisfied with their purchase:
With the information gathered during the discovery phase, I formulated a model for the
e-commerce store that would address user pain-points regarding access to information and navigability of the site while also highlighting the quality of the brand by speaking to the bespoke craftsmanship that each piece receives.
The team wasn't surprised that the majority of users were coming from mobile devices, but we knew we could improve the mobile experience. A responsive design created an adaptive platform that would offer incredible interactions via mobile, but could easily change to accommodate desktop and tablet customers.
Holding a well-made product, turning it over in your hands and enjoying the many facets of thoughtful construction is a special experience. How could I recreate this on the digital landscape? Our greatest hope was using stunning visuals of the products and the brand story that surrounds them. Taking into account the majority of business was generated through social media and friend referrals, I wanted to create a system that would allow the community to participate in the story through their own visuals.
Information architecture for any e-commerce site is critical to its usability, so we spent some time examining this challenge, after which we progressed to sketches, wireframes, and a working prototype to test the user flow.
After referring back to our user pain-points, feedback on the current site, and accounting for the dramatic change in product catalog, I decided a significantly flatter IA would facilitate measurable improvements in the user's ability to find what they need. The PSP product offerings were relatively minimal, so we wanted to allow customers to not only find a specific product easily, but also have exposure to other applicable items.
PSP was using an existing e-commerce framework, so my sketching goals were more focused on roughing in the elements that would simplify user flows, create a clean and modern aesthetic, and draw attention to featured images. Moving through wireframes, I blocked in the critical features in order to quickly move to user testing. I wanted to evaluate our assumptions around user mental models pertaining to search, product information, and customer/brand interactions.
User testing was critical to understanding if customers would be in the same lane as our team. I created a clickable prototype that addressed 4 evaluative tasks, critical to the success of this project.
Five participants were recruited for testing, each asked to complete four tasks based on scenarios that aligned with user pain-points and the goals of our personas.
With our testing, observational data, and business goals in hand, the final designs captured the #built mentality that has driven the growth of this industry, a thriving sub-culture who's heart has beat since bootleggers modified the first Ford Model T.
PSP had a logo they were happy with, so I simply cleaned up the lines and refreshed the color palette.
Beyond the highlight color present in the logo, I chose a cool color palette indicative of the metal finishes that make their product so memorable. I also wanted to avoid the over-used red and black scheme that seems to grace so many automotive brands. In addition, many of the vehicles they feature are boldly colored, so a neutral palette would compliment them.
