Audi Driving Experience
Building and launching an online booking platform for Audi's Driving Experience program
Service Design, Research, UI, Prototyping, UX Metrics
Overview
Together with a product team from Modus, we were entrusted to work alongside Audi Business Innovation (ABI) and build a B2C web-based platform designed for booking driving events hosted by Audi AG or its dealer partners. It’s designed for showcasing a new car model, a training experience, or a bespoke event for a specific use case.
The program targets premium-class car owners but also automotive aficionados.
Project setup
Our team was integrated into Audi Business Innovation’s (ABI) sAFE environment from the Solution level downwards, being one of the four Agile Release Trains (ARTs).
One Audi OS ART (Team Chablis)
Working in Program Increments of 3 months, with 2-week sprints + 1QA overlap.
The Scaled Agile Framework® (SAFe®) is a set of organizational and workflow patterns for implementing agile practices at an enterprise scale.
Team composition
Our product team was put together and with one exception everyone was from Modus. Other groups were much more mixed, with members from different agencies.
that's me!
Status quo
The driving experience booking process was dated, and tedious, forcing users to download a PDF, fill it in, send it via Post, get a confirmation via customer support (phone), receive their invoice via email/post, and send a payment confirmation via email or post.
"No digital solution, which affects our younger targeted audience and all other users."
Pain points & limitations
• The problem is global and needs a global solution. Audi’s Deutschland website & market, Audi Driving Experience page would be the first implementation market.
• Whenever the PDF is ignored - a visible drop point during research - causes Audi to lose leads and potential clients.
• Technical limitations - The parent page (Audi Driving Experience) is managed by other parties, all integrations come and must be approved by multiple layers. Other integrations are not managed by Modus (e.g. payment). UI components are limited to Audi’s UI library, hardly supporting new/custom solutions, and the desired outcome will have to push these limitations.
• Product challenges: The very old system (pdf), lack of user data, Pushback on ideas
Project goal & roadmap
Our main goal was to transform the current booking solution (an offline PDF), into a digital platform that would display all the available Driving Experiences into one comprehensive solution, allowing users to discover them and book events based on experience type, different locations, and dates. This platform would support integration with MyAudi (Audi’s login system), Audi’s Payment platform (ACP), customer support services, and other 3rd party solutions.
Of course, everything had to follow Audi's CI guidelines for implementation, more details about that in this Audi case study (II) → on micro frontends.
Process & mothodology
Understanding and narrowing down the target audience, knowing which category user group we must focus on, and identifying their needs and patterns, based on previously available data and relevant insights. Having a systemic approach, our solution would integrate and be impacted by other connected services, so everything must be taken into consideration. Aligning the product goals while keeping a user-centric guideline, defining each step and what a positive outcome should look like.
Understanding
A few stakeholder interviews quickly confirmed our initial hypotheses and transformed any assumptions into reality, giving us more depth and context than what any spreadsheet would show. With the data provided by the client plus the insights these interviews revealed we managed to establish who we are focusing on but also who we should be deprioritising.
• Funnel analysis
• Data analysis report
• Competitive analisys
The big picture
Having an overview of all the services, end-to-end, front to back and across channels, third-party providers, and other suppliers that would contribute to the outcome of this project helped us generate a complete picture of what’s needed from the UX standpoint, anticipating risks and dependencies and also made aligning on deliverables much easier.
• Consumer journey map
• Service blueprint
This was a collaborative task between Proxy Owner & Product, with Design as responsible for only the Customer Journey part/ informed of the other services.
Defining and evolving
We used tools like Statista to pull some relevant data based on our target audience. Patterns, behaviors, communication channels, product preferences, and anything that would lead the way to a great customer experience. Competitive analysis pointed out insights from the features, functions, and flows the competition used and helped us build a superior product and overall experience.
• Dot voting (prioritization)
• Competitive analysis
We mapped out all the variables, flushed out the unknowns, identified each step and desired deliverable(s), and categorized them (content, UI, etc.), seeking to estimate an approximate effort for splitting work into tasks, and resource allocation.
• Task analysis flows
Prototype & validation
Based on the research results, the interviews, the workshop, and multiple discussions with the stakeholders a first iteration and a prototype of the booking platform was designed in Sketch.
The client wanted to give the users the option to start their selection from three different entry points (just like Booking dot com): Location, Date, and Experience type, all these being interconnected (waterfall) and making it very difficult for the user to find a desired experience once he selected one of the entry points.
On top of that, the checkboxes were used as filters adding a 4th layer of selection, making things even more complicated with roughly ±2000 different possible results.
This created a problem in the flow of the search:
• If the user selects an experience and the available dates are not aligned with the user’s schedule, he will have to reset the entire search, and re-do the process until he finds a sweet spot between the three variables).
Analyzing & refining
After the first few concepts, we built a prototype we could use for further testing and to gather feedback on the design. We conducted a few internal usability tests with Audi to observe how users would interact with the prototype, identify pain points, and note areas that can be enhanced.
Something that stuck out was the fact that on mobile devices, the booking process felt very long and the users had to infinite scroll to get to the end. It was then we decided to split the form into multiple steps so the users would navigate easier.
Just as in this example, there were many rounds of refinement and improvement along the way, even after the product went live.
Handoff
The deliverables handoff included all the screens together with some "optional extras". In Audi's Zeplin Project space we exported everything from a 404 error page design, the email booking confirmation design, the success screen, the email validation screen, the share the experience screen, and all the possible notifications, errors, and edge cases.
And of course, all the designs were adapted to the screen sizes requested by Audi. Responsiveness is key, and nothing was left to the interpretation of the front-end developers.
Implementation & launch
The next step would be to collaborate with the development team to ensure the design is implemented accurately and matches the desired user experience. Teaming up with QA to make sure everything works and looks optimal, as they are always happy to have you on their side when they log any UI or usability bug.
Post-launch feedback
Audi was already using powerful analytics and based on the monthly reports and reviews, we would analyze them and go through possible options for improvements over the course of the first six months after launch.
But we also wanted to catch any user (dis)engagement issues in real-time, so we started looking at what UX metrics we should focus on and decided to implement three types of surveys during the process of booking a driving experience.
• Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT)
• Customer Effort Score (CES)
• Net Promoter Score (NPS)
These metrics would let us measure, compare, and track the user experience throughout their booking journey.
We went back and forth with different styles for the surveys (it was one of the few things the Audi design system didn't have by default so we were given a free hand to build one and send it for approval to the Design Ops team).
Conclusion & takeaways
Working with enterprises can be rewarding.
• The project itself wasn't spectacular in terms of UI, but the journey of getting to the final product was very rewarding, having to apply almost every UX methodology in the book, something I never had the time, budget, or freedom to apply until now.
• I had regular internal meetings, training & knowledge-sharing sessions, with access to many of their other projects and also a community of design industry experts of over 70 ppl across the globe. And I learned a lot from them during my two years with ABI.
• Knowing that your design will be exposed to possibly millions of users around the world brings a sort of fulfillment. And the pressure that comes with it makes it even more fun, with no room for errors.
Working with enterprises can be challenging.
• The sAFE framework is very strong for optimal collaboration and alignment between teams, stakeholders, etc. but it comes at a cost. I was averaging around 13 hours of meetings per week. That's 1/3 of the time.
• Last but not least, on the UI side of design, you have a very limited choice of components to 'play' with. Anything you want to do custom has to go through an entire approval process that usually takes several weeks and many layers of screening before you might still get a NO in return.
