I’m a designer, music lover, and a total nature-nerd who is obsessed with creativity, experimentation, and functionality. Basically; I love making things that make life better and look or feel good while they do it.
At my day job I split my time between creating new UX solutions, facilitating workshops, and managing an awesome team of talented designers.
When I’m not making a mess on a whiteboard you can find me tinkering in my workshop, waxing poetic over a new band, or happily getting lost in the woods.
Project Details
Designing the Interface
This portal needed to be a one-stop-shop for dealerships to interact with available products. I began in a lo-fi state and used sketches and basic wireframes to work out potential user flows and technical architecture.
The idea was to create one page which could reflect the many states of each item. Products and their prices would be directly editable and modals or overlays would be used for confirmations, warnings, or tertiary actions like viewing change history.
I brought the wireframes into higher fidelities as we moved through rounds of design critiques and feedback from stakeholders and SMEs. Fortunately, MBUSA has an extensive style guide and component library, so it was easy to stay consistent with their branding.
Ultimately the designs went through four main iterations. The last two revisions included feedback directly from our group of sponsored users.
Usability Testing & Iteration
With our revised set of screens we ran usability testing with multiple employees from six dealerships around the country from Manhattan to Sacramento. Since this was in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic, all tests were done via zoom and users shared their screen while completing their four primary task scenarios.
The tests were a resounding success with an overall task completion rate of 96% and also gave us fantastic user insights. This feedback prompted small layout tweaks, additional microcopy, and new component interactions to act as signifiers.
Understanding the Problem, User Needs, and Scope
When Mercedes contacted us, they had already outlined the overall vision and defined main sections of the dealership portal: vehicle inventory, Insurance Products, Services, and Accessories). The first release would focus on Mercedes Benz Financial Services group of insurance products, but they had yet to finalize primary features, user enablements, and system requirements.
To align on user needs and system goals while also getting buy-in, I facilitated a prioritization workshop with key stakeholders, SMEs, Tech Leads, and sponsored users. The result was a defined MVP, prioritized backlog, and a solid foundation for the upcoming sprints.
Final Designs
Our Solution
We built Mercedes a responsive online portal which allows dealership employees to see inventory, activate products and set markup pricing based on account permissions. These changes are recorded in a log for transparency and reflected on the primary MBUSA website in real time.
Background and Problem
Mercedes Benz asked Cedrus to build an internal facing tool for dealerships to adjust and price insurance products for their primary consumer site.
Dealers have long relied on excel sheets, physical books, and IT admins in order set markup pricing ont he website. This process was clunky, inefficient, and often led to mistakes and frustrated employees.
The Outcome
The initial employee response was overwhelmingly positive. Testing of our prototype showed a 95.75% task completion rate and the entire markup and activation process was shorted from hours to less than 60 seconds. As of 2021 the first version of our portal will be shipped and is to be used by over 350 dealerships across the country.
Project Overview
My Responsibilities: UX Design, Usability Testing, Workshop Facilitation
Ultimately, we were able to give the dealerships a streamlined location to edit, update, and monitor different products for sale on the Mercedes Benz vehicle website. From this page, users can also access and download all historical changes to each product.
The minimal aesthetic aligns with the MBUSA style guide, creating a cohesive experience in between it and other internal Mercedes sites.
See more of my past work...
IBM & a Fortune 125 Co.
Building, training, and launching a design thinking practice at a 29,000 person company.
Amazon Web Services
Mobile App Design, Workshop Facilitation, and functional model home build.
Timeframe
9 Months
Our Team
1 UX Designer (me)
1 Architect
3 Developers
1 QA Tester
1 Scrum Master
Project Overview
Our Solution
We built a responsive online portal which allows dealership employees to see inventory, activate products and set markup pricing. All changes are recorded in a log and reflected on the MBUSA consumer site in real time.
The Outcome
Our portal shorted the markup and discounting process from hours/days to seconds and got great employee feedback. The MVP is being implemented in over 300 dealerships in the US and our team was rehired to build out the next three releases.
The Problem/Opportunity
Mercedes Benz dealerships have long relied on excel sheets, physical books, and IT admins in order set markup pricing on their consumer website. This process was clunky, inefficient, and often led to mistakes and frustrated employees.
Our Team
-
1 UX Designer (me)
-
1 Architect
-
3 Developers
-
1 QA Tester
-
1 Scrum Master
Timeframe
6 months
Project Overview
The Outcome
Our portal shorted the markup and discounting process from hours/days to seconds and got great employee feedback. The MVP is being implemented in over 300 dealerships in the US and our team was rehired to build out the next three releases.
The Problem/Opportunity
Mercedes Benz dealerships have long relied on excel sheets, physical books, and IT admins in order set markup pricing on their consumer website. This process was clunky, inefficient, and often led to mistakes and frustrated employees.
Our Solution
We built a responsive online portal which allows dealership employees to see inventory, activate products and set markup pricing. All changes are recorded in a log and reflected on the MBUSA consumer site in real time.
Project Overview
The Problem/Opportunity
Mercedes Benz dealerships have long relied on excel sheets, physical books, and IT admins in order set markup pricing on their consumer website. This process was clunky, inefficient, and often led to mistakes and frustrated employees.
Our Solution
We built a responsive online portal which allows dealership employees to see inventory, activate products and set markup pricing. All changes are recorded in a log and reflected on the MBUSA consumer site in real time.
The Outcome
Our portal shorted the markup and discounting process from hours/days to seconds and got great employee feedback. The MVP is being implemented in over 300 dealerships in the US and our team was rehired to build out the next three releases.
Mercedes Benz
UX/UI Design, Usability Testing, and Workshop Facilitation
Our product team built an internal facing portal which is now being used at hundreds of US based Mercedes Benz dealerships.
A primary goal of the solution was addressing the pain points around an outdated, manual process while catering to various use cases where employees are switching between desktops and tablets.
This meant primary features needed to look and function similarly between all breakpoints regardless of when the portal is used within the dealership.
The Outcome
The portal was enthusiastically received by dealership employees and our MVP is being implemented in over 300 dealerships across the country.
Mercedes was very happy with our team's work and asked us to stay engaged through the next three releases which will focus on onboarding and new or used vehicles.
Lessons Learned
Looking back, we lost a lot of time at the beginning of the project fighting scope creep and getting alignment among stakeholders. Since the prioritization workshop was so helpful, I would try to do that earlier in the process. Ideally we'd get everyone on the same page from the start and the product team could meet their end users and begin empathizing with their needs immediately.