Designing for trust: How I designed a reviews system for potential car buyers that fosters trust, provides valuable information, and enhances the car buying experience.

VCCP, UX Research & Design, 2020

Online reviews have transformed online retail, products and services. From booking a holiday to a table in a restaurant or choosing to open an account with a certain bank, reviews help form and reshape customer opinion. 

Evidence suggests over 95% of customers indicated having read reviews before making an important purchase decision online according to a Spiegel research study. 

As with other consumer-facing industries with a reputation to uphold, many car companies work with independent surveyors to obtain an honest view of how satisfied their customers are with their services and products. This is especially true for cars because they are a very involved purchase - with a higher chance of things going wrong.

Brand reputation is everything

At the start of 2020, KIA motors came to VCCP to help identify and select a survey company with the aim of improving transparency and therefore, increase the prospects of purchase. 

I approached this problem from a user experience perspective, with an intention to create a well thought out and managed review system that would not only create value for buyers and sellers alike but also inspire trust. A trustworthy system that can give consumers the confidence they need to buy products with a lower failure tolerance.

The project was divided into four phases: Analytics review, experience review, experience design and experience production.

Phase 1 — Experience Review

The experience review consisted of a three pronged approach starting with a website audit to understand the current state of user experience, followed by a competitor (and comparator) analysis which helped inform the lay of the land in the automotive industry and to incorporate best practices in my recommendations.

The phase ended with research to understand what potential buyers (and recent customers) expect from reviews on automotive websites during their purchase journey.

Website Audit

The project kicked off with a week long exercise to review the current experience on the KIA UK website. This involved creating a log of all the existing review components (from the previous vendor) on the website as well as reviewing their implementation, effectiveness and ease of use.

This audit revealed that the review modules provided a good level of functionality and content on the website. However, their full potential was not realised because of their placement and context, presenting a significant opportunity to improve the impact that reviews can deliver. This was aggravated by issues with signposting which meant that the review content wasn't being served to users at appropriate moments in the purchase funnel.

Competitor Analysis

Following the audit of the website, I conducted a similar review of KIA's key competitors in addition to similar, comparator brand experiences with the aim of identifying patterns and best practices which would inform KIA's website design.

The competitor audit revealed a similar trend across most car manufacturers websites. KIA’s offering wasn’t significantly different in terms of functionality or content since they, like KIA, relied mostly on 3rd party or white label review providers. What was notably better was the implementation both in terms of design, relevance and consistency.

An analysis of e-commerce and product-based websites, however revealed a very different picture. Reviews served as the core part of the user experience with well established design patterns which could help improve and inform the customer experience on the KIA website.

User Research

In addition to the competitor analysis and the website audit, I conducted a user research survey to assist in identifying user needs and pain-points when using independent customer reviews to select and purchase a car. During this exercise, I created a questionnaire and spoke to participants both in person and online in an informal setting to understand their perspective on reviews for involved purchases like cars. I also wanted to understand the type of content most likely to appeal to those users and factors that lend authority and trust to reviews.

As expected, the most popular source of reviews is independent review websites, followed by online marketplaces and then car manufacturer websites. This suggested that customers are more likely to perceive third party review sites as more authentic as opposed to reviews on manufacturer’s websites.

I also discovered that users value engaging, interactive content (preferably with 'seemingly undoctored' images and ‘real’ unscripted videos) a lot more than highly detailed spec sheets and polished, highly directed videos etc. Users also indicated that they liked hearing about relatable experiences from other users (such as whether there is enough boot space for pets, does the movement make kids car sick etc.)

Next Steps

Armed with the findings of the audit, the competitor and comparator analysis and the results of my user research sessions, I was ready for the next phase of the project: Requirement gathering

Phase 2 — Requirement Gathering

After the experience review, we shifted our project focus to creating deliverables to inform the vendor selection process, following a set of recommendations aimed at improving customer reviews on the Kia UK website.

'Bite, Snack, Meal' approach to reviews content

The “Bite, Snack, Meal” content approach advocates for presenting content in manageable portions to allow for content grazing (the “bite”), short content summaries (the “snack”), and if the mood strikes, rich detailed content (the “meal”). 

The idea is rooted in the concept of progressive disclosure of information: Start with teaser content to drive users to the next level of engagement only when their interests are piqued or they require a deeper level of understanding.

The key message:
For users who want only the most important information

The highlights:
An introduction but skips details that users might not want

The details:
For invested users who wish to know and understand everything

Reusable and consistent content modules

The progressive disclosure approach to information discussed in 'bite snack meal' can be implemented through the proper use of reusable modules across the website experience. There are several benefits to this including saving development time, cost effectiveness and consistency in the user experience.

For this purpose, I wireframed content modules which could be reused across the website and could showcase information for the users in the bite, snack, meal format.

Reviews destination landing page

The final set of recommendation was to create a reviews landing page as a destination for all reviews and related content accessible via the primary navigation. This was to be a centralised location that could contain customer reviews and also feature complimentary content like press reviews, social content and awards.

A reviews landing page is a useful tool for building trust, enhancing the client's online presence, and optimizing conversions. It allows also allows the client to leverage the power of customer feedback to improve their products or services and better connect with the target audience.

Next Steps 

After completing the requirement gathering phase, I compiled all my findings in the form of a report for the clients and stakeholders. This report became part of a larger set of deliverables which then served as a guide and benchmark for the vendor bidding and selection process.

Phase 3 — Partner Selection

Based on the findings of the experience review and requirement gathering phase, VCCP helped KIA shortlist and select a review partner in a bidding process.

In addition to the experience review, there were also a lot of other technical considerations which had to be taken into account.

Using these considerations as the basis of supplier selection, KIA ended up choosing Reevo as their review curation and collection partner. 

I was then tasked with identifying components and sketching wireframes which would help implement the reviews functionality across the website.

Phase 4 - Experience Design

With the review partner selection complete, I was tasked with selecting and wireframing website pages which would benefit from showcasing reviews, based on the recommendations provided in the earlier phase of the KIA Reviews project.

The purpose of these wireframes was to list and show the placement of modules identified from the feefo hub which can be used to feature reviews on the KIA website.

In addition to the wireframes, I compiled a list of all the compatible modules chosen from the feefo hub and presented it to the clients showcasing how they could appear on the website.

I also included reasons and different use cases for using those modules.

For the purposes of my wireframes, I used symbols to reflect various kinds of modules in my sketch files. This coupled with the 'bite, snack, meal' approach to content delivery ensured that the final output was very easy for the engineers to implement. This also helped reduce any development overhead costs related to content management, all of which could be managed through the feefo hub.

A snapshot of the deliverable, with the recommended modules and their implementation is given below:

Conclusion

I consider this project a major landmark in my UX design career because it's a perfect example of good user experience practices coming together with a strong business case. With an increasing focus on transparency and an increasing mistrust of opaque business models, such projects indicate a strong commitment to serving customer needs.

Fortunately for us, this content refresh also coincided with an overhaul of KIA's site-wide branding whose visuals complement the bold direction that KIA is taking for its hybrid and electric car business. This was particularly important for our clients since the website effectively functioned as a dealership for potential buyers due to the disruption caused by the pandemic. Therefore, it was a pleasant affirmation that the sales of KIA’s award-winning e-Niro exceeded all other EV vehicles in October 2020 in the United Kingdom.

In fact, Kia Motors announced in mid-October that it had recorded its best-ever quarterly European sales during the third quarter of 2020, with 132,933 units sold between July and September, a 10% year-over-year growth, across the European Union, European Free Trade Association (EFTA), and the UK. With such a strong portfolio of automobiles, as well as an effective content strategy, I have all the reasons to believe that KIA's success will continue in the future.

Thank you for reading! 🚗

More work

Over the course of my career, I've had the opportunity to work on a range of projects, across industries that continue shaping our digital landscape. I have collected a few case studies to illustrate my design process, the objectives and outcomes for some of the projects that I've worked on.

I also use this portfolio as a reference point for myself, to keep track of my learning and development as I continue evolving in my design career. Please feel free to reach out if you have any feedback, comments or if you'd like to know more about my work.

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