Audi - Car Comparison Tool
Product: Multi-brand car comparison tool - Concept
Type: Sales
Role: Strategy, research and UX lead
Scope: iPad app
Skills: User research, competitive research, database vendor auditing, product design, prototyping.
Client: Audi of America (at CI&T)
“Empowering Audi sales teams with instant competitive intelligence, this innovative tool bridges knowledge gaps and boosts showroom performance.”
Research
CI&T was chosen to present a concept for a new search platform, that will be the base of a new sales support ecosystem..
Since this will be an internal tool, I interviewed the primary users first - Audi salespeople. I held interviews in the showrooms, to learn about their daily interactions and challenges with clients, how they solve them, and how they provide support.
Understanding these interactions was crucial for discovering the specific pain points where sales personnel felt uncertain. The secondary users interviewed were Sales Instructors, who play a key role in educating sales teams about Audi's offerings.
The primary phase also included market research on existing car comparison tools and participation in selecting a suitable database vendor, further defining the project’s scope and requirements.
Users and Motivations
Wireframing
All the collected data from interviews and market research was analyzed using Dovetail, which simplified the extraction of key insights and user behavior patterns. These insights were crucial for defining the features needed in the digital tool.
Considering that the comparison tool was intended to be part of a future internal sales hub for Audi, an added task of this step was to hint of this end-goal.
During the process, I worked to solve the main usability challenge - finding and presenting precise information for multiple car models in parallel. We audited a few data providers, and integrated a database search feature to quickly pinpoint and highlight areas of interest.
Design
Using Audi’s established design system, I transformed the wireframes into live screens. This ensured consistency with Audi’s branding and usability standards and will simplify future iterations.
At this time I also created clickable prototypes, that were crucial for testing the practicality of the digital solution in a controlled environment before final approval.
Usability features
The comparison solution is robust and gets down to small details. Because of this, the user first lands on a “Key specifications” tab, that enables them to quickly glance where their selection pops against the competition. To give better highlights, advantages for Audi are marked.
The search functionality is also important in this case, since client questions tend to specific to a car or a build feature. To make best use and get quick results, search has built in autocomplete and suggestions.
To enable the sales rep maintain the lead, the results page offers a “what’s next” section with the ability to share or download the comparison.
Outcomes
We shared our research findings and prototype with Audi stakeholders. The pitch successfully addressed the project’s goals, and this had convinced Audi leadership to move forward and realize the entire sales support hub project.
This proved that CI&T’s design capabilities and process had the potential to make a large impact on Audi’s business.