UI is NOT UX, the UI is one tool in the UX designer's giant toolset.
Great design is hard work. It's a blend of science and art.
Shopping is a task, car shoppers have a job to do. Agreed? Great design obsesses about task completion (i.e. yield). When you're studying any UI you must fully embrace the users 'job to be done' (aka UX). Tasks have a beginning and an end, The UI 'should' create a path that intuitively aligns with the task to be done. In this path are choices. steps or stages. UX designers get paid to find friction in the workflow, then design new UI's to assist the shopper to go deeper into task completion.
This is why digital automotive is so far behind other digital spaces. The designers have never worked in a dealership, they ALL have access to reams of dealer's leads, call recordings, chat transcripts and they all defer to their 'feelings'.
Lets say you were creating a digital UX for a hospital and you've been tasked to improve the ROI of a flawed site. How mission critical is 'white space'? Will a Design makeover help? Yes, but the site UX is still flawed, so the impact to ROI is tiny. If the designer has never worked at a hospital, they have a looong road ahead of them.
(UI = User Interface • UX = User Experience)
I pulled this from another thread because I thought this deserves it's own thread and not to derail that topic with a massive tangent.
There is a lot here to unpack! I love it!
1. what is the number 1 priority for a dealer website? Provide information, ecommerce (shopping cart occurs when you walk on the lot), advertising?
2. what is your market? BHPH, used cars, a name brand dealer, or a salon boutique for Bugatti?
3. which type of buyer are you targeting? Visual, Audio, or Kinetic? (think of these as: that looks hot! That growl is way cool? Dang, this ride is coomfy)
4. are you making the transaction on the site or do you want them to show up?
5. I think there has been a seismic shift in how shoppers shop. Do shoppers come from the brand loyalty or the did they find the car they think they want?
6. are you focused on a particular segment of society or not? Are they motivated by the UI or UX or just the product?
I am here to learn and share my thoughts. (trying to be community member ... but more likely the relative you didn't want to invite -- haha!)
So, I'm wondering if the data (recordings, chats, and such) can help really help the 6 issues I listed.
I'm a big fan of good statistics and not ones that can guide the participant down a certain path. Think reviews and how 100 of my relatives could give me a 4.4 star rating which would be the bad statistics here.
I don't like the chat boxes on mobile because they block 20-40% of my screen and are extremely annoying.
Am I exception to the statistics or are the statistics showing just user interaction and thus proving how good they are but is the experience that good?
Is this good enough because you got a lead?
Are developers who haven't stood on a show room floor that useless? Couldn't they have vast array of experience with ecommerce that could help dealers get to that 2.0 and the next stage?
So, What do you think is necessary in a web site that would make this whole industry next gen?