EV Shopping Experience
Ford Motor Company
This work was designed for and is the property of Ford Motor Company.
Objective.
Through prototyping and user research, design a solution for prospective electric vehicle customers to help them understand the benefits of driving electric – including how they might charge at home, drive anywhere in an electric vehicle, and get a tax credit.
Outcome.
By partnering with a small team of software engineers, a product manager, and product owner, I designed a website to provide a best-in-class digital shopping experience that understands consumers unique lifestyles and puts them in the driver seat of an electric vehicle.
Through multiple rounds of user research and iterating on our solutions, my team directly impacted Ford’s Mach-E website by introducing cost calculator and trip planning features.
Electric Vehicle Trip Planning Map
In an effort to educate consumers who were considering the purchase of an electric vehicle (EV), my team designed and developed an EV Trip Planning Map. By combining crucial information on charging station locations and driving range, this map aimed to revolutionize the way EV shoppers learned about their next vehicle purchase, alleviate range anxiety and ensure a smooth and enjoyable experience for all prospective EV drivers.
Key Features
1. Charging Station Markers: to further enhance trip planning, we incorporated specific markers indicating the locations of charging stations across the country.
2. Driving Range: by entering their start and end locations, users can visualize destinations within their current EV range and identify potential charging stops along the route. This feature ensures that EV drivers can confidently embark on longer adventures without range anxiety.
How might we help EV shoppers understand the benefits of driving electric and alleviate concern?
Build, Measure, Learn
Create Assumptions:
To begin the process, we identified and developed a series of assumptions based on our understanding of the problem and the needs of our users. How might we help EV shoppers understand the benefits of driving electric? By using the Build, Measure, Learn methodology, we aimed to validate or invalidate these assumptions through user interviews.
Assumptions included:
Increased knowledge about electric vehicles leads to meaningful engagement with the vehicle shopping experience.
Software-enabled engagement with electric vehicles will lead to purchase.
Purchase decisions are more likely when users find value during trial experiences.
Design Solutions:
Our team brainstormed, prototyped, and refined solutions to ensure they aligned with our users' needs. These solutions were meant to address the identified assumptions, keeping in mind the feedback we received from users during previous iterations.
Conduct User Research:
With a prototype in place, we tested our solutions with users through one-on-one interviews. This allowed us to gain qualitative insights, understand user behavior, and validate our assumptions.
Key themes included:
Range anxiety can be easily overcome through visualization. Show consumers how far they can go in an EV.
Charging is something my EV does while I live my life. Show consumers how easy it is to charge at home and on the road.
EVs provide significant savings and tax credits. Educate consumers about fuel savings and charging affordability.
Synthesize + Iterate:
After every round of research, we used user feedback to refine our solutions. Direct user feedback was invaluable in shaping our understanding and approach, enabling us to create user-centric solutions. Collaborative design sessions included input from the whole team – software engineers, the product manager, and other stakeholders – and was always informed by research.
“Seeing the charging stations makes me feel safe.”
Savings Calculator + Range Influencer
From reduced fuel expenses to lowered maintenance costs, the advantages of owning an electric vehicle extend beyond being eco-conscious. To further illustrate the advantages of electric vehicles, my team developed an interactive calculator to help shoppers visualize and quantify their potential cost savings, and understand how an electric vehicle’s range is effected by external factors.
Key Features
1. Savings Calculator: by taking into account a consumer’s MPG, average commuting distance, and cost of gas, users could understand their estimated annual cost savings in an electric vehicle.
2. Range Influencer: to create trust and transparency with users, we included an interactive tool that showed the impact of weather, speed, and regenerative breaking on an electric vehicle’s range.