From Screen to Steering Wheel
Enhancing Kia’s Car-Buying Journey
Streamlining Kia’s digital experience to deliver tangible value for both customers and the business, bridging the gap between online exploration and in-person dealership interactions.
Overview
Kia is a mass-market automotive brand, ranking first in vehicle dependability in 2022 (J.D. Power). However, a disconnect emerged between its people-first promise and the actual experience customers encountered during the car-buying process.
It began with a simple screenshot — a customer questioning why the price listed online didn’t match the dealership quote.
As we dug deeper, we uncovered customer concerns on Reddit and industry data showing Kia ranking last in dealership customer satisfaction (J.D. Power, 2022), pointing to a recurring mismatch between online pricing and dealership offers.
While it initially appeared to be a dealership issue, we found it created uncertainty and transparency issues, ultimately eroding trust and weakening Kia’s brand credibility — highlighting a clear opportunity for design intervention.
Framing the Problem Space
How might we increase customer satisfaction within Kia beyond traditional dealerships and drive to an engaging purchasing experience?
Finding the Roadblocks
Research & Design Process
User Research and Methodologies
To better understand the breakdown in Kia’s purchasing process, we began by mapping the overall customer journey to learn general market behaviours and expectations to uncover both customer needs and friction points within Kia’s digital and dealership touchpoints.
Desk Research
Studied consumer behaviour to understand key pain points and customer satisfaction patterns in the car-buying journey.
Online Survey
Surveyed 16 prospective buyers and owners to uncover experiences, motivations, pain points, and perceptions of Kia’s brand.
Competitor Analysis
Analyzed 8 competitor platforms to identify UX patterns and how they support exploration and dealership interactions.
Client Research
Reviewed Kia’s brand positioning and conducted a site audit to identify usability challenges.
Expert Interviews
Gained real-world buying behaviours and customer expectations from a Kia mechanic, a Tesla and a used dealership salesmen.
From these methods, key insights and data discovered were noted below:
- 55% felt lacked necessary information for confident decisions (Ipsos, 2022).
- A lack of trust is a driving cause of the difficult car-buying experience... 83% either distrust or only somewhat trust the salespeople (Ipsos, 2022).
- 85% buyers still visited during the purchase process despite digital retail (J.D. Power, 2022).
- 80% preferred completing forms online before their visit to minimize time (Interview).
With the discovered insights in mind, the team explore Kia Website in customer perspective of setting a journey to purchasing a vehicle to understand and be in the shoes of the current experience.
* Key Learning
Our team had very little firsthand experience with cars (I had never even taken a driver’s license test). While research helped us collect important data, navigating unclear features, unsupported information, and price uncertainties from the customer’s perspective revealed where trust or even buying decisions could be lost. This deeper empathy not only expanded our understanding but also reshaped our design direction.
Reframing the Problem Space
How might we facilitate a seamless transition between online exploration and in-person dealership interactions to expedite and empower informed decisions for Kia buyers?
Bridging Ideas to Execution
Testing & Iteration
Early Ideation
Before translating our research into final solutions, we ran a design sprint to individually generate ideas and prioritize key features through anonymous heatmap voting. I contributed proposals focused on balancing improvements for buyers while respecting Kia’s current website structure and dealership-sales model.
Testing the Ideas
Based on our selected ideas, our team developed the first iteration of an interactive prototype. I was responsible for designing the vehicle customization features and introducing a comparison functionality.
Unlike our expectations...
Usability testing revealed a mixed response: while users appreciated the comparison tools and preparation features, the horizontal customization felt overwhelming. While some inconsistencies in Kia's design system regarding button styling felt confusing, slowing the purchasing process.
Bridging Kia’s Online to In-store Roadway
Final Solution & Product
Prototype Refinement
Based on the feedback and conducting more research to redesign Kia's website accordingly to the problem space: Reimagining Kia's car-buying experience with five newly designed features.
Looking back...
Reflection
3 Key Takeaways
- Simplicity also matters in communication: With limited presentation time, clarity and conciseness were crucial, reinforcing the ability to explain the problem, solution, and impact in a compelling way.
- Don’t design in your head: Our assumptions didn’t always translate into better usability, emphasizing the need to validate ideas through testing.
- Research & data drive design decisions: Reaffirmed that research and data are central to justifying our choices, ensuring transparency and collaboration throughout the process.
final-final-words.zip
Beyond my growth as a designer, working with talented individuals and receiving support from an incredible teaching team made this one of my most rewarding post-secondary experiences. It deepened my passion for design and helped me understand the impact of the design process and the experiences it can create.