Design Methodology

Summarising a Case Study

Ananya Singh - 2K21/BD/021

The Case study I took was the redesigning of Mercedes Benz Website for the
Ukraine region by Fulcrum.

The client was the official dealer that sells and maintains the Mercedes Benz
cars. And it is the only Mercedes Benz certified body repair centre in Ukraine.

The client wanted a customised website for his car dealership. He used the
default Mercedes website inherited from the importer. Hence, there was no
way to communicate with online clients more interactively.

Link to the Case Study - https://fulcrum.rocks/mercedes-case

1. Problems with the old website.

- Complicated customer journey map

- Twisted road to relevant cars and dealers

- A complicated test drive option

- No loan calculator

- No accessories eCommerce store.

- No personalised approach for customers

- A tricky road to order services

- Low conversion rates

Instead of the friendly eCommerce store, there was a PDF catalog, btw. There
was no pricing and no opportunity to order online. The client had to make a
phone call like in old times.

2. Auto loan Calculator.

The customer will calculate the monthly payment stating the:

• down payment;

• loan term;

• vehicle price;

• bank;

• physical or legal person.

The formula for calculating:

A monthly payment = Loan amount * ( (1 + annual interest rate / 12 / 100) ˄

loan term (months) * annual interest rate / 12 / 100) / ( (1 + annual interest
rate / 12 / 100) ˄ loan term (months) - 1)

Loan amount = vehicle price - down payment

Then, the customer can leave a request for feedback from the dealership. The
representative will get an email with this request, which will be also saved in
the admin panel.

3. Right amount of photos and videos.

The visuals should present the vehicle professionally – from different, attractive
angles. There should be photos of the details (a control panel, lightning
system, wheels, etc).The right photo will make a potential customer think

“OMG, I want to be this guy in the driver’s seat!”. Eventually, he should

become a customer.

4. Admin Panel.
Perfect admin panel gives full control over its option and features. It allows
customising a website without external assistance. It has two types of user
roles -

Read only : user can do anything except for -

• Adding, editing or deleting vehicles.

• Accessing the following menu items.

• Individual page management.

• Widget management.

• Main page feed management.

• SEO

• Backups

• Contextual suggestion management.

Admin - the user can do anything.

5. Scheduling a test drive.

This is a must have and it should be convenient.

Problems -

• No opportunity to see all available options.

• No opportunity to choose the channel of communication.

• No opportunity to book a test drive as a passenger.

• The UI also looks outdated.

Solution -

• Users see right away what models are available for test drive.

• Users see right away essential info about the car.

• Users see the rules of test drive sessions and can fill in their driving license
info.

• Users can choose the channel of further communication.

New design -

• See all models available for a test drive.

• See all essential information about car.

• See the Test drive rules.

• Leave their driving license info.

• Choose the channel of communication.

6. Compare Vehicles.
The simple tools helps weigh the pros and cons of the vehicles conveniently
and effectively - a benefit for customer. It also makes them engage on a
website and move to the next step - schedule a test drive, contact the
dealership, request any information. It’s a benefit for the client.

7. Contact Information.
The order value on a car dealership website is high - don’t make the client wait
or god forbid get nervous. What should be included -

• A contact number

• Location, address, a map

• Opening hours

• A contact form and an email.

8. Logical and intuitive system of filters

to choose a vehicle.
The website’s search engine shows result according to the keyword in the
inquiry. It searches across all the website’s pages - information and catalog.

It is recommended to show the results on a separate page, using paging and

the preview of the search result (an image and a title).

It is also recommended to add a page with news and promos, as well as a

website for a vehicle reserve.

9. Widgets
Widget is a shortcut, a link to an existing page or section. It has two variants -

• Small buttons on side of the page. They have a fixed placement regardless of
the user’s location on a page.

• Large buttons in the footer of the page.

• Initially, one can add all types of widgets (icons, names, links to certain
sections or windows).

The widgets were approved by the clients and the shortcut were created -

• A form for scheduling a test drive

• A form for making a service appointment.

• The contact us button

• Promotions

• Available vehicles

• A loan calculator

• Spare parts

• Trade-ins

10. Responsive Design and SEO

Optimisation.
You never know what gadget the visitor of the website will use. So make the
website responsive. Then it will look good and work correctly on all gadgets, in
all operating systems.

Responsiveness is also important for SEO. Well optimised website is more

competitive, generates more traffic, hence leads and high sales. The website
becomes visible to potential customers.

Moreover, it increases the awareness, the trustworthiness of the website and

gives greater authority.

 CONCLUSION

From the above case study, I concluded that the old website had various
problems that made the user journey across the website very frustrating and
difficult. There was limited interaction between the user and the client in the
old website. The lead designer also came across that the old website lacked
the basic features that a retail website needs like e-commerce features, lack of
visual content, Loan calculator, promotions, service and trade-in appointments
etc. Furthermore, the website was not visually pleasing. So they added more
pictures and videos which should make the user feel like “I wanna be the guy
driving this car!” Moving along, there was no admin panel which made the
website more personalised for the user. At the end, the whole concept was to
make the website responsive so that the user spend more time on it.