2021
Opportunity
Commercial vehicles are the main source of revenue for Ford in Europe.
Many of those vehicles must be converted to different needs; refrigerated vans, racking solutions, lifting equipment, and others.
The conversions specifications were captured by Ford dealers, through phone and email, then shared with the converters, making it difficult for everyone to keep track of different orders, and to see in what status they were.
Goals
Create a commercial vehicle platform for Ford to increase sales of commercial vehicles and simplify the process to convert a vehicle.
User Types
The platform is meant to be used by:
- Customers that require conversion of their new commercial vehicle
- Dealers that will manage the orders
- Converters that will adapt the vehicle to the customer requirements
Personas based on Ford CCP's user types
Team
The design team consisted of 5 designers, that collaborated at different stages of the process. In total, we were around 25 people working on this project.
Objectives as Design Lead
I lead the experience strategy and design for the new ford commercial conversion platform. I took care of balancing the needs of the business, dealers, customers, and converters.
Ford Transit Connect with a racking system installed
Workshops
We conducted a series of workshops with the stakeholders to be able to identify the needs, blockers, and opportunities.
From those workshops, we were able to define what will be the necessary features for each user type, the steps from when a request is created until a converted vehicle is delivered to the client, and the overall process.
Screen capture of one of the recorded sessions with a commercial convertion manager
Ford-CCP-customer-flow
From the workshops we got the necessary info to be able to create the different user flows, when using the app.
Customer flow
Interviews and usability testing
A series of remote user interviews and usability tests were done, with each type of user: customers, dealers, and converters.
Various valuable insights came from those, which we implemented in the design.
Screen capture of one of the recorded sessions with a commercial conversion manager
Comments from the interviews
Components
Based on Ford's visual identity used in its digital products, we started creating the main components in Figma while working on the concepts. This allowed us to move faster as the project progressed as many of those components are used in multiple screens of the project.
Creating those components early on also ensured consistency across the project.
Screens
Below are the designs of the login page and then the flow to create a new conversion request.
The initial focus was to release on desktop and tablet based on the current usage, having a mobile version to be developed in the future.
Final thoughts
Leading the design for the conversion platform project was challenging as there were many different parts involved, and it's a product that serves three types of very different user needs. Although it was challenging, it was also really rewarding to see it come together in a short period.
Isaac Vigil © 2022