Tara Tarjoto UX Designer

Slide Studio

Historically, only Product, Engineering, and Services organizations are involved in determining which projects make it onto the product roadmap. Designers are often engaged only when it comes time to act upon a project. As lead UX designer, I felt it was very important to build trust between cross-functional teams and to advocate for my organization.

This project was one of a series modeled after GV’s Design Sprint completed over 6+ months as part of a collaborative effort to implement a more rigorous user-centered design and testing process for the Websites team at CDK.

Process Improvements, Design Sprint, UX Design, Rapid Prototyping, User Testing

Challenge

The hero slide rotator is considered prime real estate on dealership websites as it sits immediately below the header and is the first thing consumers see upon landing on the site. The hero is also an area of contention between dealers and OEMs as both want their messages to appear first/earlier in rotation.

The existing slide creation and management workflows was unintentionally convoluted for both internal and external users. Among others, the purpose of some actions/inputs were unclear and the available features were seen regression from the previous platform. The goal of this project is to analyze the workflow and design a solution to improve it.

Users

I spent time prior to the start of the sprint interviewing users and SMEs to pinpoint exactly where the workflow breaks down down. Then I made the following user journey to illustrate and convey the problem to my team.

Whiteboard notes documenting pain points post conversation with SMEs.

Process

I was both facilitator and and designer for this sprint as we were down one team member. My tasks include distilling and articulating the problem, and keeping discussion on track, along with sketching, prototyping, testing and supporting the long tail. Core participants were myself, another designers, a researcher, the product owner, and the lead developer.

Ideation around displaying dynamic offers on slides.

Components of a slide and rotation management.

Rapid Prototyping & Testing

Due to time constraints and participants access, we chose to test using paper prototypes with internal users.

Using paper prototypes got us better feedback by eliminating technical distractions. It is easy and cheap and allows us to run multiple quick tests before going into development.

Outcome

Slide Studio launched in Mar 2018 and have since resulted in 65% reduction of the time it takes to manage hero slides. It is one of the most successful and well-liked Next Gen tools and its launch was noted to be particularly “smooth”. Slide Studio is being continually updated, with the latest iteration slated to be launched sometime in 2019.

Other Projects

Next Gen Websites Platform

Analyzed automotive dealership websites to identify patterns of content usage and recommend smarter categorization and presentation strategies. Collaborated on the redesign of a website platform used by thousands of dealerships across the US and internationally. Content Analysis & Strategy, UX Design

Quality Essentials

Implemented participatory design process in an agile environment and enabled non-designers to make good design decisions. UX Design, Agile Methodology, Public Speaking

CMS CRUD Redesign

Streamlining the Create-Read-Update-Delete (CRUD) process in the Next Gen content management system (CMS). Process Improvements, Design Sprint, Rapid Prototyping, User Testing

Responsive Digital Publication

Exploration of the application of responsive design principles on reading and learning experiences. Ideation, Storyboarding