A back office from pixel zeroSixt is broadening its portfolio by launching an online marketplace for C2C rentals. I designed Ride My Auto, a back office collaboration platform that helps Sixt staff review customer car offers.

Overview

All car offers that are uploaded by the community run through a lean, but manual, review process. During the pilot phase of the project, selected Sixt employees take care of this task in addition to their usual assignments.

Brief

Design the back office application that helps Sixt staff process the car offers as efficient as possible. Since the selected employees have a busy schedule, the focus of the back office application should be on a quick and clear review process.

Goals

My goal was to provide Sixt with a Ride My Auto back office software application. With this tool, employees should be able to evaluate the offers users want to upload to the customer facing platforms.

My role

I teamed up with Sixt to create the Ride My Auto employee-facing web app. I brought a fresh perspective on how to deliver a faster and simpler user experience, and successfully introduced a new user interface to review customers uploaded car offers in a more modular, user-friendly way.

The faces behind the screens

To conduct this research, I found, screened, and scheduled participants. I built a panel of willing participants and proactively scheduled research sessions on designated research times. This panel was just a list of people who've expressed interest in providing feedback. With existing users, I had set up a screener survey and invited people to sign up via Sixt's normal communication channels, like emails, posts on the website, on social media outlets, or invited employees who contacted support.

User opinions and quotes helped me focus on the target users process of using their professional interfaces, investigating behaviors and motivations in order to define their needs and pain points. I figured that I needed to make a prototype of the desired structure, and run a usability test with user scenarios based on assumptions and ask questions the right way. For instance, I asked something like: Was this feature helpful or unhelpful to you, and why? Rather than, how helpful was this feature?

Regina LynchManager

Regina works as a manager for the Sixt branch at London Heathrow Airport. She is responsible for 4 different counter locations in he airport as well as the teams in the parking lot. Regina is constantly on the move between these locations. She is able to work on the Ride My Auto backlog during train rides between terminals and on his lunch break. Regina is very enthusiastic about mobile devices like smartphones or tablets and heavily uses all kinds of gadgets on a daily basis.

Alex MorrisIntern

Alex works as an intern in e-commerce at the Sixt headquarters in Munich, Germany. While working on delivering various projects on top of trying to both improve his skills and acquire new ones, he should spend about 5–10 hours per week to support in reducing the Ride My Auto backlog. Alex is a very tech savvy guy and is comfortable using social media on his mobile devices to keep up with his friends and uses technology frequently in his personal life. However, this is his first professional experience and he has never used tech or an internal application for business purposes before.

Jean WilkesAgent

Jean works as a customer service agent for the Sixt call center in Rostock, Germany. She takes care of 60–70 customer requests per day. In between "rush hour" periods, she completes some reviews for Ride My Auto as she can do this while sitting at her desk waiting for the next customer to call. For Jean, a "digital detox" is important when she is not at work. She does not use her smartphone very much and doesn’t own any other devices like a tablet or smart watch.

Findings

Sixt Managers who have advanced use of technologies, are time-poor but are likely to review as many car uploads as possible. They would like the back-office to list all the reviews in tabs.

Customer Service Agents, can easily jump from their day tasks to Ride My Auto. They can review car offers as long as the informations are clear enough to help them reach final completion. They would like a back-office that runs smoothly with clear instructions based on standard design patterns.

Sixt Interns, show a deep focus on e-commerce solutions, plus they are social media fans. They would like a back-office in which they would learn from others and get notifications as they would be progressing through the interface. They would feel more comfortable reviewing uploads having that option to reach out to more experienced staff at anytime.

AssumptionsCrafting the hypothesis

I needed a method that would help me answer my questions appropriately and fit into the context of my work environment. I started with a Lean UX approach, a method that is used as to refer to holistic business and management practices that aims to maximize customer value while minimizing waste.

I would break down my research goals into the smallest possible questions. I used a UX canva as a facilitation tool for cross-functional teams designed to create a customer-centric conversation about the work the team is doing. My goal was helping the team focus on “why” they’re doing the current work and building assumptions.

Example: If we [do, build, provide x thing], then [these people] will [some desirable outcome]. We’ll know when [measure of success].

[do, build, provide x thing] = what solution I’m proposing
[these people] = actual target users
[some desirable outcome] = what I want people to do
[measure of success] = users goals
Assumption 1: If we [build a fast loading interface], then [our managers] will [be able to login easily and check remaining tasks].
We’ll know when [their online presence will increase].
Assumption 2: If we [create progression elements in the back-office], then [our agents] will [execute their tasks more quickly].
We’ll know when [they will be notified of achieved tasks 100%].
Assumption 3: If we [create collaborative and performance indicators], then [our interns] will [feel as employees and confident in doing effective work].
We’ll know when [interns will compete with each others].
Assumption 4: If we [reward our staff members with gifts or competition scores], then [our interns, managers and agents] will [prioritize Ride My Auto tasks in their daily routine].
We’ll know when [the tasks flow will dicrease].
Assumption 5: If we [build simple back-office screens], then [our agents] will [focus on one action].
We’ll know when [tasks counter will update more frequently].

StrategyThinking of a workflow

Together with Sixt, I quickly got up to speed with Ride My Auto challenge. Their existing dashboards for staff teams were rigid and slow – preventing them from accurately capturing and managing the complexities of customers private vehicle offers. My brief was to give employees the ability to view customers vehicle postings, create their own reviews management process, and then easily share with other members of team. My strategy phase involved solving problems and reviewing issues, managing status of uploads, and set criterias for successful vehicle postings.

It was time to write a scenario. I got to put my personas - Manager, Agent and Sixt Intern - into situations were they'd need to use the back-office, and then describe how the user experience that I wanted to create, would help them through that situation to a suitable outcome. The idea wasn't to make life difficult for my personas, but just to describe how a regular day would be made better with the design ideas I've created.

View prototype

View workflow

Overview

All reviews

Reviews in progress

Car review

First things first

Users personalize their car reviews by selecting their location and signing in. Different countries, different market places. It's a big world.

Users review vehicle offers for one country at a time. This country can be switched at anytime.

Users must log in so that we are able to track and validate processes on a personal level.

HomepageOverview

A fast and clear overview of uploads makes it easier to act on tasks and ongoing reviews. I added a rewards feature providing an overview of employees performances. And if a member ever get lost, there is an in-app messaging to help staff employees communicate with other reviewers. Ride My Auto is good with people.

Open

Accepted

Declined

Rework

Closed

Pick a review, any reviewTable-based reviewing

For Sixt reviewers I designed a flexible system of tables in line with Sixt' brand and image, updated components like reminders, undo options, statuses, checkboxes, modules and widgets while following a strict rule set in spacing, sizing and visual balance.

Making car reviews easy

I built Ride My Auto to simplify processes like tasks management, pictures postings, uploads progression and statuses.

The final stepEligibility checkup

I introduced review states to help staff check and update car offers. I wanted to create a "360" top view so that users could verify successful car postings based on valid home address, payment information, vehicle description and qualitative pictures. Once your car offer has been approved, Ride My Auto activates your upload.

Elements of styleUpgrading the brand

Following an already existing brand strategy, tweaked and translated here and there, I reworked and refined, developing a more sophisticated color palette and typography system. I wanted to keep the look very clean and simplify the product for the target audience. Combining UI elements and a new design language allowed me to depict Sixt as a more technology-driven company that is focused on their clients and employees.

A fresh new interfaceA design system for the masses

I wanted to create a breathable, expandable design system that could be used across all devices by more than thousands of users. The design language needed to be expressive whilst also in line with standard practices for usability and accessibility.

"In establishing a completely new visual language for Sixt and improving their UI, I was able to deliver a new platform that looks modern and is easier and more simple to use. Most importantly, this back office brought focus to the importance of design and development teams working successfully together. Through collaboration and communication, we were able to take the big leap from designs and prototypes, to a fully live product – successfully navigating time, budget, and technology constraints. This encouraged everyone to think outside the box and ensure Ride My Auto was a major improvement in design and user experience."