"CarMax" Website Redesign Proposal

By -
Final Wireframe for the CarMax redesign (webpage listing for a single vehicle)

 Spring Quarter 2012 (April 2012 - June 2012)

Overview
There are many types of information, like words, paragraphs, numbers, and images. Information Architecture is the study of the layout of information and how to best present it. Moving information to different parts of a webpage can drastically change what users learn from it, or how users interact with it. Usability and understanding are key concepts that should be the focus of any website, and through this class project we had to test our knowledge and redesign an existing website for better user direction.

Project Manager
  • Led a team of 3 others:
    • Eric Gabrielson
    • Jessica Matheson
    • Cassie Zhou
  • Created project timeline and assigned deliverables for each milestone
  • Provided User Experience input and conducted use-testing on multiple concepts and prototypes
Project Process
  1. Perform a competitive analysis of similar sites or services to recognize best practices for the industry, and potential improvements based on successful pages.
  2. Interview users of the service or similar services to collect site features to add or remove, depending on personal experiences.
  3. Create a "user journey" and information flow of a typical user experience, to cover a user's mindset as they navigate the website: what information they get from each page, and their thought process through the website.
  4. Create personas for each major type of operation or user to the site, to represent different types of users and to ensure all major features are of primary importance.
  5. Create wireframes, or sketches, of a new site using basic shapes and text to represent different pieces of content and where it should go.
  6. Conduct user testing on the wireframes and adjust as necessary for final drafts before publishing or implementing the template.
Results
  • TBCompleted
Original CarMax homepage (2012), with details highlighted during competitive analysis:
1. The Model & Price tab is the only one of the five tabs that brings up an Advanced Search, rather than a list of options. This option allows a user to jump straight to a results page, whereas with the other four will refer to the ZIP input screen. 
2. This image and message changes every few seconds: two or three images represent starting a car search, but one of them represents selling a car, which can confuse users as the messages have very similar format.
3. The tabs at the top are well organized and break the site into more manageable pieces.

Final wireframe redesign for the CarMax homepage
1. Filters have be redistributed to the actual search page, and multiple types of search have been removed in favor of a single page filter system.2/3. The image in the center is free to display any messages about potential site services and resources, as all services provided are made clear in the navigation bars at the top.