DIPLOMATIC
CARS
A secure marketplace mobile iOS app created to help diplomats on foreign soil buy and sell custom-cleared cars.
DURATION
4 months, 2022.
MY ROLE
Solo project under consultation from a senior designer. Research & UX/UI - interviews, sketching, wireframing, usability testing, prototyping.
TOOLS
Figma, Miro, Zoom, Viber, WhatsApp, Otter.ai transcription, Pop by Marvel, Google Workspace.
INTRODUCTION
Diplomats representing their countries or international organizations on foreign soil relocate during their career every 2-3 years. An important ingredient of smooth relocation is purchasing a personal vehicle in the first month of arrival.
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The easiest, most convenient, and most popular way for diplomats is to buy a car from their colleagues. Such a vehicle is already custom-cleared, registered in a foreign country, and located in the desired location. Therefore, diplomats are looking for diplomatic cars to buy.
Problem
When relocating to a new posting, diplomats face a deficit of custom-cleared and diplomatically registered vehicles to buy internally from their colleagues. As a result, they often buy cars unrelated to their preferences.
Solution
Connect all diplomats from all embassies, military bases, and international organizations who want to buy or sell their personal vehicles at a specific foreign location via the secure marketplace.
WHY
With new COVID challenges, it can take 6+ months to ship a diplomatic car from an old post to a new country; however, diplomats need personal transportation immediately upon arrival.
BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES
The app would be a perfect tool for Embassies, Consulates, International Organizations, and Overseas Military bases to support their employees' quick adaptation to their new posts and thus be free to focus on their jobs.
RESEARCH
Potential Users
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Diplomats stationed at bilateral or multilateral missions (embassies) International civil servants working for International Organizations Military service members stationed at overseas military bases.
Common Challenges
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Find vehicles quickly that align with diplomatic status.
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Used cars
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Diplomats can only buy and sell cars from each other, but there is no consolidated marketplace.
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New cars
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A handful of companies, for example, BMW & Volvo, sell cars tax-free to diplomats. Still, only some diplomats seem to know of this opportunity.
SCREENER SURVEY
CHALLENGE
I sent a Screener Survey to my target group to identify those who had recently bought or sold a car overseas. Unfortunately, no one responded. So, I learned that the diplomatic community, a challenging group to start with, is particularly sensitive to sharing personal information given their profession and the various countries they come from or have operated in. Therefore, I followed up with individuals in the diplomatic community I knew via WhatsApp, Viber, and Telegram. In this way came up with participants that met the needed criteria.
INTERVIEWS
After interviewing 8 diplomats, I observed that participants find it challenging to find a car to buy at their new post and to sell their car quickly when they leave the country.
It is painful and extremely inconvenient when you need a car, but no one is selling a car at the embassy.
Often need to lower expectations for the car and buy whatever a departing diplomat sells at the embassy.
Unsuccessfully tried to sell a primary car in Tbilisi for what it was worth.
ANALYSIS
Internal US Embassy newsletter
WHAT
The most common tool diplomats use overseas is the internal embassy's newsletter for selling and buying their vehicles.
WHY
The car is already registered in the country, thus paperwork is easy to do as the diplomatic status of the car does not change thus there are no customs tariffs or sales taxes involved.
BENEFITS
Diplomats have immediate access to a car upon arrival at the post.
AFFINITY MAP
I grouped clusters according to the users’ needs, pain points, knowledge, and actions. Also, I discovered some clusters as “User behavior” with negative, positive, and neutral marks in my grouping, which helped me see and understand how individuals approach their challenges.
Prefers used cars to buy
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​Likes to network and find good deals on a car and negotiating the price
Hybrid solution
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Prefers to ship to post a primary car but buy a used car as a temporary and quick transportation solution
Prefers new cars to buy
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Avoid dealing with a salesperson, negotiating the car price and dealing with car repairs while stationed overseas
EMPATHY MAP
An empathy map helped me visually organize insights, observations, and quotes I have collected from user interviews and better understand my user’s pain points, goals, feelings, thoughts, and behaviors. Based on my discoveries, I have created 3 user personas.
USERS PERSONAS
Jim Pettitel
Age
38
Status
Married, has two kids
Experiace
19 years serving as an EU Diplomat
Location
Tokyo Japan, but will relocate to Germany, Berlin
Goal
Purchase a used car upon arrival to a new post, whatever is available
Jim's life is unpredictable. He moves his family and belongings to far-flung places worldwide every few years. When he arrives at a new post, he immediately focuses on a job and purchases a vehicle.
Mary Sharipova
Age
50
Status
Married, has two dogs
Experiace
14 years following her husband diplomatic career
Location
Germany, Berlin but will relocate to Spaine, Madrid
Goal
Sell her Volvo for a fair price to a diplomat who is located in Berlin
Spouse of a diplomat who prefers to sell her used cars before living the post. I used Mary as a secondary persona for one of my user flow.
Joshua Maiden
Age
58
Status
Married, has three kids
Experiace
25 years serving as an USA Diplomat
Location
Thiland Bangko, but will relocate to UK, London
Goal
Buy a new car by taking advantage of a diplomatic discount and using it for a long time. Save time and money as well as buy an environmentally friendly vehicle with new safety features
I wish I had had a business member on my team to examine the possibility of adding to my app the option for diplomats to buy a new car.
JOB-TO-BE-DONE
Needs
Reduce stress and ensure immediate mobility
Immediately have a car at the new post
Circumstances
When a diplomat first arrives or lives a post
Emotional Job
Feel comfortable and mobile in a new country
Main Job
Drive to work
Related Job
Access shopping and entertament outlets
Social Job
Have the freedom meet new people
How might we create a consolidated picture of the available custom-cleared registered diplomatic cars for purchase and sale within the diplomatic community?
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How might we design a better experience for diplomats who immediately need to sell or buy a custom-cleared car overseas?
DESIGN & IDEATE
Goal
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To create a marketplace where all diplomats can buy & sell vehicles at a specific foreign location.
OUTLINED
USER FLOWS
A user list a new car posting to sell his/her vehicle
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Log in/Sign up/Verification
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List car information
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Receive an offer from a potential buyer
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Confirm payment
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Mutual agreement
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Congratulation
A user search for a used car to buy and purchase it
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Choose a car location
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Results
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Choose a car
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Log in/Sign up/Verification
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Contact seller
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Payment
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Confirmation
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Mutual agreement
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Congratulation
As I created the user flows, it became clear that the option for diplomats to buy a new car may need to be fully aligned with DiplomaticCARS' business goal. Since I did not have a second opinion from a business perspective, I decided to put it in (MVP).
SITE MAP
SKETCHES & GUERRILLA USABILITY TESTING
During my Guerrilla Usability Testing, I discovered that the map view of the available cars to purchase did not work well for many participants. I dropped this "map" idea, sketched a new homepage concept, and moved to Low Fidelity Wireframes to develop and test a new interface.
I would not use the map to find the car.
Why do I need to look at the world map if there are zero cars for sale in the city I am stationed in?
New user is searching to buy a car
WIREFLOW
FIND A CAR TO BUY
MOODBOARD
Imagery Inspiration
DiplomaticCARS inspiration comes from mountains representing reliability and trust. Deep blue tones give a sense of accomplishment and effortlessness. The route represents dynamic movement, and the map provides a feeling of connection and worldliness.
UI Inspiration
UI inspiration reflects well brand personality - competence. This brand must radiate professionalism and message to users, “You are in professional hands, and we know what to do.” A minimalistic approach and high level of contrast give a feeling of success and ease.
Brand Personality
DiplomaticCARS brand personality is competence. It goes beyond buying & selling cars by giving diplomats choices and confidence over their transition.
UI ELEMENTS
VALIDATE
High Fidelity Wireflow - a new user is creating an account & register to a secure portal (Jim Pettitel - Persona).
USABILITY TESTING
By performing a usability test of the 4 red routes with 7 participants from five different countries, I wanted to ensure that the DiplomaticCARS mobile application is intuitive and easy to use so that users can complete the app’s primary tasks.
I also wanted to check if the app's architecture is logical and clear. After testing the first 2 participants, it became clear I needed to fix two issues explained below, which could have impeded the participants from completing the app's primary tasks.
BEFORE
FINAL
.png)
Users on the Car Description page push the “Contact Seller” button, which moves them to the “Inbox” screen. At this stage, they are to write a message to the seller. However, on the “Inbox” screen, there was no field for that, so I inserted the “Write a message” field.
Users commented that the car picture was too small and it was not clear what does it mean "edit" the car price.
BEFORE
FINAL
BEFORE
FINAL
.png)
Users on the Car Description page push the “Contact Seller” button, which moves them to the “Inbox” screen. At this stage, they are to write a message to the seller. However, on the “Inbox” screen, there was no field for that, so I inserted the “Write a message” field. Also, accessibility was one of my priorities, so I made the “Explore” icon more visible when active.
CLIKABLE PROTOTYPE
REFLECTION
Importance of User-Centered Design (UCD)
At the beginning of my project, my mind already pictured how the final product should look, no matter how hard I fought my imagination. However, by following the user-centered design (UCD), I was able to focus on the users and their needs at each phase of the design process. The result was a fundamentally different product. In the future, I will continue to focus on the user's needs, pain points, and behavior to create solutions that will create fantastic user experiences.​
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Usability Test as Early as Possible
The Guerilla Usability Tests I performed early on my sketches allowed me to define the key challenges quickly, thus avoiding time-consuming downstream complications. It allowed me to observe how users interacted with the product, which uncovered severe usability issues at the early stage of development and sparked new ideas for better Information Architecture. If I had had to change the wireframes later on, it would’ve been much more time-consuming than making additional sketches.
Time
Management
Meeting deadlines is a requisite factor in all successful projects. I believe in progress over perfection, and thus fought the urge to constantly perfect the design of the screens, tweak the visuals, and play around with the color palette. Timely development of products was driven home to me when I noticed a similar product to what I am working on appearing on the market, reminding me that there will always be competition.
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Things I would do if I had more time
I wish I had had a business member on my team to examine the possibility of adding to my app the option for diplomats to buy a new car. My research showed a customer's niche and preferences for purchasing new vehicles despite having tours of duty that only last 2-4 years. It would have been great to capture them as customers as well. Moreover, during my interview phase, I discovered that many diplomats are unaware that Volvo and BMW sell new cars to diplomats at a special diplomatic discount.
