Lin Bele Jacobsen

Projects

The car owner

In this project, I got valuable feedback from user-testing.

Role
UX & UI
Client
1881
Year
2023
Team
2 devs · 1 PM · 1 sales
The finished 1881 car-lookup tool shown on desktop and mobile — a search screen with an illustration, and a vehicle detail card showing the owner's contact information.
The finished tool — search on desktop, vehicle and owner details on mobile.

My key takeaways

In this project, I got valuable feedback from user-testing. I used a combination of interview and test script, emphasising flow and a deeper understanding of pain points. It was amazing to see the users go from enjoying themselves to utter frustration, talking about their pain — arms flying. I learned that a combination like this can save time, be more fun and give better and truer outcomes!

Setting project goals

For this project, I wanted to encourage the company to set goals, and so we did a SMART goal workshop. We started with a template with different facets and examples to draw inspiration from. We chose 5 good parameters, but after looking at our prioritised user groups, ditched 3 of them, and ended up with 2 clear SMART goals. This product just launched, and we’re looking forward to seeing how it performs against our goals. It was a fun experience working with 1881, a private company that’s focused and goal-oriented.

My role, process and method

1881 already has a skilled Web Designer on board, and so they hired me for the extra 2 hands on deck. I helped set goals and agree on prioritised user groups and features. This project had already had a pre-project with thorough user research, so I just filled in the blanks. I did an initial interview round with users who already use this type of product.

Diagram of the designer's tasks across six categories: Research, Ideation, User testing, UI Design, Information Architecture and Product Management.
My tasks, grouped by discipline.
A user-test data matrix comparing five participants' answers across the interview questions, with sticky-note groupings of themes and a list of recommendations.
User test data, grouped into themes and recommendations.

And after my high-fidelity screens were ready, I performed the user test as described above. The results from the user test gave us a small pivot going forward, but nothing major. The research we got was on point.

Five screens of the car-lookup flow: a vehicle profile with a paywall, a payment step, the unlocked owner's contact details, and expandable vehicle information sections.
The high-fidelity screens used in the user test.
Three colleagues collaborating at a whiteboard covered in sticky notes during a workshop session.
Working through goals and priorities as a team.

Challenges

My biggest challenge with this project was to understand the market. I did some market research and was presented with several findings, but it was still difficult to understand how many visits and sales we should expect. It’s been a minute since I last worked with sales on a B2C product like this, and it was exhilarating to do it again!

An empty state reading "We couldn't find the car," with guidance on checking the registration number and an illustration of a person beside a car.
The "car not found" empty state.