UNITED AUTO
I found United Auto Spa's owner through HandUp, an organization
devoted to helping people get out and stay out of poverty. He had been working
and living out of his van for over a decade, and after receiving his first yelp review,
he saw a tremendous increase in business. This got him thinking about the
importance of an online presence, which is where Gregg (the developer I
partnered with) and I came in.
We ramped up our knowledge about the automotive detailing sector by
researching competitors in the bay area, similar mobile detailing services
across the country, and by watching United’s owner at work. We determined that
we needed to focus on United's process, premium supplies and mobility.
After understanding how to position United, we looked at who United
wanted to serve. The current client pool was made up of friends and acquaintances,
but United wanted to grow and target all successful, tech-savvy individuals living
in the Bay area. We realized these individuals care about their car, but also
don't have time to sit in a waiting room.
Our solution was to create an adaptive site that would allow users to
have a streamlined booking experience on mobile, and allow tablet and desktop
users to dive deeper into content highlighting United’s process and mobility.
To understand the process, I observed the owner on a job. I watched
how he meticulously moved from the front to the back of the vehicle, and
decided to visualize this with hotspots overlaying a car rendering. The hot spots
reveal what product or special process is used to clean that specific part of
the vehicle. The number of hotspots conveys the level of service that is provided.
For mobility, Gregg and I taught United's owner how to use Instagram and
geotag his photos with neighborhood names and not specific customer
addresses. We then used IFTT to automatically post shared photos to United's
social media sites and to the mobility section the website. The post
populates onto the map shows users where United clients are in relation to their
own home or office.
