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phaseI
Unstuck addresses a critical problem that is the lack of accessible, trustworthy, and affordable automotive guidance for non-professionals. When warning lights appear or repair estimates seem high, most car owners lack the knowledge to make informed decisions. Existing solutions force users to choose between unreliable free advice or expensive professional consultations, leaving vulnerable populations at risk of being overcharged or making unsafe decisions. During Phase I, our team conducted competitive analysis of five platforms, performed heuristic evaluation of "Uplook", and developed three detailed personas with usage scenarios representing non-professionals, DIY enthusiasts, and professional mechanics. These research methods revealed critical gaps in existing solutions that is poor transparency, forced subscriptions, and lack of quality tracking, which directly informed our initial interface sketches prioritizing cost transparency, user control, and refund guarantees.
When we were researching for Unstuck, We performed different research methods to give us a better idea about what do other applications used in their apps and what can we do to improve them. The first part of the research was the competitive analysis, where we took a look at different apps and noted what strengths they had for their apps and what can we do to improve these issues so we can be able to compete with them. The UX team selected five competitors, with each having their own features for the app. Each of these competitors were evaluated by the following categories: Strengths, Weaknesses, Price, and Quality. The additional category that we look at was the features, which did help with the overall analysis of the products.
Another research method that we used was heuristic evaluation. Our team chose only one competitor that was performed on and we took a little bit more depth in looking at. In doing the heuristic evaluation, we saw how the app was controlled, how it looks, how much freedom does the user have when asking for car requests, and how much does the app prevent refunds. "Uplook" was the app we chose to evaluate, as it was the one that was very similar to our design of the app and it was well developed for the user. "Uplook" has been evaluated, and it was given a score between 1-10 in these categories that we were look at like: Visibility of System Status, Match between Systems, User control and freedom, Consistency and standards, Error prevention, Recognition rather than recall, Flexibility and efficiency of use, Aesthetic and minimalist design, Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors, and Help and documentation. These categories were the notes that were taken on in each areas to see what were its strengths and weaknesses.
With the creations of Personas, the UX users gained an understanding in how the users should interact with the Unstuck app. We created some users and gave them detailed backstories and goals. For each of these personas, the UX team created situations in which the individual would use or need to use Unstuck or a similar app.
With through competitive analysis, the UX team found that the demographic of other individuals who want to use our product would be very broad. The people who are most interested in using the Unstuck app would include mechanics who want to become freelance and those who don't want to spend too much money on having their car fixed. Analyzing other apps, similar apps also revealed the possibility of users wanting to become freelance mechanics.
The heuristic evaluation of Uplook revealed several usability issues that would impact user trust and satisfaction. The platform scored poorly in User Control and Freedom (4/10) and Error Prevention (3/10), where users had difficulty canceling subscriptions, were auto-enrolled without confirmation, and had no way to undo actions or dispute charges. Visibility of System Status (6/10) showed that the app did not communicate wait times or expert availability to users. Aesthetic and Minimalist Design (5/10) revealed that aggressive upselling cluttered the interface and made it harder for users to find core features. The evaluation found that Uplook prioritized subscription retention over user experience, creating problems around pricing transparency and user control. These findings helped the team identify key design priorities for Unstuck that are transparent pricing, easy exits, and an interface focused on solving user problems rather than pushing subscriptions.
From the Methodology used in the research for the product, The UX team was able to gather a small amount of data to work with at the moment. Even though personas and scenarios were created, the data set stays on the small side when compared to the usual desire goal to gather as much data as possible. With a larger range of data it is easier for the team to address a bigger range of user cases and scenarios. Despite these limitations, the initial design has been proven to be functional enough that would allow us to continue. without extensive and costly research. The findings express that the core design is fulfilling the users needs, although there is definitely room for improvement. When not a primary objective, there is the possibility of an addition in the form of a Chat-bot, at this point the Ux team is looking to identify the specific tasks for the Chat_boy, but it is still under the teams' ratification.
While helpful in providing insights, there are some limitations that the UX team was able to encounter during the implementing a Heuristic evaluation. One of the limitations was the Ux team’s own experience and understanding of each scenario which influenced the possible situations where the software is destined to be used. In addition, the target audience’s demographic is broad, as any person can come from different backgrounds and experience levels, to try and start a “do it yourself” stage in any point of their lives, thus exponentially increasing the diversity of the targeted customer. Keeping in consideration the UX team’s size and each individual’s experiences in similar matters, it leaves a big grey area for the implementation of user input to broaden the data and improve as needed.Future research should be a bit more user based feedback in order to expand the data set and refine the designed and features.