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Priscilla

UX Designer

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Priscilla

UX audit: Cars page search filters

UX audit: Cars page search filters

Turners Automotive Group

Turners Automotive Group

Screenshot of UX audit report page that shows usability analysis for the search filter panel

Role

Product Lead

Timeline

Oct 2023 - May 2025

Tasks

Heuristic analysis
Competitor research
User flows
Wireframes

Tools

Figma
Figjam
JIRA
Confluence

Turners is a Kiwi household name when it comes to buying and selling used cars. First opening in 1967 in downtown Auckland, they're now the largest used vehicle dealer in the country with branches from Whangarei to Invercargill.

The project

Conducting a usabilty review of the Cars page search filters

Conducting a usabilty review of the Cars page search filters

As Product Lead of www.turners.co.nz, I led the redesign project of the Cars sub-division of the website in a Product Owner and UX strategy capacity.

While development of the Cars detail page was in progress, I started working on a UX audit of the search results page, in particular the search filters. The UX audit, followed by low-fidelity prototypes, would be used to brief the in-house UI designer.

As Product Lead of www.turners.co.nz, I led the redesign project of the Cars sub-division of the website in a Product Owner and UX strategy capacity.

While development of the Cars detail page was in progress, I started working on a UX audit of the search results page, in particular the search filters. The UX audit, followed by low-fidelity prototypes, would be used to brief the in-house UI designer.

The challenge

Identifying heuristic improvements for a high-traffic feature

The search filters is a high-traffic feature that's crucial for many customer journeys to find the right car for their needs. Additionally, there is a feature to save multiple sets of filters against the website user's account and receive email or SMS notifications when new matches are found.

I conducted a UX audit to identify heuristic improvements we could make for the Cars search page roadmap of the redesign project, and presented this in a report to senior leadership sponsoring the project.

Ideation

Recommendations based on best practice principles and competitor research

Recommendations based on best practice principles and competitor research

While the existing UI already follows some heuristic best practices for web forms and search filters, there are clearly opportunities for simplification. For example, removing the duplicated Save Search button, applying better information hierarchy, refining labels and messages to better reflect system status.

Analysis of the search experience in competitors such as Trade Me and Cars Guide helped to round out the UX audit.

Example of competitor research of search filters. Trade Me's filter UI pattern doubles up to show applied filters. However, unlike Turners, they don't allow multiple options to be selected per filter.

The fun part

Applying recommendations to low-fidelity prototypes

Applying recommendations to low-fidelity prototypes

Based on the UX audit and competitor research, I created low-fidelity prototypes of options with the last two being iterations which could be included in the future roadmap if not the current one.

  • Option 1: Addressing basic usability issues only, like having field labels instead of it being placeholder text, keeping the same user flow as existing filters.

  • Option 2: Minor user flow change to use popovers to display options, to allow people to focus on each filter they want to apply, and view the amount of cars available as they select filters.

  • Option 3: A couple of UI patterns and user flow options for allowing people to select multiple car Makes which is not currently a feature.

  • Option 1: Addressing basic usability issues only, like having field labels instead of it being placeholder text, keeping the same user flow as existing filters.

  • Option 2: Minor user flow change to use popovers to display options, to allow people to focus on each filter they want to apply, and view the amount of cars available as they select filters.

  • Option 3: A couple of UI patterns and user flow options for allowing people to select multiple car Makes which is not currently a feature.

  • UX improvements to add filter categories to the applied filters, while keeping the task to Save Search on the filter panel to simplify the experience.

  • Improvement to refine the No results found message and CTA, along with providing a Similar cars section.

  • UX improvements to add filter categories to the applied filters, while keeping the task to Save Search on the filter panel to simplify the experience.

  • Improvement to refine the No results found message and CTA, along with providing a Similar cars section.

Reflection

An opportunity to round out the search filters

While the current Turners website has served the business and its customers for many years, the redesign project was a great opportunity to round out the search filter experience with usability improvements. By applying best practice heuristic principles, these improvements will lower cognitive load to apply and save filters to meet the needs of Turners customers who are looking for their ideal cars.

I'm open to work

I'm open to work

Let's chat

Let's chat

Email me

Email me

View resume

View resume