Beyond the dealership: Reimagining car buying in Indonesiaa
ROLE
Senior Product Designer
+ Project Manager
RESPONSIBILITIES
UX/UI Design, Product Strategy, Stakeholder Alignment, Mentorship
DATE
2019 - 2020
INDUSTRY
eCommerce
PROJECT DETAILS
PROJECT CONTEXT
Rethinking car buying in Jakarta
Working with one of Indonesia’s largest automotive retailers, we were tasked with creating a digital experience that connected the different stages of buying, owning, and eventually selling a car.
The project was based in Jakarta, a city where traffic and long travel times can make something as simple as visiting a dealership a challenge. Coming from a different market, I was surprised by how differently customers approached buying and maintaining their vehicles.
Rather than expecting customers to visit a dealership, the retailer wanted to bring more of the experience directly to them. This included booking test drives at home, arranging vehicle servicing, and even purchasing and paying for a car entirely online.
For me, this was an interesting challenge. We weren’t simply moving an existing process online. We needed to rethink how customers interacted with the dealership and how the digital experience could support their needs throughout vehicle ownership.
THE CHALLENGES
It's more than just buying a car…
01
Designing for different customer behaviors
One of the biggest challenges was understanding how customer expectations differed from markets I was familiar with. In Jakarta, traveling to a dealership could take considerable time, making at-home services an important part of the experience.
We needed to consider how customers could arrange test drives, book servicing, and manage their vehicles without necessarily visiting a physical location.
02
Bringing a traditionally offline experience online
Buying a car is a significant purchase, and traditionally involves multiple interactions with a dealership. We needed to explore how customers could move through this process digitally, from browsing and selecting a vehicle to ordering and paying online.
At the same time, we had to keep the option for customers to engage with a dealership representative when they needed additional support.
03
Balancing ambition with technical constraints
With a small design team, tight timelines, and technology we weren’t familiar with, we had to be practical about how we approached the project.
Working closely with business analysts, developers, and stakeholders was essential to understanding what was possible, simplifying complex user journeys, and making sure the designs could be implemented.
This meant continuously reviewing our assumptions and finding a balance between the customer experience, business requirements, and technical limitations.
STRATEGY & TEAM
Connecting design, business & delivery
As a Senior Product Designer, my role extended beyond creating user journeys and high-fidelity designs. Working closely with the Design Manager, I helped translate business requirements and customer needs into a clear design direction, while supporting the planning and coordination needed to keep the project moving.
With a small team and a large scope, I took an active role in organizing our work, collaborating with business analysts and developers, and identifying opportunities to simplify complex customer journeys.
This was also an opportunity for me to take on more responsibility beyond design execution, gaining experience in stakeholder collaboration, delivery planning, and balancing customer expectations with business and technical constraints.
01
Connecting business & customer needs
Worked closely with business analysts to translate requirements into actionable user journeys, challenging assumptions and identifying opportunities to improve the experience.
02
Supporting planning & prioritization
Collaborated with the Design Manager to organize design activities, manage dependencies, and focus our efforts on the most important use cases within the project timeline.
03
Bridging design & technology
Worked directly with developers to understand technical constraints, review design decisions, and ensure our proposed solutions were feasible for implementation.
THE APPROACH
Building the foundations while delivering
DISCOVER
Understand the existing experience, business requirements, user needs, and opportunities through workshops, research, and journey mapping.
DESCRIBE
Translate insights into information architecture, user flows, wireframes, and reusable interaction patterns.
CO-CREATE
Validate solutions with stakeholders and users, collaborate with developers, and refine decisions based on feasibility and value.
DELIVER
Support implementation, maintain design consistency, and prioritize future improvements based on testing and delivery feedback.
PHASE 01
Discover
Understanding the Car-Buying Journey
With a small design team and a tight timeline, we started by working directly with the client’s team to understand the existing customer journey and the opportunities for improvement.
Through workshops, existing research, and regular discussions with business analysts and the technology team, we developed a clearer picture of the different customer needs. This helped us identify where we could simplify the experience, while keeping the technical constraints and initial research in mind.
01
Stakeholder Alignment
We kicked off the project with an onboarding workshop at the client’s office to understand the business requirements, existing research, and expectations for the first phase. With limited time and resources, it was important that everyone was aligned on what we needed to achieve.
02
Customer Journeys & Personas
Using the research available, we mapped the customer journey across buying, owning, and disposing of a vehicle. We also worked with different customer archetypes to understand their behaviors, preferences, and expectations throughout the process.
03
Working Within Constraints
As we were working with a small team and unfamiliar technology, we had regular discussions and iterations with the technology team and business analysts. This helped us challenge certain assumptions and find solutions that balanced customer needs with what was technically possible.
PHASE 02
Describe
Simplifying Complex Customer Journeys
Using the research and customer journeys, we began developing the information architecture, user flows, and wireframes to bring the experience together.
As we worked through the different scenarios, we identified touchpoints that hadn’t initially been considered. This allowed us to revisit parts of the journey, simplify the flows, and develop prototypes that we could test with real users.
01
Information Architecture
We started by organizing the different features and functionalities into a structure that would make sense for customers. This included looking beyond the initial purchase and considering how users would navigate their accounts, vehicle information, and services.
02
User Flows & Wireframes
With the information architecture in place, we developed user flows and wireframes to understand how customers would move through the different scenarios. As we progressed, we were able to simplify parts of the journey and identify areas that needed further exploration.
03
Prototyping & Validation
We created prototypes to test our initial hypotheses with real users. These sessions helped us understand where the experience worked, where customers struggled, and what needed to be reconsidered before moving further into the design.
PHASE 03
Co-create
Bringing the Experience Together
Once the initial use cases were agreed upon, we worked closely with the technology and business teams to develop the design system and high-fidelity screens across web and mobile.
Working together throughout the process allowed us to review designs, test our assumptions, and make changes based on user feedback and technical requirements. Rather than treating design and development as separate activities, we continuously worked together to refine the experience.
01
Design System & Consistency
We developed and expanded the design system alongside the high-fidelity screens to maintain consistency across the different platforms. This also helped us work more efficiently as the number of screens and use cases continued to grow.
02
Cross-Functional Collaboration
Throughout the project, we worked closely with business analysts, developers, and stakeholders to review the designs and address technical constraints. This collaboration was particularly important as we were working with technology that was unfamiliar to the design team.
03
Testing & Iteration
Across 13 user-testing sessions, we reviewed the experience and identified opportunities to improve the flows and interactions. Based on the feedback, we worked with the technology team to determine what needed to change and how those changes could be implemented.
PHASE 04
Deliver
Creating a foundation for future development
After finalizing the customer journeys, information architecture, and high-fidelity designs, we prepared the final deliverables for the client’s internal team to take over and continue developing the experience.
With over 650 screens across web, mobile, and tablet, it was important that the designs were consistent, documented, and aligned with the technical requirements. Working closely with the business and technology teams, we ensured the designs could support both the initial release and future development.
01
Final designs & documentation
We delivered the high-fidelity screens, user flows, and supporting documentation across the different platforms, covering the key stages of buying, owning, and servicing a vehicle.
02
Design system & consistency
We finalized the design system to maintain consistency across the different experiences and provide the internal team with reusable components and patterns for future development.
03
Handover & collaboration
Working with the technology and business teams, we prepared the designs for handover to the client’s newly established internal team, giving them a foundation to continue building and improving the digital experience.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Working in Jakarta taught me a lot…
01
Understanding local customer behavior
Working in a different market showed me how important it is to challenge assumptions about customer needs. Even familiar experiences, like buying a car, can work very differently depending on local expectations and behaviors.
02
Balancing customer needs & technology
Designing with unfamiliar technology and technical constraints pushed me to find different ways of simplifying complex interactions. It also reinforced the importance of involving developers and business analysts throughout the design process.
03
Thinking beyond individual screens
With more than 650 high-fidelity screens across multiple platforms, consistency and collaboration were essential. The project helped me understand how design decisions affect not only the customer experience, but also development, operations, and future product maintenance.
04
Taking on more responsibility
Working closely with the Design Manager as his deputy gave me more exposure to planning, stakeholder management, and coordinating design delivery on a large transformational project. It was an opportunity to contribute beyond the screens themselves and better understand what it takes to bring a complex digital experience together.