Tires
general overview
The Tires feature inside of myCARFAX is the most complex feature to-date. This new feature goes far beyond just tracking tire rotations. With Tires, users will now have the ability to track the tread life, tire warranty, tire recalls, and service history of all of the tires on their car.
The biggest challenge the myCARFAX team faced when developing this feature was the lack of detail in incoming tire records – tire records come in as “new tire(s) mounted.” Until shops begin sending more detailed information automatically, we will rely on users to help us fill in the missing information.
Goals
Provide users the ability to track tread life, tire warranty, tire recalls, and service history by tire set.
Give users the ability to not just see tires that are currently on their car, but also the tires that were previously on their car.
Allow power users to add size, brand, and model information.
Convince shops who specialize in tires to send CARFAX their service data – including number of tires mounted, warranty information, TIN (Tire Identification Number), and tire size information.
Process details
Audit of current incoming data.
Research and Ideation around what kinds of information users would want to know (via research groups and usertesting.com).
Research around edge cases in tire replacement (via research groups and usertesting.com)
Wire-framing a flow to gather information and a layout for presenting the information once it had been collected.
High-Fidelity mockups and InVision prototypes.
Testing, testing, and more testing of prototypes (via usertesting.com)
Release, learn from feedback, and make adjustments.
Final Product
ONBOARDING
When the Tires feature launched, we made sure to properly introduce it with 4 onboarding screens. (1) Naming the feature and what is tracked (2) Emphasizing safety through tread life. (3) Introducing Warranty tracking (4) Allowing users who are ready and interested to jump directly into the add tire flow.
Main touchpoints
TIRES ON THE DASHBOARD
In addition to the progress bar helping users track Tire Rotations, there is now a second progress bar allowing users to track remaining estimated remaining Tread Life of their tires.
DASHBOARD DETAILS
Clicking into the Tires page presents the user with even more data around both tire rotation and tread life.
DASHBOARD DETAILS EXPANDED VIEW
Tapping “See More” presents the user with detailed tire set information.
Tire Details
TIRE SET DETAILS
Tapping the header section of the Tire Set card brings the user to the Tire Set Details page where they have the ability to edit the information presented, dismount the tires (put them in storage), or delete them completely.
TIRE WARRANTY / TREAD LIFE REMINDER
Should a tire wear out prematurely, users should know that it might be covered by the warranty. We will also remind them when their tires are no longer in warranty.
For tires sets both with and without a warranty, we use the tread life reminder to prompt users to check their tires’ remaining tread life.
TIRE IDENTIFICATION NUMBER (TIN)
Tire Identification Numbers or TINs are similar to serial numbers, only that instead of being unique to a specific tire, TINs are assigned to a batch of tires. It is likely that if you purchase 4 tires at the same time that they share the same TIN. By adding TIN information to myCARFAX, users can be alerted if a recall is issued for the tires on their vehicle.
Previous Tires
PREVIOUS TIRES
Cars will wear multiple sets of tires over the course of their life. We found through our research that users like to reference previously mounted tires when considering the purchase of new ones. We gave them a place in the app to do just that.
PREVIOUS TIRE EXPANDED
Just like with dashboard detail cards, users will have the ability to view even more information on a tire set.
ADD TIRE FLOW
Depending on how much information is automatically added by a service shop, the user will either see all or just one of the screens above. I wanted to make these screens as straight forward as possible by asking simple, single-sentence questions. (1) Approximate date of purchase. (2) Number of tires purchased. (3) Existence of tread life warranty. (4) Confirmation of tread life reminder. (5) Optional receipt upload.
UPDATE ARRANGEMENT
When we receive a service record indicating new tires were mounted, we make the assumption that the oldest tires on the vehicle are the ones that were removed. However, in the event that our assumption turns out to be incorrect, we allow users to set the record straight.
The times this would be important are for a user whose vehicle had two sets of two tires on their vehicle that are both relatively new – front tires having 10,000 miles and the rear tires having 20,000 miles. Should our user have sustained severe damage to one or both of the tires with 10,000 miles, they can update the arrangement to show that one or both of the new tires replaced the tires with 10,000 miles, not 20,000 miles.