Carmax
My Role
Creative Director | Design & Build Strategist
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The Carmax Experience
Carmax is one of the leading merchants when it comes to selling cars. They employ one of the most efficient and friendly car buying process nationwide. They effectively use user data to continuously enhance their customer’s experiences. My challenged included two problem statements:
The first…
How might we enhance the digital experience to increase engagement and retention?
The second…
How might we create an efficient process to visually capture their products.
The following was my design strategy:
Challenge #1: The Digital Experience
Seamless Experience
Car buying is typically an emotional and stressful experience. Ensuring the customer has seamless content interaction through all their devices was important. I developed component centric patterns and tokens that’s responsive to allow for easy access, comprehension and personalization to help ease the research process and purchase commitment.
Engaging Visuals
Historically, imagery of all kinds have been used throughout the world to tell stories about our past. Same goes for today’s experiences…most customers will engage with merchants through visuals that are relatable. I implemented a storytelling component with Carmax using rich, emotional and relatable photography used throughout the buying experience.
Challenge #2: The Visualization Experience
The Photography System
The Carmax research insights, customers engaged more effectively when interacting with elegant and clutter-free photographs of the vehicles. My task was to design a system enabling the Carmax team to efficiently and productively capture images while meeting the following criteria:
Reduced background clutter
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Capture 15-20 pics per vehicle @ 10-12 vehicles a day
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Maintain the color integrity of the vehicle
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And…can be operated with only ONE technician
The system design:
The Turntable
In order to achieve an efficient flow with minimal disruption, I implemented a vehicle turntable to allow to load the vehicles in position, ready to be photographed.
The turntable is operated by a custom software integrating the camera system, as well as the lighting system. The software rotates the vehicle in increments, and triggers the camera to capture all required images in minutes.
The Lighting
I implemented a state-of-the-art space lighting system that is scalable and customizable for each Carmax environment.
The lighting is programmable to accommodate for the intricate reflective surfaces as well as varying colors of each vehicle. The system is also integrated with the camera and turntable system for efficient automation…all configurable through a digital interface.
The Environment
The images on the left is showcasing the build-out and final outcome. Implementing a seamless background helped eliminate visual clutter, and ensure the ideal contrast and prominence. The right-middle pic shows the customizable light-mixer that is personalized to control light strength and spread for each vehicle’s colors and size.
The system uses the vehicle’s ID to automatically adjust the lighting that is based on the vehicle’s color and size.
The camera system is connected to the Carmax network and uses an Adobe post-production workflow for efficient processing and server uploads…All operated through a technician app.
CUSTOMER TESTIMONIAL
“My wife and I went through all the car pics to make sure we see all the details before going to the dealer. The new images were great. looked like a showroom…Which helped our purchase decision.”
Jared & Megan Walsh, Fredericksburg, VA
The Result
The left image showcases the previous web experience and vehicle pics.
On the right is the new layout, based on an organic grid and sortable product cards…with the seamless, elegant and clutter-free photographs.
THE WEB EXPERIENCE RESULT & PERFORMANCE
Upon the launch of the web experience, a 12 month quarterly benchmarking efforts resulted in 72% desirability and content comprehension increase, as well as 64% mobile engagement…resulting in a 41% increase of committed vehicle purchases.
THE PHOTOGRAPHY SYSTEM RESULT & PERFORMANCE
The photography system was piloted in the Carmax HQ in year one…then 3 additional studios were built in dealers with available drive bays. Success of this design and build included:
Developed technician training model that was
implemented nationwide
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Curated key suppliers for proprietary hardware
and software products
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The system yielded breakthrough processes including exponential increase of photo captures, post-production automation, resource cost-efficiency and reduction of technical debt.