User Research at Auto Trader - It really is a team sport
As a company we are known for being driven by data. This is of course true, but within our Buying Experience tribe we also take great care to think about the human aspect; considering the user need and their behaviour when looking to buy a car.
At Auto Trader, we live by the rule of ‘evidence over opinion’. With opinions being so subjective, we like to combine quantitative data with qualitative feedback to ensure we are making informed decisions.
As the only user researcher within the Buying Experience tribe, I spend the majority of my time consulting across different work streams, making sure consumers are at the centre of our designs. The rest of my time is spent conducting more in-depth research; looking at ways the business can evolve and how we can take our experiences to the next level.
Over the past few months, we’ve opened up access to remote user research tools to enable designers and developers to test their own designs, or check the live site for improvements. We’ve also run workshops on research fundamentals e.g. how to be aware of cognitive biases and how to write tasks using language that doesn’t guide the user’s behaviour.
Since doing this, we have seen a huge increase in the number of tests going out, including more low-fidelity prototypes and proof-of-concept designs. This helps us ensure we’re investing development time building products that are fit for purpose.
Within our design and development teams, the qualitative research tool we use the most is UserZoom. This tool allows us to get direct feedback from users in the form of usability studies, click tests, card sorts and surveys. On average we run up to 10 tests a week and are able to get quick insights to help validate decisions.
Another tool we use across our tribe is Contentsquare. Contentsquare helps us to analyse the behaviour of users on our site while providing context to their actions. This can indicate trends in user behaviour, highlight any technical problems, and even help influence strategic product decisions.
Combining contextual user behaviour with raw statistical data helps create a well-rounded idea of how people are using our products and services. Seeing stats such as exposure rate over a webpage or watching session replays of people using our site can be very insightful and help guide us towards creating a better user experience for everyone.
When we look to make bigger changes, like improving the information hierarchy on our mobile search listings, we use tools like Tobii Pro eye tracking. This enables us to observe users without impacting their natural behaviour. We get to see how they scan our content, what information they focus on, and even what content they miss. This helps us refine our designs based on real user evidence instead of opinions.
It’s still early days with our new approach to user research and we are constantly learning, but as a business we have really benefited from opening up access to research tools and sharing our knowledge across tribes. It can be difficult being such a fast-paced company, but we would rather try something, fail fast, and learn from our mistakes - and research is a huge part of that!
We also found that involving as many members of the team as possible in research helps us all to have empathy with our users. We now have product owners, designers and developers within the tribe working together to do their part in learning about what our users really want. And that’s why I’m proud to say that user research at Auto Trader is a team sport.
Shout-out to the Buying Experience tribe for being great advocates for our consumers and our resident Contentsquare guru Sam Farndale for sharing an overview of how we use Contentsquare.
