Volvo Cars — a UX case study

Introduction

I was hired by AKQA as a senior UX architect in mid 2017 to work on-site at Volvo in Gothenburg, Sweden. I was tasked with the following:

• Suggest ways of improving the information architecture of Volvo’s website
• Design features and deliver a new car configurator across 50 markets
• Help create the world’s first car subscription service: ‘Care by Volvo’
• Plan innovative experiences across three brand pillars: safety, convenience and sustainability.

Improving IA

One of the first things I undertook was an assessment of all of the common components across volvocars.com. My ambition was to help empower product teams to collaborate more effectively and avoid a ‘pass the baton’ approach to improving user experience.

I started to highlight whenever a signpost, or piece of copy was inconsistent. I also championed consistent interaction models so that our users had far less to learn on each page. We started to share copy/signposts and started standardising components across different product teams.