How the project came to be

When people first visit YourMechanic they mostly fall into two groups: “I know what I need - let’s book the service” or “my car is not working and I have no idea why - help!” For the second case, we searched multiple websites and forums that provide similar answers — but we just couldn’t find one reliable source of information. Most of the advice on forums was unclear or made by people with no credibility, and there were many opinions about each issue.

We quickly realized that the answers to our customers’ questions needed to be very specific — the make, model, and trim of the car had to match the question. After exhaustive research, brainstorming, and revisions, the “Advice” idea started to form.

万博体育入口Advice是一个可以回答任何与汽车有关的问题或主题的门户。该平台由由最高的，认证的机械师组成的网络提供支持，使人们能够向有关您的汽车提出真正的机制问万博亚洲客户端题，在24小时内获取答复，并预订一名机械师来您的家中，以在您的汽车上进行检查或服务。

Our extensive research had shown us that people, while researching their automotive problems, wanted information in a specific way. They care about:

1. 找到问题的答案 - right now。
2. 问一个问题qualified individual并知道他们可以信任来源。
3. Browsing detailed information and tips about theirspecific car及其问题。

Research, wireframe, prototype, repeat

We spent much of the early days talking, sketching, wireframing, and prototyping ideas and directions for the site. Below is an insight into the process that we use while building new projects at YourMechanic.

Early stage research

在我们的最初研究和有关客户和用户的现有数据的丰富之中，我们开始研究对不同品牌（例如Avvo或Stackoverflow）的基本竞争研究，这是问题 - 答案模型的很好示例。这使我们能够对用户正在寻找哪种类型的答案以及行业领导者的最佳实践有一般的了解。我们知道，提出一个问题并提供答案只是解决有关该问题并修复汽车的主要问题的第一步。

早期的集思广益会议的重点是确定应该进入MVP的基本功能集（最低可行产品），以及应将其推入将来的版本。通过共享完成的信息和研究，我们在提出新产品的想法的同时创建了截止日期，目标和目标。

This method allowed us to get a clear understanding of the directions that we want to go into and what will be the core feature set of the released product (our initial Minimum Viable Product). How the articles would be structured, and the areas on which we should focus created further discussion around the how the tags will be constructed, what the process of asking a question should look like, and how to help the user easily find the correct information from every page.

在这个早期阶段，我们的一些假设开始形成。例如，在设计提出问题的流程时，主要问题之一是应该传递给机械师的信息。我们研究了已经在主平台上预订的服务的数据，与机械师和我们的客户支持团队进行了交谈，以了解需要哪manbetx体育手机些信息来正确回答任何汽车问题，以及什么是重复模式万博亚洲客户端。这使我们得出了我们要包含的关键信息的最终简短列表。问一个问题”漏斗：

1. 汽车（制造，模型，年，修剪）
2. 里程
3. Transmission (automatic, manual)

创建建议的一个主要组成部分是SEO研究，我们发现了关键问题的答案：面包屑应该是什么样的，URL结构应该是什么样的，以及我们应该如何创建和管理分配给文章的标签。这是一个如此广泛的话题，我们一定会写另一个有关此的深入文章（请敬请期待！）。

用户流和站点地图

这不是很漂亮，但是充满了信息：我们探索潜在流和核心思想的头脑风暴会议之一：

用户流有助于更清楚地了解如何为用户创建最简单的途径以完成最初设定的目标。这些流程还使我们能够在旅途的每个步骤中构成消费者的动机和需求，从而创建适合每个步骤的设计解决方案。

One of the many flows we made while creating YourMechanic Advice:

Wireframes, prototypes, and testing

Creating wireframes and prototypes allowed us to easily test the platform on our users and see how people interact with the website. We learned about the elements they’re looking for, as well as the different ways that they’re using to find answers to their automotive problems and their expectations, and the knowledge that we got out of it was absolutely invaluable.

We received great answers to behavioral and user experience questions we had, which allowed us to quickly eliminate our assumptions that didn’t feel right and to validate and test the ones that had more potential. While getting to know what type of questions users were having while browsing articles, we also gathered invaluable knowledge for deciding on how the content should be structured. Popular questions such as “does this article apply to my car?” and “how much do these services cost?” allowed us to adjust the general approach and come up with a set of features for further releases.

Of the types of questions users had,  many of them could be applied to every type of car. For example, many people looked for information on how to “use a thermostat in a tropical region” or “what would be your favorite green car restoration project?” Powered by this information, we added another option to let users ask a question without specifying the car at all, so another variable came into the previously mentioned “Ask a question” flow: “my question is not car-specific。”

Tools: Sketch, Omnigraffle, InVision, Evernote, UserTesting.com, UsabilityHub

Example wireframes that were part of an InVision Prototype made for YourMechanic Advice:

In addition to reaching out to our customers and doing live sessions, we also used用水让我们轻松获得快速的结果。我们能够看到用户如何与产品互动，这是自参与者自然环境中发生的研究以来的重要观点，这使我们比实验室研究更现实的见解。当参与者处于更熟悉的环境中时，我们能够得到诚实的回应。

有关我们不完全确定的一些元素的较小辩论，我们使用了Usabilityhubto allow us to get data on which version of the element was doing a better job at achieving the desired goal.

Look and feel

We’re currently undergoing a visual standardization and bringing older pages up to par with new ones, so creating a UI Style Guide and Branding Guide helps us a lot to achieve consistency across all pages and let the designers who were “dropping in” inside the process to work in unison with the rest of the team.

When approaching the Advice platform, the main keywords were clean and simple; we wanted to let the user focus on the content with clear calls to action.

Sketch应用程序中发生的视觉设计探索:

有几件事要记住

1. Always check your assumptions, and do it early.
2. 不要爱上解决方案；尝试发现真正的问题。
3. A product is never finished. Always strive for better experiences.

What’s next

产品发布后，该过程不会停止。我们一直在寻找可以改进的新事物，并已经努力添加被推迟到更多版本的新功能。有许多工具可以轻松地记录，重播和分析使用该网站的实际人员，这是真正了解用户的重要组成部分。使用这些工具以及用户反馈，使我们能够完整地了解如何继续改进产品。

不断扩展人们如何使用和与产品进行交互的知识是一个持续的过程 - 该过程使我们能够为用户塑造更好的体验。