ZIYI SHAO
Porfolio
Resume
About
ZIYI SHAO
ZIYI SHAO
Porfolio
Resume
About
Home Page and User Onboarding
Access to valuation tool from the navigation bar and the banner.
A short description about the tool and its capabilities with how the tool woks.
Concept Sketch
Data Visualization
View price trends with a color-coded graph indicating rises and falls.
Easily compare prices of multiple cars within the tool.
Hover over the graph to see specific price changes.
Access a chart illustrating how each factor influences the car's value, both positively and negatively.
Save cars to the garage and share valuations with others seamlessly.
Vehicle Information Collection
Choose the purpose: buying a new car, buying a used car, or selling, and receive tailored recommendations.
Provide additional car details for a more accurate valuation.
Compare values by adjusting parameters to understand their impact.
Select the desired period to view the car's value.
360-Degree Car Inspection
Explore 360-degree exterior and interior car views to assess the vehicle's condition comprehensively.
Identify specific touchpoints that influenced changes in the car's value.
During my Psychology Research Methods course last semester, I collaborated with a team of five to tackle a real-world problem presented by an industry client. Throughout the semester, we applied iterative research and design methodologies to develop a solution that effectively addressed both user needs and business challenges.
Our team partnered with Carputty, an Atlanta-based auto-financing startup aiming to revolutionize traditional auto financing. Carputty encourages individuals to view their vehicles as investments and offers a Vehicle Valuation Tool that leverages predictive AI and industry data to forecast the future value of customers' vehicles over time.
Last semester in my Psychology Research Methods course, I worked with a team of five to solve a real-world problem for Carputty, an Atlanta-based auto-financing startup. We used iterative research and design methods to create a solution that balanced user needs and business goals. Carputty's Vehicle Valuation Tool utilizes predictive AI and industry data to help customers view their vehicles as investments by forecasting future values.
In a Snapshot...
Solution
Initial Problem Statement
Research Questions
Website Walkthrough
Literature Review
Survey
Timeline
Problem
User Problem
Customers have difficulty understanding the purpose of the Valuation tool
Customers don’t find the current data visualizations reliable nor explainable
Business Problem
Difficulty in retaining customers to continue using the Valuation tool
User drop-off from the tool in the middle of use
Impact
✔️ Customer interaction with the Valuation tool over time projected to increase by 32%
✔️ Drop-off rate in the Valuation tool projected to decrease by 26.5%
Solution
Solution
A rethinking of the Valuation tool, providing Carputty customers with actionable insights based on vehicle data, collaborative features to make vehicle decisions, and more user freedom in input options.
Additionally, the solution improves customer retention and drop-off by providing proper user education about the tool.
A rethinking of the Valuation tool, providing Carputty customers with actionable insights based on vehicle data, collaborative features to make vehicle decisions, and more user freedom in input options.
Additionally, the solution improves customer retention and drop-off by providing proper user education about the tool.
1. Optimized Home Page Experience
Home Page Redesign
Enhanced the visual appeal and functionality of the home page.
Tool Description
Introduced a concise yet informative description of the tool prominently on the home page.
Enhanced Accessibility
Enabled seamless valuation tool access through both the navigation bar and a strategically placed button for users.
2. User Onboarding with V3 Tool
V3 Tool Overview
Brief explanation of how the V3 tool works.
Convenient Input Options
Options for users to input car details through VIN, license plate number, or make and model.
Testimonials
Incorporated user testimonials to showcase the effectiveness and positive experiences with the V3 tool.
4. Valuation Tailored to Your Preferences
Personalized Date and Valuation Period
Option to customize the date and valuation period based on user preferences.
Enhanced Transparency
Build trust in the result by highlighting the significance and impact of each feature on the car's value, fostering transparency.
Feature-Specific Valuation
Tailor the valuation by adjusting the value of individual features, observing the direct influence of each change on the overall value..
6. Comprehensive Garage
Unified Car View
View all interested and owned cars in one centralized location for easy management.
Interactive Comparison
Compare the values of different cars stored in the garage to make informed decisions.
Personalized Ranking
Rank cars based on personal preferences and explore the preferences of other users.
Textual Insights
Receive a detailed textual summary of the chart, market trends, and valuable suggestions.
Smart Suggestions
Get recommendations for cars within similar categories and price ranges, tailored to your preference.
Collaborative Garage Access
Share access to the garage with other members for a collaborative car management experience.
3. Enhanced Vehicle Information & Condition Data
Detailed Input Options
Allow users to input specific car details and condition for a more accurate valuation.
Integrated Visual Data
Enhanced precision by integrating visual data, such as images, into the AI tool.
User Guidance with Tooltips
Minimized confusion and streamlined user experience by adding tooltips to provide guidance throughout the valuation process.
5. Enhanced Tool Features
Save to Garage
Save cars to the garage for later access or comparison with other vehicles.
Download Options
Download valuations in versatile formats like CSV, PDF, or others for easy reference and sharing.
Watch List with Alerts
Add cars to the watch list and receive alerts about predicted price fluctuations, keeping you informed about market changes.
7. 360-Degree Car Inspection
360-Degree View
Explore comprehensive exterior and interior views of the car in 360 degrees for a thorough assessment of its condition.
Touchpoint Analysis
Identify specific touchpoints that have influenced changes in the car's value, providing insights into valuation fluctuations.
Key Insights
Challenges in Locating V3 Valuation Tool:
Difficulty in finding the "V3 Valuation Tool" on the website, resulting in usability issues for users.
Unclear Website Focus:
Lack of prioritization leading to ambiguity about the website's core offerings.
“Black Box” Scrutiny leads to Loss of Trust
Users of AI systems rely heavily on trust in the system’s output and functionality, but sometimes trust is lost because users cannot understand the system’s inner workings.
Design Decisions can Improve Trust
Explain the importance of individual attributes to the outcome
Show the smallest change needed to flip the machine prediction
Show the outcome of similar data points
Helping customers make informed financing decisions.
How might we improve features and visualizations in the Vehicle Valuation tool to help customers make more informed vehicle financing decisions?
Upon partnering with Carputty, they provided us with the following problem statement. Throughout our design process, our team refined and restructured the problem statement based on insights we generated.
We conducted a website walkthrough to understand user experiences and identify any challenges in navigation, confusing elements, and user preferences. This walkthrough helps us enhance the website's user-friendliness and improve overall user satisfaction.
Next, our team wanted to delve into the role data visualization plays in developing trust in predictive and AI models. We conducted a thorough literature review of 9 academic papers found through the ACM and Google Scholar digital libraries. Below are our primary takeaways from the review:
1
2
What are the current challenges with the V3 valuation tool?
Why and when do users use valuation tools?
3
What is the definition of “a good car”?
The importance of trust in predictive models.
We deployed a Qualtrics survey targeting potential Carputty customers, with 22 respondents, most unfamiliar with the company. The survey explored participants' familiarity with Valuation tools, important vehicle factors, and the information they could provide as input. Surveys were distributed via Slack, Discord, and Reddit forums.
Understanding what customers value in their vehicles.
1
2
Difficulty in Locating the Tool:
Users faced challenges locating the valuation tool on the website, suggesting visibility or navigation issues.
Confusing Tool's Purpose:
Users found the tool confusing, signaling a need for clearer descriptions and explanations of its objectives and functionality.
Pre-purchase Access Preference:
Participants preferred using the valuation tool before car purchases, highlighting its crucial role in their decision-making process.
Key Insights
Sample Questions
Data Analysis
Findings
After deploying the survey, we conducted 45-minute contextual inquiry sessions with 3 participants familiar with Carputty and the vehicle buying/selling process. This approach allowed us to observe real-time interactions with the Valuation tool, providing insights into points of confusion or disengagement beyond a standard website audit. Participants were selected from our survey respondents.
Observing customers using the tool in action.
Our team synthesized our qualitative data from the UX audit, contextual inquiry, and interviews by using an affinity map. This mapping technique allowed us to let patterns emerge naturally as we created themes.
We created a total of…
Observing customers using the tool in action.
Using insights from our contextual inquiry, we conducted 4 online semi-structured interviews with potential customers selected from survey respondents. The interviews focused on the importance of Valuation tools in the car buying/selling process, methods used in vehicle decision-making, and perceptions of the tool's reliability.
Our team analyzed qualitative data from the interviews in pairs in Excel to ensure inter-rater reliability. Some of the codes we used included: “more data necessary”, “what is a VIN?”, and “family purchasing vehicle together”.
A deep-dive into the customer’s vehicle exploration process.
CONTEXTUAL INQUIRY
SEMI-STRUCTURED INTERVIEWS
DATA SYNTHESIS
Car condition, mileage, and price are indicators of a vehicle’s value
• 100% of respondents indicated car condition is either very or extremely important
• 72% of respondents indicated mileage is either very or extremely important
The VIN isn’t the most readily available vehicle identifier.
Customers may not have prior experience with these tools
Q: Select all the information you would have readily available to provide a Valuation tool:
Q: Which of the following vehicle-related tools have you used before?
36
3
11
Low Level Themes
Mid Level Themes
High Level Themes
Affinity Map
The importance of trust in predictive models.
How might we improve features and visualizations in the Vehicle Valuation tool to help customers make more informed vehicle financing decisions?
Extra effort to locate the tool creates frustration early in the journey.
Unclear purpose of the tool discourages use.
Jordan, an individual Carputty customer who is in the market for a second car
Will, a Turo host who wishes to effectively manage his fleet of cars and use the Valuation tool to set rental prices
Persona
User Journey
Problem Reframing
Design Requirement
Concept Sketch Feedback
Key Points in the Journey
Finding the Valuation Tool:
The validation session was held as one focus-group style session. We chose to do this because we recognized that our initial concepts were still relatively “fuzzy” and extremely lo-fi; holding the session as a focus group would allow for participants to build off each others ideas and give helpful feedback.
🌟 Something interesting we did during our testing for Concept 1 was show participants a side-by-side, lo-fi comparison of the existing navigation and our new concept for it.
Validation Sessions
Turo hosts must navigate to their Dashboard for VIN and mileage, causing frustration.
Individual customers need to check their vehicle or registration for the VIN, adding inconvenience.
Using the Valuation Tool:
Individual customers often end more frustrated than Turo hosts due to difficulty understanding the valuation results.
Interpreting Valuation Results:
Enhancing the data visualization reliability and explainability of Carputty's Valuation tool
Providing user education about the Valuation tool and its capabilities
Reflecting what our users value in our vehicles in the tool's datapoints
Putting our concepts in front of users.
Design System
Heuristic Evaluation
Heuristic Evaluation
Problems Identified
Enter your information into the Valuation tool and run the valuation.
See the preferences of those you shared your Garage with.
Customize the date range for the valuation graph
Sample Tasks
With our hi-fidelity prototype in hand, we had 3 UX experts evaluate our prototype against the 10 Nielsen Heuristics. Evaluators completed a set of pre-determined tasks (set by us) in the prototype, and were asked to fill out a heuristic table using the scale shown below (Figure 3).
Conducting expert testing on our designs.
Iteration 1
Wireframe
Heuristic Evaluation
Final Design
Based on feedback from the concept validation session, our team began creating wireframes out of our initial concepts and incorporated some changes based on insights we gathered.
Concept Feedback Analysis
Design Changes Made
2. Users found it overwhelming when presented with several input options from the get-go.
3. Users were perplexed by the bi-directional bar chart and found it unecessary.
4. Users had questions about the Customize Timeframe feature and how it would look when used.
1. Users preferred our navigation concept as opposed to the existing navigation.
We had our evaluators rate two things on this scale: a) overall usability for a specific heuristic and b) severity of the particularly usability problem
Carputty Vehicle Valuation Tool
Empowering users to make informed vehicle investment decisions with ease.
Carputty Vehicle Valuation Tool
INDUSTRY CLIENT • ITERATIVE DESIGN • CONTEXTUAL INQUIRY • HEURISTIC EVALUATION
An overhaul of Carputty’s Vehicle Valuation tool, enhancing how their customers input vehicle data, make vehicle-related decisions, and view a vehicle’s value over time.
Project Context
• Industry Client (Master's course)
• Fall 2023, 15 weeks
• Team: Ellie Park, Jisu Kim, Aby Kottoor, Ziyi Shao
Roles and Responsibilities
• UX Research: Literature Review, Contextual Inquiry, Interviews, Competitive Analysis, Heuristic Evaluation
• UX Design: Sketching, Wireframing, Prototyping, Usability Testing, Iterative Design
Roles and Responsibilities
• UX Research: Literature Review, Contextual Inquiry, Interviews, Competitive Analysis, Heuristic Evaluation
• UX Design: Sketching, Wireframing, Prototyping, Usability Testing, Iterative Design
Background
ZIYI SHAO
Porfolio
Resume
About
ZIYI SHAO
Porfolio
Resume
About
ZIYI SHAO
Porfolio
Resume
About
Vehicle Information Collection
Choose the purpose: buying a new car, buying a used car, or selling, and receive tailored recommendations.
Provide additional car details for a more accurate valuation.
Compare values by adjusting parameters to understand their impact.
Select the desired period to view the car's value.
360-Degree Car Inspection
Explore 360-degree exterior and interior car views to assess the vehicle's condition comprehensively.
Identify specific touchpoints that influenced changes in the car's value.
Home Page and User Onboarding
Access to valuation tool from the navigation bar and the banner.
A short description about the tool and its capabilities with how the tool woks.
Data Visualization
View price trends with a color-coded graph indicating rises and falls.
Easily compare prices of multiple cars within the tool.
Hover over the graph to see specific price changes.
Access a chart illustrating how each factor influences the car's value, both positively and negatively.
Save cars to the garage and share valuations with others seamlessly.
During my Psychology Research Methods course last semester, I collaborated with a team of five to tackle a real-world problem presented by an industry client. Throughout the semester, we applied iterative research and design methodologies to develop a solution that effectively addressed both user needs and business challenges.
Our team partnered with Carputty, an Atlanta-based auto-financing startup aiming to revolutionize traditional auto financing. Carputty encourages individuals to view their vehicles as investments and offers a Vehicle Valuation Tool that leverages predictive AI and industry data to forecast the future value of customers' vehicles over time.
In a Snapshot...
Solution
Initial Problem Statement
Research Questions
Website Walkthrough
Literature Review
Survey
Timeline
Problem
User Problem
Customers have difficulty understanding the purpose of the Valuation tool
Customers don’t find the current data visualizations reliable nor explainable
Business Problem
Difficulty in retaining customers to continue using the Valuation tool
User drop-off from the tool in the middle of use
Impact
✔️ Customer interaction with the Valuation tool over time projected to increase by 32%
✔️ Drop-off rate in the Valuation tool projected to decrease by 26.5%
Solution
A rethinking of the Valuation tool, providing Carputty customers with actionable insights based on vehicle data, collaborative features to make vehicle decisions, and more user freedom in input options.
Additionally, the solution improves customer retention and drop-off by providing proper user education about the tool.
1. Optimized Home Page Experience
Home Page Redesign
Enhanced the visual appeal and functionality of the home page.
Tool Description
Introduced a concise yet informative description of the tool prominently on the home page.
Enhanced Accessibility
Enabled seamless valuation tool access through both the navigation bar and a strategically placed button for users.
2. User Onboarding with V3 Tool
V3 Tool Overview
Brief explanation of how the V3 tool works.
Convenient Input Options
Options for users to input car details through VIN, license plate number, or make and model.
Testimonials
Incorporated user testimonials to showcase the effectiveness and positive experiences with the V3 tool.
4. Valuation Tailored to Your Preferences
Personalized Date and Valuation Period
Option to customize the date and valuation period based on user preferences.
Enhanced Transparency
Build trust in the result by highlighting the significance and impact of each feature on the car's value, fostering transparency.
Feature-Specific Valuation
Tailor the valuation by adjusting the value of individual features, observing the direct influence of each change on the overall value..
6. Comprehensive Garage
Unified Car View
View all interested and owned cars in one centralized location for easy management.
Interactive Comparison
Compare the values of different cars stored in the garage to make informed decisions.
Personalized Ranking
Rank cars based on personal preferences and explore the preferences of other users.
Textual Insights
Receive a detailed textual summary of the chart, market trends, and valuable suggestions.
Smart Suggestions
Get recommendations for cars within similar categories and price ranges, tailored to your preference.
Collaborative Garage Access
Share access to the garage with other members for a collaborative car management experience.
3. Enhanced Vehicle Information & Condition Data
Detailed Input Options
Allow users to input specific car details and condition for a more accurate valuation.
Integrated Visual Data
Enhanced precision by integrating visual data, such as images, into the AI tool.
User Guidance with Tooltips
Minimized confusion and streamlined user experience by adding tooltips to provide guidance throughout the valuation process.
5. Enhanced Tool Features
Save to Garage
Save cars to the garage for later access or comparison with other vehicles.
Download Options
Download valuations in versatile formats like CSV, PDF, or others for easy reference and sharing.
Watch List with Alerts
Add cars to the watch list and receive alerts about predicted price fluctuations, keeping you informed about market changes.
7. 360-Degree Car Inspection
360-Degree View
Explore comprehensive exterior and interior views of the car in 360 degrees for a thorough assessment of its condition.
Touchpoint Analysis
Identify specific touchpoints that have influenced changes in the car's value, providing insights into valuation fluctuations.
Key Insights
Challenges in Locating V3 Valuation Tool:
Difficulty in finding the "V3 Valuation Tool" on the website, resulting in usability issues for users.
Unclear Website Focus:
Lack of prioritization leading to ambiguity about the website's core offerings.
“Black Box” Scrutiny leads to Loss of Trust
Users of AI systems rely heavily on trust in the system’s output and functionality, but sometimes trust is lost because users cannot understand the system’s inner workings.
Design Decisions can Improve Trust
Explain the importance of individual attributes to the outcome
Show the smallest change needed to flip the machine prediction
Show the outcome of similar data points
Helping customers make informed financing decisions.
How might we improve features and visualizations in the Vehicle Valuation tool to help customers make more informed vehicle financing decisions?
Upon partnering with Carputty, they provided us with the following problem statement. Throughout our design process, our team refined and restructured the problem statement based on insights we generated.
We conducted a website walkthrough to understand user experiences and identify any challenges in navigation, confusing elements, and user preferences. This walkthrough helps us enhance the website's user-friendliness and improve overall user satisfaction.
Next, our team wanted to delve into the role data visualization plays in developing trust in predictive and AI models. We conducted a thorough literature review of 9 academic papers found through the ACM and Google Scholar digital libraries. Below are our primary takeaways from the review:
1
2
What are the current challenges with the V3 valuation tool?
Why and when do users use valuation tools?
3
What is the definition of “a good car”?
The importance of trust in predictive models.
We deployed a Qualtrics survey targeting potential Carputty customers, with 22 respondents, most unfamiliar with the company. The survey explored participants' familiarity with Valuation tools, important vehicle factors, and the information they could provide as input. Surveys were distributed via Slack, Discord, and Reddit forums.
Understanding what customers value in their vehicles.
1
2
Difficulty in Locating the Tool:
Users faced challenges locating the valuation tool on the website, suggesting visibility or navigation issues.
Confusing Tool's Purpose:
Users found the tool confusing, signaling a need for clearer descriptions and explanations of its objectives and functionality.
Pre-purchase Access Preference:
Participants preferred using the valuation tool before car purchases, highlighting its crucial role in their decision-making process.
Key Insights
Sample Questions
Data Analysis
Findings
After deploying the survey, we conducted 45-minute contextual inquiry sessions with 3 participants familiar with Carputty and the vehicle buying/selling process. This approach allowed us to observe real-time interactions with the Valuation tool, providing insights into points of confusion or disengagement beyond a standard website audit. Participants were selected from our survey respondents.
Observing customers using the tool in action.
Our team synthesized our qualitative data from the UX audit, contextual inquiry, and interviews by using an affinity map. This mapping technique allowed us to let patterns emerge naturally as we created themes.
We created a total of…
Observing customers using the tool in action.
Using insights from our contextual inquiry, we conducted 4 online semi-structured interviews with potential customers selected from survey respondents. The interviews focused on the importance of Valuation tools in the car buying/selling process, methods used in vehicle decision-making, and perceptions of the tool's reliability.
Our team analyzed qualitative data from the interviews in pairs in Excel to ensure inter-rater reliability. Some of the codes we used included: “more data necessary”, “what is a VIN?”, and “family purchasing vehicle together”.
A deep-dive into the customer’s vehicle exploration process.
CONTEXTUAL INQUIRY
SEMI-STRUCTURED INTERVIEWS
DATA SYNTHESIS
Car condition, mileage, and price are indicators of a vehicle’s value
• 100% of respondents indicated car condition is either very or extremely important
• 72% of respondents indicated mileage is either very or extremely important
The VIN isn’t the most readily available vehicle identifier.
Customers may not have prior experience with these tools
Q: Select all the information you would have readily available to provide a Valuation tool:
Q: Which of the following vehicle-related tools have you used before?
36
3
11
Low Level Themes
Mid Level Themes
High Level Themes
Affinity Map
The importance of trust in predictive models.
How might we improve features and visualizations in the Vehicle Valuation tool to help customers make more informed vehicle financing decisions?
Extra effort to locate the tool creates frustration early in the journey.
Unclear purpose of the tool discourages use.
Jordan, an individual Carputty customer who is in the market for a second car
Will, a Turo host who wishes to effectively manage his fleet of cars and use the Valuation tool to set rental prices
Persona
User Journey
Problem Reframing
Design Requirement
Concept Sketch
Concept Sketch Feedback
Key Points in the Journey
Finding the Valuation Tool:
The validation session was held as one focus-group style session. We chose to do this because we recognized that our initial concepts were still relatively “fuzzy” and extremely lo-fi; holding the session as a focus group would allow for participants to build off each others ideas and give helpful feedback.
🌟 Something interesting we did during our testing for Concept 1 was show participants a side-by-side, lo-fi comparison of the existing navigation and our new concept for it.
Validation Sessions
Turo hosts must navigate to their Dashboard for VIN and mileage, causing frustration.
Individual customers need to check their vehicle or registration for the VIN, adding inconvenience.
Using the Valuation Tool:
Individual customers often end more frustrated than Turo hosts due to difficulty understanding the valuation results.
Interpreting Valuation Results:
Enhancing the data visualization reliability and explainability of Carputty's Valuation tool
Providing user education about the Valuation tool and its capabilities
Reflecting what our users value in our vehicles in the tool's datapoints
Putting our concepts in front of users.
With our hi-fidelity prototype in hand, we had 3 UX experts evaluate our prototype against the 10 Nielsen Heuristics. Evaluators completed a set of pre-determined tasks (set by us) in the prototype, and were asked to fill out a heuristic table using the scale shown below (Figure 3).
Conducting expert testing on our designs.
Iteration 1
Wireframe
Design System
Heuristic Evaluation
Heuristic Evaluation
Final Design
Based on feedback from the concept validation session, our team began creating wireframes out of our initial concepts and incorporated some changes based on insights we gathered.
Concept Feedback Analysis
Design Changes Made
Sample Tasks
2. Users found it overwhelming when presented with several input options from the get-go.
3. Users were perplexed by the bi-directional bar chart and found it unecessary.
4. Users had questions about the Customize Timeframe feature and how it would look when used.
1. Users preferred our navigation concept as opposed to the existing navigation.
We had our evaluators rate two things on this scale: a) overall usability for a specific heuristic and b) severity of the particularly usability problem
Enter your information into the Valuation tool and run the valuation.
See the preferences of those you shared your Garage with.
Customize the date range for the valuation graph
Problems Identified
Carputty Vehicle Valuation Tool
Empowering users to make informed vehicle investment decisions with ease.
Carputty Vehicle Valuation Tool
INDUSTRY CLIENT • ITERATIVE DESIGN • CONTEXTUAL INQUIRY • HEURISTIC EVALUATION
An overhaul of Carputty’s Vehicle Valuation tool, enhancing how their customers input vehicle data, make vehicle-related decisions, and view a vehicle’s value over time.
Project Context
• Industry Client (Master's course)
• Fall 2023, 15 weeks
• Team: Ellie Park, Jisu Kim, Aby Kottoor, Ziyi Shao
Roles and Responsibilities
• UX Research: Literature Review, Contextual Inquiry, Interviews, Competitive Analysis, Heuristic Evaluation
• UX Design: Sketching, Wireframing, Prototyping, Usability Testing, Iterative Design
Background