Wakaba 🔰

The first step was understanding and analysing the JDM Car community. I’ve done some background research on how the community interacts with each other and the relationships between everyone. I wanted to see if there were any noticeable problems that could be potentially solved digitally, which would help the community.

Taking it further, I went to a few car meets across Melbourne to talk to a few car enthusiasts of all levels, mechanics, and collectors about general car modification topics and to observe interactions between each other.

Next step was seeing what is currently being used in the community. Upon researching I've realised that there is a gap and that is that there isn't comprehensive guides for car modifications.

The next step was to do a few indirect competitive analyses on websites that contain guides, tools, and software to modify cars or provide general car part assistance or purchasing through a competitive matrix.

With that, the analysis revealed that features that came close to helping users modify their cars are either very outdated or are too hard to navigate through.

To define the users, I’ve conducted a couple contextual inquiry interviews and synthesized the data, revealing several problems and pain points that exists within the community which were:

The toxicity / conservative behaviour within the community and its members.

The lack of up to date advice on forums and scarcity of information online.
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To conform all this data based on the participants, I’ve created a main user persona to pinpoint the exact problems and also helped me identify and understand the user needs from the community.

The next step was developing problem statements to use as a way to develop features for the application and, essentially, the deliverables of the project. It was important to clearly define the user needs and to also aid in developing the concepts and design for the features. There had been one core problem that had been discovered within the community, which was having a user friendly guide for people who are inexperienced to modifying JDM cars.
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There were other key secondary problems that related to the main problem which were proper access to additional help with those in the community, finding reputable sources and community behaviour.

From the problem statement data from the user and secondary research, I developed a concept map and a mapping task domain to visualise the concepts of the proposed features and if it all makes sense.

The concept map helped me understand how the proposed features would work and how they would all be connected to one another, while the mapping task domain helped me understand what would be different in the user's mental model and how I would be changing or improving them.

Following a review of my concept development, the next step was to swiftly produce iterations. My thinking behind idea generation was focusing on the user persona's needs and goals and, through that, sketching and ideating features. This came through in the form of brainstorming ideas using mind mapping, crazy 8's, and generating a mixture of early wireframes and user flows into one.

Finally, it was time to develop a few digital wireframes of the concept, along with a low-fidelity prototype. This was then followed by developing the UI styling and design for each screen. I've decided to stick with a basic red and white colour scheme to represent Japan, seeing as the car focus for this app is from Japan.

The final step was to do various tests with the prototype in its near-final digital iteration to see if there's any improvement. I've done a couple usability tests, to see and prove that the concept works. With the results back, a few UI changes on both screens were made to fix visibility issues.

The final result is the creation of the Wakaba app. Developed with 3 features which includes:

Car Detailing and modification guides
Users are able to have a major library of cars to gain knowledge from instead of hopping from various websites to access bits and pieces of information. There are whole guide sets people can follow, or they can click on specific parts of cars to modify.

Community Forums
The second feature is having a community forums chat area. Having forums specific to modifications gives users space for those who want to contribute their knowledge or ask for opinions about car-related topics without the criticism.

Mechanic Chat Assist
Users that need extra help without going through the process of booking and physically rocking up to a mechanic can text reputable mechanics about any issues related to their car.

From the Wakaba project, the main insights that were interesting to me were community reservedness and how that would have affected new learners getting into modifying their cars. This in turn made the project fun to do, as it was intriguing to solve a problem that relates to allowing users to learn easily about the world of modifying JDM cars. The development of the Wakaba app will impact car enthusiasts of all levels, as gaining information and help about JDM cars will be easier with the three core features that were made.

Personally, this project has made me more aware of the UX design process and how the process is always iterative. It also gave me practice on how to conduct interviews and how to create and frame questions that are useful to gain insights on key problems and various user perspectives.