Experience polish and fine-tuning the aesthetic quality of the application are considered and addressed. There's no reason work in this stage can't begin immediately after Stage 1 is completed. Stages 1 and 5 both have the potential to influence Stages 2, 3, and 4.
At this stage, the abstraction begins to crystallize into a tangible solution, building on the inputs and outputs from earlier phases. Early stage prototypes become polished and start to reflect a branded experience. Polished shells, navigation structures, and component-level interfaces start to take shape.
In stage 1 we identified needs and goals. In stage 2 we considered technical and functional layers to address stage 1 findings. Stage 3 carries the momentum gained from the previous two stages and attempts to align the team on experience direction and customer journey. I use the outputs of stage 3 to conduct user validation and cognitive walkthrough exercises. We work in iterative loops during stage 3 with the number of loops being directly related to a funnel's perceived risk to user adoption. For example, the login funnel may only require 2 validation loops because login patterns are quite common in today's digital world. However, transferring a vehicle passport between users may prove to be challenging; the risk to user adoption is higher and thus, multiple iterative rounds may be helpful.
Form follows function. Always. No AI will ever change that. For this stage of the deep dive, we’ll treat the Vehicle Passport as a first-generation disruptor. That means the exact technical stack and functional layers will be defined after proof-of-concept. For now, we’ll generalize the likely technical stack and functional layers needed to support the Vehicle Passport experience.
A friend of mine, Nick, is a bit of a car enthusiast. Over just three years, I watched him trade in and purchase three different vehicles—all initiated online. Each time, he ran into the same pain points: friction and frustration, all tied to the trade-in aspect of the transaction. His frustration sparked the investigation below.