MAXXIS LifeSaver
Provide Customer Service by Assessing Tire Life
CONTEXT
TEAM
ROLE
TOOLS
OVERVIEW
Academia-Industry Project
Application
8 Month
Hao-Lin Lu
Yin-Ling Huang
Yu-Qiang Luo
Yu-Hong Ge
Wei-Hsiang Lo
Advised by
Professors Ying-Hao Juan
User Research
Concept Development
Interface Design
Industrial Design
User-Center Design
Figma
FigJam
Adobe illustrator
Keyshot
Notion
MAXXIS TIRE is a premium tire brand for mountain bike tires, motorcycle tires, and off-road tires. However, there is still a lot of room for improvement in the passenger car market, which is the biggest factor affecting market share. Therefore, MAXXIS aims to enter this market. In this context, this collaboration project between MAXXIS TIRE and the SCID team of Shih Chien University has responded together to the company’s future plans with the two main goals of internal-innovation stimulation and brand-image improvement that have been achieved by an app - MAXXIS LifeSaver.
The changes in the tire industry have been relatively slow, which shows that the real needs of people have not been truly seen, so now is the turning point for the tire industry. Leverage the strengths of MAXXIS to create a professional and personalized user experience for customers, and use this as the basis for entering the new market and transforming the brand.
MAXXIS’s problem
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Although Maxxis is a domestic brand with high-quality tires, it does not promote its brand as well as other imported brands.
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Up to 70% of people don't know what tires they are using and customers often just follow the advice of their dealers or technicians.
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Instead of focusing on inventing "new tires", tire brands need to think outside the box.
MAXXIS’s Goal
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Based on the pain points of passenger car customers in the tire purchasing process, LifeSaver can provide professional assistance through MAXXIS’s database.
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LifeSaver is the first digital product of MAXXIS, and it is the first step in helping to transform the brand.
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LifeSaver allows MAXXIS to engage customers by providing personalized service directly, no longer relying on retailers and repair stores.
00 DESIGN OBJECTIVE
How does MAXXIS leverage its strengths to create an efficient tire purchasing experience for its customers?
Tire Life Calculator
Customers receive expert advice on whether to change their tires through LifeSaver, which combines the mileage of the tires and the year of manufacture to assess tire life. And this service can only be provided by MAXXIS, which is a tire brand.
Personalized Advisor
LifeSaver can provide targeted professional advice based on the customer’s car model and driving area, making product recommendations and tire life assessment services more personalized.
Customized Search
When customers need to search for products, LifeSaver will provide search results according to the customer’s car models and customer’s preferences for features.
Tread Scanner
When customers need to travel long distances, Lifesaver can scan the tire tread depth through the LiDAR lens on the phone and use the results as suggestions for customers to change tires.
DESIGN SOLUTION
Design an application to assess tire life using MAXXIS’s database to provide customers with services before and after tire purchase.
01 RESEARCH
02 IDEATION
Brainstorming
Concept
03 FINAL GUI
04 REFLECTION
What’s the Gap between Maxxis and Customers?
Who Are the Users?
Mobile GUI overview
Design system
Human-centered design shines in ths project
Categorizing and refining consumers is the key.
01 RESEARCH
We went to retailers across Taiwan to understand the situation. In addition to interviewing the owners of the retail stores, we also conducted brief interviews with the customers in the stores.
The most important finding is that in the tire industry, customers are almost out of touch with brands. Most customers choose tires under the recommendation of the maintenance factory technicians or use original tires directly. For customers, the timing of changing tires is more important than what kind of tires to change.
😥 Customers are not
very loyal to brands.
More than half of customers said they didn't care what brand their tires were. Some customers simply choose the tires they are currently using.
Photos from the Questionnaires
Insight
Based on the results of our field research, we designed a questionnaire and posted it in car owners' groups on Facebook. We obtained 142 valid questionnaires to understand our customers' thoughts and preferences on tire brands.
💵 Customers don’t mind
paying for additional services.
33 yrs old he / him
“ I don't care what tires to change, I only care about when I need to change my tires “
Leo Wang
Most customers are more concerned about the service than the price of the tires. For example, the price of Chijia Auto Repair Factory is high, but it is very popular because of its service.
Photos from the Field research
What’s the Gap between Maxxis and Customers?
The car is their working partner and is a necessity when they work. They are very dependent on their cars. These people are middle-aged and elderly, so they usually have families.
Persona
During this process, I worked closely with our user research team. The researchers screened interviewers based on user profiles and conducted semi-structured interviews with 10 users to identify potential problems.
We believe that using a semi-structured interview allows users to express their truest thoughts.
Photos from the Interview process
Who Are the Users?
🧐 Job
Seek professional and trustworthy advice on when to change tires.
😩 Pain
Tire life cannot be interpreted directly from mileage or year.
Tire retailers are unable to provide personalized advice on the driving habits of their customers.
🥹 Gain
A tread check is necessary before a long drive.
Need more detailed information about tire features.
💡 Product
Tire life assessment service.
💊 Pain Reliever
Provide a service that calculates tire life by combining mileage and year.
Provide personalized recommendations and assessments.
🎊 Gain Creator
Using the LiDAR lens on the phone can scan the tread depth.
Quantify the main features of the tires to facilitate customer selection.
👊 Car maintenance
is the main requirement.
Many customers know very little about tires, but they are very concerned about "Maintenance", especially after they reach a certain mileage.
🧐 The opinions of technicians
have a great influence on customers.
More than half of customers rely on technicians to help them make decisions. In addition, they are concerned about the professionalism of the plant equipment.
🔧 Professional
🙍♂️ Personalized
Use customer information to provide customized services.
📲 Efficient
Simplify the process to save customers time and effort.
Professional assistance is provided through brand advantages.
Concept
Use the LiDAR lens on the phone to accurately scan the tread depth of the tires before a long trip. Once the scan is complete, the app will display the exact tread depth and advise customers when to change tires.
To help us move forward, we brainstormed appropriate solutions based on the opportunities we identified during the consumer journey. In addition to categorizing our ideas, we went through multiple rounds of discussions to find what we thought were the key tasks.
02 IDEATION
Brainstorming
White Boarding
Card Sorting
Mapping
🧮 Tire Life Calculator
📡 Tread Scanner
The tire life calculator is the main requirement of the customer. The calculation of the tire life is done by using the MAXXIS’s database, with the current tire mileage entered by the customer, combined with the tire's date of manufacture.
📝 Personalized Advisor
By inputting personal driving information, such as car models and driving areas, MAXXIS can provide customers with more professional advice through its database.
03 FINAL GUI
Mobile GUI Overview
Design System
CALCULATE
SCAN
CUSTOM SEARCH
PERSONALIZE INPUT
Human-centered design shines in Academia-Industry project
Collaborative projects make proposals more difficult. Not only did we have to compete with other teams, but we also had to satisfy the different opinions of stakeholders from various sectors. For this proposal, we chose our customers in the market as the starting point for the project, because we believe that no matter what type of product, consumers' opinions are crucial. Stakeholders were ultimately satisfied with our design proposal.
Categorizing and refining consumers is the key to success
At the beginning of user research, planning is more important than anything else. We plan to first find the user group through quantitative research and then conduct in-depth interviews. Such a plan allows the research process to run smoothly, gradually narrowing down the scope, and can be effective in finding insights that can help greatly in decision-making. By focusing on specific users, our designs can be more targeted, which is very important to the brand and us.