smart
Small car. Small budget. A great brand to test new ideas.
The name Smart derives from the cooperation of the Swiss company Swatch with Mercedes-Benz: "Swatch Mercedes ART". A sub-brand in the Mercedes-Benz portfolio, smart occupies a unique position in the marketplace. They have a very niche market, and they’re currently transitioning to an all-electric offering, but the mission remains the same: create a brand that is fresh, fun, and more relevant than ever. The Smart brand ceased operations in the U.S.in 2019.
Project: smartUSA platform redesign
Role: Group Experience Director
Agency: Razorfish
Activities and Deliverables: I was responsible for leading a small UX team through the re-platforming and redesign of the smartUSA website. This involved ideation workshops and sketching sessions with our client, competitive audits, reviewing wireframes and designs, and creation of the features matrix.
Competitive Audit
We started the smartUSA platform redesign process with a competitive audit. Key themes emerged:
Personalization – Does the site provide a personalized experience (whether it’s site, or recommendations, messaging) for shoppers / owners
Delight – Is there any element of delight for the brand – such as cool interactions, story flow, that makes people view the brand as more than just a product
Safety / Eco / Pragmatism – How does the brand depicts its safety features / fuel efficiency features for relevant models
Cross-Channel Hub – are the layouts between sites consistent / consistent campaign layout / how does the site integrate social channels
Devices – responsive / not responsive / more than responsive?
Inventory / Sales – is there a holistic experience between research / sales tool / Is it easy for the customers to use / is it ‘different’ compared to others
Ownership – how does each brand handle its owners – is there personalized services / features for the owners to enhance the owner experience and retain loyalty
Inventory and Sales
Detailed Wireframes showing how a customer can search and save inventory then find a dealer.
Visual Design for Inventory
Bringing Delight to the Shopping Experience
Site prior to redesign build Your Own Features were limited.
UX sketching session.
Final Design of the Vehicle Page with an state-of-the art embedded 360 immersive configurator.
Sitemap for the Platform Redesign
smartUSA platform redesign sitemap.
smartUSA was a great brand to work with. Unfortunately the Smart brand ceased operations in the U.S.in 2019, however there is still a site that we built to support owners.