Situation
The dealer locator on Cat.com is one of the most frequently used tools. Users can search for dealers based on various criteria such as the products they sell, services they offer, and location.
To address the significant challenges revealed in our research, we sought to improve the usability and utility of the Dealer Locator tool by:
- Simplifying the dealer search interface for better navigation.
- Offering more relevant dealer matches based on user criteria.
- Updating dealer listings with a new layout and additional information.
Actions
- Pre-Discovery – Prior to starting this project, I gathered details about the current dealer locator tool and its challenges. This involved conducting interviews with the tool’s technology owner, business stakeholders, and dealers. Additionally, I reviewed several years of analytics data.
- Discovery, Design, and Development – Using insights from the pre-discovery effort, I organized and oversaw the discovery, design, and development of the tool. The effort involved multiple researchers, designers, analysts, and developers, and included global user research and internal stakeholder research from multiple product groups and regions.
Results
To access the new Dealer Locator tool, go to Cat.com and click on “Dealer Locator” in the top right corner of the page.
You can also watch a video preview below:
Lessons Learned
- Don’t skimp on dealer input. While some light dealer research was conducted, more time and budget should have been allocated for deeper dealer input, especially considering that this was the primary tool used by users to find them on Cat.com.
- Fully understand the available technology and data. During the design stage, assumptions were made about what the technology could do and which data points would be consistently available across all dealers. Later, it was discovered that the design vision could not be achieved without significant effort, which led to a change in direction.
- Leverage external services where possible. An external service was used for the tool’s core functionality. The discovery effort included better understanding the tool’s native feature set, which allowed us to leverage features that were not being utilized with minimal technical effort.