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Honda
Honda Digital Car buying Experience
ROLE
UX UI Designer | Researcher
TIMELINE
5 Months
Team
Cross-functional team including:
UX UI Designer & Research (Myself)
Business Analyst
Developers
Product/Strategy Consultant
Year
2025
Project Overview
Improving Honda’s digital vehicle purchase journey
This project focused on evaluating Honda Australia’s current digital experience and identifying opportunities to improve the end-to-end vehicle purchasing journey.
Over the course of the project, I have analysed the existing customer journey across stages such as researching vehicles, comparing models, booking test drives, evaluating financing options, and placing an order.
Through journey mapping and experience analysis, the goal was to uncover pain points, identify areas of friction, and explore opportunities to create a more seamless and self-service digital experience for customers.
Project Goals
Customer Goals
• Build trust and confidence during the vehicle research process
• Provide flexible digital tools for evaluating vehicles and affordability
• Allow customers to manage more of the purchase journey online
Business Goals
• Improve digital engagement and conversion
• Reduce manual processes handled by Honda Center's
• Strengthen the connection between online research and dealership interactions
Problem
Fragmented Purchase Journey
Customers researching and purchasing a vehicle experience a fragmented journey between the website and Honda Centers.
Key stages such as comparing models, understanding financing options, and placing orders require offline interactions with dealers.
This limits the ability for customers to confidently complete their purchase online and increases dependency on dealership processes.
Example issues discovered
• Difficult to compare vehicle models
• Financing tools lack personalisation
• Orders cannot be placed online
• Limited visibility into delivery status
Outcome
The proposed experience improves transparency and decision-making for customers while enabling Honda to connect digital research with dealership interactions more effectively. This creates a more seamless and scalable vehicle purchasing journey.
Customer Impact
• Simplifies how customers explore and compare vehicles
• Improves transparency around pricing, financing, and availability
• Gives customers more control over the purchase journey
• Reduces uncertainty during high-consideration decisions like buying a car
Business Impact
• Strengthens the connection between Honda’s website and Honda Centers
• Reduces reliance on manual dealership processes
• Encourages higher digital engagement during the purchase journey
• Supports a more scalable digital purchasing experience
Understanding the current purchase Journey
Before proposing solutions, I analysed the existing vehicle purchasing journey to understand how customers interact with Honda’s digital platforms and dealerships.
The journey revealed that while the website supports early-stage research, critical steps such as test drive bookings, financing discussions, and vehicle orders rely heavily on Honda Centers.
Insights from user journey
The digital experience primarily supports research, while critical steps in the purchase journey depend on the offline dealership processes. This create a fragmented experience and limits customer’s ability to complete the vehicle independently online.
Key pain points in the current process
Through customer journey analysis, several pain points were identified that limit the effectiveness of Honda’s online vehicle purchase journey.
These insights revealed opportunities where digital improvements could help reduce friction and better support customers.
User Archetypes
Context
To better understand how customers approach the vehicle purchasing journey, two key user archetypes were identified based on industry research, stakeholder workshops, and existing Honda customer insights.
These archetypes represent different attitudes towards technology adoption, purchasing behaviour, and preferred levels of support during the buying journey.
Design Implications
Designing for Different Customer Needs
The two archetypes represent a spectrum of customer expectations when purchasing a vehicle.
Key Insight
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Customers approach the vehicle purchase journey with different levels of trust in digital experiences.
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Some require reassurance and expert guidance, while others prefer efficient self-service tools.
Design Implications
To support both archetypes, the experience should:
• Provide clear product information and transparent pricing
• Offer flexible pathways between digital and dealership interactions
• Enable powerful comparison and exploration tools
• Balance guided support with self-service capabilities
Research Sources
Industry reports, stakeholder workshops, and Honda customer research informed the development of these archetypes.
Opportunity areas
The research identified several areas where the digital experience could evolve.
The two archetypes represent a spectrum of customer expectations when purchasing a vehicle.
Rich Digital Exploration
Provide immersive vehicle exploration experiences such as 360° views and interactive showrooms.
Model Comparison Tools
Allow customers to compare vehicles and specifications in a dedicated comparison interface.
Affordability Calculators
Enable personalised finance calculations based on customer preferences.
Online Ordering
Allow customers to configure vehicles and place orders online.
Post-Order Transparency
Provide order tracking and communication through a customer portal.
Future Experience Vision
The proposed future experience focuses on enabling a seamless end-to-end digital journey.
This approach aims to bring key elements of the dealership experience closer to customers through digital tools.
Key feature concepts
Interactive Vehicle Exploration
Allow customers to explore vehicles using 360° views and immersive product demonstrations.
Vehicle Comparison Tool
Enable side-by-side comparison of models, specifications, and pricing.
Dynamic Finance Calculator
Allow customers to explore repayment scenarios based on different configurations and trade-in values.
Online Ordering Experience
Introduce a cart-based system allowing customers to configure vehicles and initiate orders online.
My Honda Portal
Provide a centralised location for customers to manage orders, documents, and vehicle ownership.
Next steps & Implementation
Based on the insights identified during the research and journey analysis, I redesigned key sections of Honda’s vehicle purchasing experience to improve usability, transparency, and digital self-service.
The redesigned concepts were applied to improve the structure and interaction patterns of the vehicle browsing and purchasing experience.
Key improvements
Enhanced Vehicle Exploration
Improved the vehicle browsing experience by restructuring product pages and introducing clearer vehicle information to help customers better understand models and features.
Improved Model Comparison
Designed a more intuitive comparison experience allowing customers to evaluate vehicle specifications and options more easily.
Affordability & Finance Visibility
Explored ways to present clearer affordability information to help customers better understand repayment options and vehicle pricing.
Improved Purchase Journey Transparency
Proposed improvements to the purchase flow to reduce reliance on offline processes and provide clearer visibility into order progress.
Reflections
This project highlighted how complex service ecosystems influence digital experiences.
Working across multiple stages of the purchase journey revealed the importance of designing experiences that connect online and offline interactions.
The project reinforced the value of mapping customer journeys, identifying operational constraints, and designing solutions that balance both customer needs and business objectives.
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