Auto Experience
When I started at USAA in 2007, I was part of a small team of designers who cast a vision for an integrated auto shopping, buying, selling, insuring ecosystem that we called Total Drive. The idea quickly grew beyond our team and caught fire. Over the next several years, an entire organization was built around the concept. Then in 2017, 10 years after we had the concept, I got to lead the Auto Experience Design Team.
My role
In 2007, I was one of the designers who had an idea for an integrated auto ecosystem. Then in 2017, I was the Design Director for the Auto Experience team.
What I did
Did user research to understand the mental models users have around their cars
Helped create the initial vision for an integrated auto suite
Watched that vision catch fire, morph, and turn into the Auto Circle organization
After 10 years, I had an opportunity to lead the design team supporting that organization. I facilitated sprints, mentored designers, and worked within the agile framework to make improvements to the website and mobile app.
Our Partners
The images below show the journey from idea to initial execution and eventually to a much more mature state 10 years later. For a few years, I was pretty upset that the concept was swept away and that me and other designers who had pitched the idea didn’t get to ride along. I learned a good lesson about holding ideas loosely. If we worry too much about credit or control, it makes us bitter. So by the time I returned to support the experience ten years later, I was able to appreciate how much progress had been made on our original concept.
The original 2007 vision - Total Drive and the first incarnation, Auto Circle
The last redesign I oversaw with my design team in 2017