Cars have become a necessity, and everyone deserves the car of their dreams. CarCity set out with this mission in mind, aiming to make their customers happy by providing them with second-hand cars at an incredibly affordable rate. And we helped them make that dream come true!
Virtual Employee collaborated with CarCity to make the website a convenient one for the customers. We brainstormed and came up with a design, allowing them to log in, browse through the inventory, get approved, and drive home with their preferred vehicle in the easiest way! With a system that allowed users to login using their social media details and keep a track of their preferences while filtering them conveniently, we are helping CarCity bring about a change in the way customers buy used cars online.
CarCity is a used car retailer based in Wyoming, having expanded to seven more locations over its glorious 23-year history. Through the years, CarCity has become a pioneer in innovative retail, allowing customers to get approved and choose their dream car, all through the internet. With financing options for customers available with ease, the company aims at making cars accessible to all indeed. By incorporating technology that allows users to filter cars according to their preferences and save them for later, CarCity aims at making the process much easier through the new UI, design, and functionalities.
CarCity wanted to introduce an entirely different UI for their website. They had initially adopted a UI that does not provide much convenience or efficiency to the visitors and customers. While the main aim of the company remains the same, the client wanted to introduce another level of efficiency, such as allowing customers to save their preferences.
For this purpose, the client contacted us to change the entire interface, allowing users to log in and save their preferences to be reviewed for the future. With a few guide images as to how they wanted the revised website to look like, we set out on the journey to address the pain points the client faced.
And this is how we did it:
To start out the project in the desired direction, CarCity had provided us with a few images of what they wished for the new and improved website to look like. These prototypes helped us in setting expectations with the client, and helped us set a target to work towards.
To switch things up, the client wanted a much less congested homepage that only had the most essential links. This was a priority since such a homepage can help customers become more aware of the main services the company provides. And in the case of CarCity, our design clearly shows that customers can get approved for financing, save their choice of cars and even purchase the cars online.
Apart from the homepage design, the client also wanted to include the feature of allowing users to create individual accounts for greater user efficiency. With the option of allowing users to login with their social media details or with email and password, we aimed at enabling the customers to efficiently keep a record of their preferences and continue from where they left off.
With this account-based UI, CarCity aimed to provide its customers with the convenience of saving their preferred vehicles. In this manner, the customers can easily shortlist, compare, and then choose their chosen vehicle from the available inventory.
Incorporating more efficient filtering options as well as a consolidated account-based model for all customers, the new interface is expected to be a major improvement from the current website. With these main targets in mind, we went ahead by applying the relevant technologies – some that we were very familiar with and some that we had to learn from scratch!
We had to complete the project with a variety of technologies and frameworks to attend to the different aspects of the new UI. Among these, some were that our resource was already familiar with, while some had to be learned specifically for the project.
Backend framework: Among the technologies that our resource was familiar with, the new website UI primarily relied on the Django Framework. Specialising as a Back End Developer, our resource was able to perfectly use the Django Framework for the backend web development needs of the new website.
Frontend framework: For the frontend design, HTML, CSS, JQuery and bootstrap helped us to reach the targets expected by the client. As per the designs shared by the client through Figma, creating the frontend with these frameworks was an easy task!
Website hosting: For hosting the website on the given IP address, we relied on the AWS server. Hosting it on the server has helped us ensure that even with the immensely heavy data, the website loads fast and adds to the positive customer experience.
Database: Lastly, for the database, we resorted to MongoDB and the SQL Server. These applications helped us to meet the client requirements of allowing them to fetch data from millions of datasets through a simple search form.
Other technological frameworks used: For the mailing requirements of the revamped CarCity website, the Sendmail application was used along with Python.
Challenges are common in any project, and our project was not devoid of them either. And while challenges are common, what matters is how one deals with them. And our resource perfectly executed this with the way they handled each challenge expertly.
Here are some challenges (and our way of resolving them) that proved to be small speedbumps along the road:
Django tables are a common element used to create products using the frameworks. And we were faced with the need to create such tables as well. However, challenges arose in the form of the client already possessing the tables and the relevant data. This restricted us from molding or fetching the available as per our requirements.
Our Solution: We overcame the challenge by using raw queries. While implementing this solution in itself was a challenge since our resource was not familiar with the method, they did so expertly anyway and emerged victorious.
Our resource is an expert in backend development. However, the frontend development needs of the project sure threw him for a loop! Thus, working with JavaScript and JQuery for frontend requirements was surely challenging for them.
Our Solution: As our resource believes, there is nothing a little R&D cannot solve. So, while working frontend with JavaScript and JQuery was a challenge, they soon got the hang of it through searching and learning online and from their peers. And in this way, difficulties creating the frontend was a thing of the past!
Another related challenge we faced was regarding the current website of the client. While the revamping was in process, we had to make sure that the current website was also optimised to pick up the slack till the new UI was made live. However, since it was based on the Flask framework, another unfamiliar territory for our resource, keeping up with the requirements of the old and new website became challenging. While directions had been provided by the client, they were relevant to the Linux system, while we work on the Windows system, adding to our difficulties.
Our Solution: While working around the Flask framework is still a work in progress, our resource communicated with the client and prioritised the tasks. This enabled them to look after the requirements of both the new and the older UI while still achieving progress every single day.
Through this long journey towards creating the new and improved UI, there are a few highlights that the users of CarCity can expect in the future.
These highlights are:
The biggest change will be in the form of the user accounts that can allow customers to get better control of how they interact with the website. By allowing them to create accounts, they can save cars as per their preference, ranging from hatchbacks to SUVs, and select from among them at their convenience.
The new website will also have a better and more detailed filtering option. Users can filter cars from the inventory based on the type, cost, colour, as well as features, allowing them to only see those cars that meet their specific requirements.
The new website will also give greater control and efficiency to our clients. While the account system can also allow CarCity to send marketing and promotional material, benefiting them in the process, another logger feature has been added that can allow them to monitor user activity. In this way, our clients can promptly identify when a user is stuck somewhere and needs assistance. As a result, it can help CarCity enhance the user experience greatly!
Lastly, we have added an admin panel. Using this panel, CarCity can add new cars to the inventory with unmatched ease by simply uploading a CSV or MS Excel file. We have also kept the method of adding cars manually to provide the client with multiple ways of expanding their online inventory.
I am a Software Developer with experience in a variety of projects. Having worked in multi-lingual and cross-cultural teams, strong communication and effective problem-solving are some of my strengths. Working equally well individually and in a team, I am always ready to put my heart and soul into each project.
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