2022

TOYOTA

[global navigation]

The ask: To enhance the digital navigation for Toyota and Lexus across their 40+ European markets, fix existing errors, and provide an intuitive and hassle-free way of discovering the world of Toyota.

The challenge: To design an elevated navigation system that addresses various market requirements and consumer needs.

The ambition: To balance discoverability (the user's ability to find items) and efficiency (the user's ability to quickly find items without errors).

Research Methodology

Our research combined insights from Toyota's internal teams, industry best practices, and user needs to ensure a balanced solution that considered all perspectives.

Toyota Perspective

We began the project with a collaborative workshop involving key market stakeholders to align on goals, surface constraints, and uncover opportunities. The session was structured to address both user experience and business needs.

This structured approach helped us:

  1. Identify localization constraints, such as language length and content variations across regions
  2. Explore UX triggers and structural considerations, including differences in behavior across desktop and mobile
  3. Define measurable goals, set performance metrics to track navigation success
  4. Map business opportunities, align potential features with broader strategic objectives
  5. Gather likes and dislikes, learning from current pain points and successes across platforms
  6. Benchmark references, analyze best-in-class navigation models to inform our approach

Prioritization & Roadmapping

In a follow-up session, we focused on prioritizing the insights collected during the workshop by first categorizing similar ideas. Using the RICE framework (Reach, Impact, Confidence, Effort), we objectively determined which initiatives should be tackled first, minimizing emotional or gut-based decision-making.

Together we:

  1. Estimated impact vs. effort across proposed features
  2. Aligned on short- and long-term priorities
  3. Layed out the foundation for a clear and actionable roadmap

Industry Perspective

We researched over 35 best-in-class sites across industry sectors and pulled the ones most relevant to DXP. Each site was looked at through a lens of five categories identified through earlier sessions that encompass the benchmarking elements.

Industry sectors:

  • Automotive
  • Fashion
  • Hospitality
  • Arts & Culture
  • Tourism
  • Retail
  • Beauty

Benchmarking categories:

  • Ease of Access
  • Discovery
  • Content
  • Design
  • Interaction

Takeaways

Our benchmarking led us to several key takeaways.

Audience Perspective

We worked with a data-insights partner who provided valuable consumer and qualitative data to help generate meaningful insights.

Revolution Approach

Our proposed approach to designing the navigation follows a top-down methodology, examining the broader system that requires improvement. This requires the redesign and testing of multiple components, resulting in a refreshed and cohesive navigation system.

Testing & Validation

While exploring multiple design directions, we first conducted unmoderated online A/B tests with targeted participants, providing early feedback on different design options and supporting design rationale.

We then validated our most significant updates on the lives sites: comparing the existing navigation with the redesigned version, and A/B tests on variations that received mixed results in the unmoderated tests. This allowed us to observe real user behaviour and gather more definite insights before finalizing the changes.

Final Toyota Designs

Final Lexus Designs

We adapted the solution for Lexus, keeping the core structure and information architecture consistent while refining the visual language and tone to reflect their premium experience.

Content Guidelines

To ensure clarity and consistency across markets, we developed a set of navigation content guidelines. These covered tone of voice, labeling conventions, and hierarchy principles, ensuring users can quickly understand and interact with the navigation regardless of language or region.

Reflection

This was a significant change, requiring open communication with all markets, careful consideration of localization and language constraints, and ongoing feedback. It also involved close collaboration and regular check-ins with the development team to review all design details and ensure their implementation matched the intended design. The result is a solution that is flexible yet remains true to the core strategy and information architecture.