Experimental Marketplace

Together with Product and Engineering, I shaped and refined a curated used-car feed through more than 60 experiments.

Curated used-car feed on desktop and mobile: a hero image above the filters, below it vehicle cards with photo, price, key data, dealer rating and the actions not interested and save.

Project context

AutoScout24 is Europe’s largest online car marketplace, offering private customers, car dealers, and partners a comprehensive platform for buying and selling vehicles online. For a major German car manufacturer, we developed and tested an experimental used-car marketplace in a live environment, featuring real listings exclusively for vehicles from that brand. The goal was to provide the manufacturer with reliable insights into the marketplace model and the needs of prospective buyers and the brand’s dealers.

Company: AutoScout24 GmbH
Role: Senior User Experience Designer
Period: 2018
Scope: Brand-specific used-car marketplace with a curated feed for desktop and mobile
Tools: Sketch, InVision, Optimizely

The task

The standard vehicle search on AutoScout24 begins with a search query and a set of filters. The experimental marketplace tested a different entry point, a curated feed featuring listings exclusively from a premium automotive brand. It primarily targeted users with a clear interest in that brand, while also aiming to appeal to shoppers considering vehicles from other German premium brands. Existing usage signals were intended to help surface relevant vehicles from the outset.

Outcome

Over its eight months of live operation, more than 60 controlled product experiments, ranging from A/B tests to multivariate tests, provided nuanced insights into how a brand-specific used-car marketplace could support users in choosing vehicles and making inquiries.

Returning visitors received personalized vehicle recommendations and a feed tailored accordingly.
Users could remove listings or mark them as uninteresting, directly shaping which vehicles appeared next.
Independent vehicle reviews and ratings from other users gave prospective buyers additional information to support their decisions.
A comparison feature, along with financing and insurance options, helped users evaluate vehicles beyond individual listings.
Several routes to dealer contact were tested, including price suggestions, trade-in options, WhatsApp inquiries, and a single combined inquiry for multiple saved vehicles.
The findings informed decisions about further product development for both prospective buyers and the brand’s dealers.

Six screens from the marketplace: selecting vehicles for comparison, the comparison table with technical data, a form for an insurance quote, the watchlist with saved vehicles, independent test reports with user ratings, and the dealer inquiry form with its confirmation.

My role

As a Senior User Experience Designer, I was responsible for the UX concept and UI design of the experimental marketplace. Working with product, I formulated hypotheses, translated them into testable variants, and used the results to shape each subsequent iteration. Across all test cycles, I maintained visual and interaction consistency and collaborated closely with engineering on implementation.

Skills

Hypothesis-Driven Design
A/B Testing
Interaction Design
UI Design
Product Discovery

Team and collaboration

Team: 2 product managers, 1 senior UX designer, 6 developers
Way of working: Kanban-based, hypothesis-driven

The manufacturer’s name and specific test results and performance metrics are not disclosed to protect confidential project information. I’m happy to discuss the experimental framework, design process, and product decisions informed by the findings in person.