Mobile Auction Application
The client facilitates the sale of damaged, salvaged, and clear-title vehicles through live in-person and online auctions. Users can participate in auctions, and purchase vehicles, across the US and Canada. An auction can include more than a hundred vehicles. Bidding action within an auction is usually fast paced, with most individual items being sold within a minute or two. The challenge was to keep users engaged throughout the total duration of an online auction.
The project began by observing first-hand a number of live online auctions and a competitive analysis to understand the current expectations of online bidders. After discussing goals with the client, a “gamification” approach, essentially rewarding users for more participation, was agreed to. A number of quick and thoughtful layout and feature enhancement iterations were put though user testing. This led to a final design that users found fun and easy-to-use.
Keeping users engaged during an auction was accomplished by adding some gamification elements to mirror the excitement of a live auction through the use of sound and animation. A number of event-triggered elements such as a countdown timer, bidding activity sound effects and animations designed to instill a sense of excitement, play, and urgency, as well as simplified quick bidding buttons and auto-bidding functionality to make it easy and fun for users to stay engaged longer and bid faster. Production-ready design assets were created for developer consumption.