Revel - Infogain Company - (KIA Motors) • 2020 - 2021
Role: Lead UX Designer / Visual Designer / Researcher
Kia Motors - K Dealer
The K Dealer+ portal is a business-to-business gateway to proprietary Kia Motors America (KMA) programs and systems, which contain sensitive and confidential information about KMA and its dealerships. This online portal was developed by Kia Motors Corporation for its dealers, it is a self-service platform where merchants, dealers, and sales teams can access their business data online, place orders, look up KIA's product catalog, and keep up with customer leads, follow-ups, test drives, and bookings.
With the KDealer, you can only access your workspace online via smartphone, computer, or laptop. The core function of my team is to create the foundation of assets and resources to help build and enhance a cohesive Kia Dealer ‘Web’ portal & 'Mobile' application’s Interface and Guidelines.
Movement that Inspires
My team and I worked with Kia to create a modern and forward-thinking application that represents Kia’s leadership position in the future of the mobility industry while featuring the innovative and original products they offer. KDealer required market positioning which required a new digital experience that could reflect the bold transformation.
The Challenge
The rebranding required a reinvention of the KDealer website and application that brings the new brand story to life with an intuitive and optimized web experience. The project also presented a strategic opportunity to create a seamless customer conversation by bridging the gap between the online experience with the in-store dealership experience.
Repositioning a Global Brand
I, very closely worked with Kia’s marketing, sales, and distribution teams to uncover new ways to enhance the digital brand that would not only reflect the new up-market positioning but also build on the brand guidelines with tailored digital design foundations and a flexible component library. This foundation unlocked a new information architecture, UX, and interface design system that brings the new brand to life and offers the flexibility to grow in the future.
Breathing in Brand Guidelines
In hindsight, there was an opportunity to develop a complete design system for KIA. It was interesting to be designing at this phase since KIA was transitioning from a 3d-based logo and guidelines to a flat design language. My goal for visual design was to ensure the app conformed to KIA's brand identity.
Information Architecture
Kis's sales teams, dealers, merchants and more have a lot of modules within, so a high-level information architecture for the app was essential to keep tabs on how each screen would flow from one to another.
Brand Strategy / Basic System
Kia Dealer’s basic system for brand strategy includes the detailed work of the foundations like Color, Typeface, Graphic system, Pictogram, and Icons.
Color
Since our brand is authentic, we aim to find a nice balance between our products and our people. That’s why we divided our brand colors into two:
Primary colors (Product) and Secondary colors (People).
The Kia Color System is a refined and sleek application of the brand identity. Three parts complete the color system as a whole expressing
1) Opposites United
2) Kianess and Automotive
3) Modern Individual's Lifestyle
Typeface
Since our brand is authentic, we aim to find a nice balance between our products and our people. That’s why we divided our brand colors into two: Primary colors (Product) and Secondary colors (People).
How has it helped improve the business?
The stats have been largely positive
Users were mostly happy with:
Ease of use and visual aesthetics
The functionality of the app
Room for improvement:
There are some hiccups on the technical end like login issues and establishing a connection to the login server.
However, it did create a good impact on the business and continues to help K Motors keep tabs and manage their leads and customers.
What I've learned...
This project was very challenging to handle the high pressure from multiple teams: leadership, business, development, marketing, and design. However, the pressure molded me into someone comfortable with handling the end-to-end delivery of a product while working with cross-functional teams.