Engine Bay
· Engine Bay (founder + investors engaged the design team directly)
Mobile-only platform for vehicle dealers to auction, appraise, trade, and request vehicles.
Engine Bay is a mobile-only platform that lets vehicle traders and dealers sell, auction, appraise, and find vehicles based on their requirements. We designed an iOS app covering four primary dealer-to-dealer flows plus four planned third-party integrations.
The problem
Dealers and traders need a one-stop platform for trading, auctioning, finding, and selling vehicles to other dealers. Existing platforms cover only subsets of these features and don't integrate cleanly with adjacent services like VIN decoding, Carfax reports, financing, or shipping.
Process & prototyping
- Competition analysis of Traderev and ACV Auctions (data restricted by client)
- User flow per primary feature, with dashed-diamond optional inputs
- Lo-fi screens for: Sign up → D2D Bids → D2D Appraisals → D2D Trade → Vehicle Request → Scheduled/Ended Bids
- Formal lo-fi prototype shared with client-selected dealers for testing
- Switch to Adobe XD for hi-fi prototypes (chosen for shareability)
Primary features
- Dealer-to-dealer wholesale
- Dealer-to-dealer appraisal
- Dealer-to-dealer trading
- Vehicle request
Integrations (phase two)
- Uship.com shipping integration
- Cross River Bank financing / floor plan
- Carfax reports for uploaded vehicles
- VIN decoder for vehicle uploads
Outcome & impact
All four primary features designed and delivered to developers. The four third-party integrations were postponed to phase two.
Role & collaboration
Team
2 UX designers, engaged directly by the Engine Bay founder and investors.
My role
- Requirements gathering
- Competition analysis (Traderev, ACV Auctions — comparative data NDA'd)
- Target KPI definition
- User flow diagrams
- Lo-fi wireflows
- Guerilla / usability testing (client-chosen dealers; feedback NDA'd)
- Hi-fi prototyping in Adobe XD