Automotive mobile app redesign and development

Automotive mobile app redesign and development

Itransition redesigned a legacy support and sales mobile application and developed its upgraded version, helping improve user experience and increase the client base.

Table of contents

Context

The customer is a global battery technology expert, specializing in inspecting, storing, installing, and repairing auto, motorcycle, and marine batteries. They also develop specialized tools and tech solutions, provide diagnostic equipment, and offer battery technician training, road assistance, auto support, and marketing services for battery service businesses. Their partners are automobile associations, auto service providers, and strategic suppliers.

The company had a legacy cross-platform support and sales application for their battery technicians. The solution stored information on battery fitment and installation safety requirements and aided technicians with battery procurement, delivery, service, maintenance and replacement.

The customer wanted to redesign the application to bring the technologies used in the app up to date and make the user experience more intuitive. They also wanted to build the second version of the solution equipped with new features to help technicians serve the clients more efficiently. With these requirements, the customer turned to Itransition, choosing us for our long-term expertise in automotive software development.

Solution

Our team was responsible for creating new app layouts, redesigning the app, developing new features and upgrading the existing ones for the second product version.

Application redesign

The customer provided us with the UX package containing wireframes and brand guidelines, logo specifications, icons, color palettes, background images, buttons, fields, controls, and fonts for Android and iOS applications. Our team designed the layouts and used them to build the new app version. After the development, our QA specialists conducted usability testing.

Application upgrade 

We worked together with the customer’s in-house team on building new functionality for the updated product version, with our developers focusing on new feature development requiring in-depth Xamarin expertise. We worked in two-week sprints and finalized each sprint with testing the code and merging it with the code developed by the other team.

The upgraded application allows roadside technicians to look up batteries, check the prices and product specifications, procure the correct battery, choose the fitment, quickly find installation requirements, and issue invoices for the clients. The application’s functionality also includes multilingual support for English, Spanish and French-Canadian languages, vehicle-specific battery location diagrams, and customer training materials, such as videos and guides.

In addition to new feature development, Itransition’s team also fixed bugs in the existing code to stabilize the app. 

We optimized or developed from scratch the following features:

  • Vehicle identification number (VIN) scanning and decoding. Itransition debugged this feature and added the possibility to scan VIN codes issued earlier than 1980.
  • Push notifications enablement. We implemented the OneSignal service to enable push notifications about battery events sent to the user’s device.
  • App-to-app integration. We added the possibility to integrate the upgraded app version with third-party solutions. Now, when users search for a certain vehicle model in a third-party app, our customer’s app opens a tab containing information on the vehicle with the right model and battery.
  • Search feature improvement. We optimized the search feature to prevent users from entering inaccurate or redundant data. We also localized some search fields, such as postcode for Canada and zip code for the USA.
  • Pricing localization. In the previous app version, users could only look up battery availability and price. The upgraded application allows them to create orders, fill in details on battery components, and request special services. Users with extended rights can edit service payments, support options, etc.
  • Tax charges localization. We added support for different taxation systems for Canada and the USA, enabling salespeople to change tax charges, add them to whole orders, and set up fixed tax amounts.
  • Embedded safety data sheets. This integration allows salespeople to look up and access safety manuals in the application.  
  • In-app authorization. We moved the authorization process from the browser into the app flow, allowing users to gain access to the app from industrial devices without browsers.
  • E-signature implementation. We developed e-signature functionality so that users can digitally sign documents.

Results

We redesigned and upgraded the legacy cross-platform application for a global battery technology services provider, improving the user experience and performance, and helping technicians do their work faster and more accurately. 

Overall, the new application version allowed the customer to achieve the following results:

  • Reduce time spent on battery service by 30%
  • Increase the client base by 25% 
  • Improve battery fitment information accuracy