Buying a car, entirely online

Context

Buying a car is still mostly paperwork: hours at a dealership, unclear monthly costs, and very little transparency. At Fair.com we set out to build what our Head of Product called "the Amazon of the used car marketplace": first- and third-party vehicles, bought entirely online. When Shift acquired Fair's assets in 2022, the work carried over into Shift's marketplace, with a new brand and a more mature design system.

Goals

• Let customers buy when and where they want, without one-on-one consultation.
• Reduce the overhead cost of selling cars.
• Ship fast, then follow with meaningful updates.
• Let people self-correct when something goes wrong.

How I led

• As UX Lead at Fair, I led the UX team through the end-to-end checkout and the design and development of Fair's design system. The checkout became part of how Fair made its case to potential buyers.
• As Product Design Manager, first at Fair through the acquisition and then at Shift, I guided the design team through evolving the checkout into Shift's brand and system.
• Brought in a design sprint process that improved team efficiency.
• Promoted from UX Lead to Product Design Manager in five months.
• Worked with the Design System Guild (designers, developers, and researchers) to add to Fair's system, then shifted my focus to iterating on Gearbox, Shift's design system.

What we built

Setting expectations. A persistent left-hand progress rail showed customers where they were, what came next, and what they'd need. After several iterations we could drop the header entirely and give that space back to the content.

Simplifying the language. We rebuilt Fair's patterns in Shift's brand using familiar web conventions, so the next step was always obvious.

Don't tell, show. I prototyped key interactions for look, feel, and timing, so engineering could see exactly how they should behave.

Fair checkout

←→

01Loan terms: move the down payment and term, and the monthly payment updates beside you.

02Add-ons explained in plain language, with the price impact shown before you choose.

03Payment setup tells you why it's asked and when you'll be charged.

04Even an approval with changes is framed as good news, with the changes spelled out.

Shift checkout

←→

01The same rail in Shift's brand, with clear tips so the first upload works.

02Confirm, don't retype: details come from the license, and you only fix what's wrong.

03Scheduling delivery is the last step, picked from a calendar like any other booking.

Outcome

• The first fully online vehicle checkout at Fair, which improved customer satisfaction.
• The checkout contributed to acquisition discussions; Shift bought Fair's assets in Q2 2022.
• The patterns went into Gearbox, Shift's design system.