Mapping and Prioritising Use Cases of the Car: A study on consumer behaviour and preferences

Abstract

When users interact with cars, how they experience its quality is of high importance; both for the customers’ relationship with the car going forward, but also for the company that creates their car. If the car is perceived to be of high quality, it is easier for the company to build a longstanding relationship with their customers. Therefore, throughout the development process, the perceived quality of the car is evaluated by experts in the field. However, the processes used for evaluation are not always centred around the customers’ actual usage of the car. Because of this, the aim of this master’s thesis is to map what use cases are relevant to consider when evaluating the perceived quality of a car. Moreover, the aim is to create a prioritisation for these use cases and develop a method for how they can be implemented in the work of perceived quality experts in order to support their decision making. To fulfil this aim, this project followed the design thinking framework and the project team conducted several user studies to gather information. Expert interviews were held to gain an initial understanding of the problem space and the use cases that could be of interest. This was then followed by a diary study where the participants’ car usage was in focus. Lastly, perceived quality experts were consulted through a series of workshops. The material from all user studies were gathered and analysed through several methods, e.g., a KJ analysis. In the end, a complete customer journey is presented, showing all the use cases that occur in the interaction between a customer and a car. These use cases were then screened and a select few were presented as the ones most crucial for perceived quality evaluations. Approach car, Drive car, and Ride car are examples of some of the use cases from the final selection. Based on qualitative and quantitative insights from the user studies, these use cases were prioritised in a list that can be adapted based on the car project in question and the perceived quality specialisation that is in focus. All the results have been summarised in a process guide that perceived quality experts can implement when evaluating cars to support their work and decision making.