CUPRA’s Owners Area was a static digital garage that almost half of its visitors never returned to. I redesigned it as a space that gives owners real value after the purchase, and a reason to come back.
“A customer isn’t a customer until they come back a second time.”
The Owners Area showed car data and three links to public pages. No personalised information, no help, no contextual services and nothing to do once you were in.
Analytics confirmed what the review suggested: return visits were barely above half of unique visitors.
( How might we )How might we design an Owners Area that meets owners’ expectations and adapts to their needs, so they become real customers?
Desk research, a benchmark of six car brands and an expert review of the current product. We started from what CUPRA already knew.
Clear information about what they have: plans, financing, warranties and products.
Guidance and reminders for maintenance, especially for electric cars, with booking built in.
A personal space that offers services and products relevant to them and to their car.
All six brands focused on services for owners, with strong emphasis on maintenance and personalisation. Ford and Renault covered almost everything; maintenance and booking were the baseline.
| Feature | VW | Ford | Renault | Audi | Opel | Toyota | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic info | 6/6 | ||||||
| Book an appointment | 4/6 | ||||||
| Maintenance info | 5/6 | ||||||
| Financial services | 3/6 | ||||||
| Warranty details | 2/6 | ||||||
| Subscription | 2/6 | ||||||
| Connectivity | 2/6 | ||||||
| Manuals | 2/6 | ||||||
| My configurations | 3/6 |
A modern, dynamic design that makes it effortless to find things.
Anticipate the needs of the owner and the car, at the right time.
A help center to solve questions and reach the brand or dealer instantly.
A network among owners plus brand content, like driving playlists.
Clustering and dot voting turned many ideas into one shared priority, and a new architecture scoped to the owner.
We grouped every need into categories: car information, finance, predictive maintenance, cross-selling, customer care, electrification and community.
Then we voted as a team on what to build and what to improve. The method made priorities explicit and kept the loudest opinion in the room from winning by default.
We scoped the work to the owner’s side and left configurations and orders as they were.
A menu that opens from the avatar freed the whole screen. Five sections give owners something to do, and a reason to return.
The fixed side menu became a menu that slides out from the avatar. Always reachable, it frees the full width for content and opens up layouts that weren’t possible before.
Shortcuts to frequent tasks, car status, upcoming appointments, the charging map, community and recommended articles.
Why. Content changes by user type (prospect, lead or owner) and notifications flag what needs attention. Cross-selling sits next to the car, not in a generic carousel.
A clearer, categorised structure for everything about the vehicle, with a maintenance calculator and a route planner with charging points.
Why. Accessories are shown by model and season. The calculator turns maintenance into a quote with direct booking.
A forum for reviews, questions and photos, alongside brand content: in-car playlists and routes rated by the community.
Why. An active community is a steady source of content and peer answers. It strengthens the bond with the product and takes load off customer care.
Personal details, finance, preferred dealer, settings and privacy, each block with its action on the right.
Why. It answers the transparency insight: what you’ve signed up for, when the next bill is due, and how to change it without calling anyone.
Search, recommended topics, tutorials by model, community and dealer access, and finally phone, email or live chat.
Why. The page order guides people to the most efficient channels before direct contact, without ever hiding it.
Gained full width for content and richer layouts. Gave up always-visible navigation, offset by shortcuts on the Overview.
Gained focus on the return problem and a faster concept. Gave up improvements to configurations and orders.
Gained relevant content for prospects, leads and owners. Gave up simplicity in data and business rules.
Gained a recurring reason to come back. Gave up effort: it needs moderation and critical mass.
An Owners Area doesn’t compete with the public website. It competes with the reason not to come back.
Using return rate as the north star aligned user, strategy and business goals that often pull apart. The next phase should validate two hypotheses with real users: that personalisation feels useful rather than intrusive, and that the community reaches critical mass.
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