A car store built around the way people actually shop

Nobody likes buying a used car. EchoPark’s promise was to fix the whole experience, so the digital work had to carry one idea from the sofa to the showroom to the lot.

Sonic was building the brand from scratch, working title Tree Trunk, first stores in Colorado. Three things needed designing at once and had to feel like one system: a site where you could discover a car by the life you lead rather than a make and model; a store where a bar of iPads drives a wall the length of the building; and a phone app that turns the paper window sticker on every car into a live, connected one. Each got its own interaction model, architecture and annotated wireframes between December 2013 and March 2014.

1. One account, three places. The garage you build on the site is the garage the bar and the lot already know.
2. Worry‑free as a feature. Every car carries an EP inspection report, a free Carfax and a five‑year cost of ownership, on the page, not in a drawer.
3. No salesperson until you ask. Request a consultant is a button, in the store and on the lot.

1. 1

   Discover by lifestyle, then search by make.

   The home page opens on a question, not a search box: I need a car that is adventurous, My open road is luxurious, What’s in your back seat? Each answer maps to a lifestyle group, luggage, my dog, camping supplies, beach gear, and the group maps to body styles and cars, so the first result set is about you. Make, model and body style search sits one scroll below for the people who already know.

   Turned down: leading with inventory. Every dealer site already did, and it is the part of car shopping people like least.

2. 2

   Let the bar drive the wall.

   The Imagine Wall is 51 feet 10 inches by 8 feet, split into three regions of three zones. Each zone is controlled by an iPad at the Imagine Bar: search a vehicle on the iPad and its photos and specs appear in your zone of the wall; ask for a consultant and the request shows there too, so the right person finds you. When all three zones in a region go idle, the region returns to brand and attract content.

   Turned down: a video wall that just plays. A wall that answers you is the reason to walk up to it.

3. 3

   Connect to the car you are standing beside.

   On the lot, the app finds the car three ways, in order of how little they interrupt you: Bluetooth detection when the native app is open, a six‑digit PIN from the window, or scanning the code. Then the sticker comes alive: vehicle information, request a test drive, hold this vehicle, request a specialist, snap to compare. The architecture document spells out why a web app that has to leave to scan a QR code is the wrong first move.

   Turned down: QR only. Bluetooth detect and PIN entry were specified so the phone never has to leave the experience.

• DeliveredThree complete annotated wireframe sets with interaction models and architectures: the website on 11 December 2013, the Imagine Bar on 31 January 2014, the Digital Window Sticker on 3 March 2014
• CoveredAdaptive breakpoints, site map, three home concepts, the lifestyle discovery tool, find, sell, buy, service, community, about and account for the site; the wall, welcome, search, check‑in, consultant and events flows for the store; touchpoints, connect, search, garage, wallet and product detail for the lot
• LaunchedEchoPark opened its first stores in Colorado later in 2014 and has since grown into Sonic’s nationwide used‑car brand

I was the experience designer on EchoPark at Huge, Atlanta: the interaction models, architectures and annotated wireframes for all three deliverables. Huge’s strategy and visual design teams and Sonic’s EchoPark team set the retail model the system was built on.