Ally Noormohamed

Work / Auction Equipment Evaluation Application

Buying and selling equipment

Ritchie Bros. auctions are fast-paced and high-energy environments where sellers aim to sell equipment at the highest prices, and bidders look for good deals. The auctions are unreserved, which means that bidders set the prices during the auction, and the equipment goes to the highest bidder.

Ritchie Bros. Auction

To help customers accurately evaluate equipment pricing, the web program team at Ritchie Bros. decided to build a tool similar to the Kelley Blue Book for asset management and disposition. The team included engineers, data scientists, the web program director, and me.

Competitive audit

To gain insights into the strengths and weaknesses of competitors offering similar solutions, I collected comparative research data from direct and indirect competitors. However, none of them had a decent solution for auction bidders and sellers.

Competitive research insights

Customer interviews

The engineering lead and I visited auction sites to collect more data by speaking with customers and auction staff. The research confirmed that customers relied on their auction experience, including past auction results, OEM publications and Ritchie Bros. territory managers and auction staff, to evaluate and price equipment.

Ritchie Bros. customers and auction staff

Alignment

After the research, I organized a two-day design sprint to share the findings and gain alignment on the approach. The team decided to build a mobile application as an MVP using years of Ritchie Bros.'s historical data that no other company had. The data scientists built models that leveraged the data to generate an estimated price based on condition and equipment properties. They worked with the back-end engineers to create an API that was used to build the mobile application. The team planned to offer in-depth equipment information to customers using a paywall to generate business revenue from the application.

Some of the design sprint documents

Design and testing

While the data scientists and back-end engineers worked on the foundation of the mobile application, I started on the designs. To get inspiration, I used the Kelley Blue Book, data analytics, stock trading, and investment applications.

I knew it would be challenging to define the components and patterns for the mobile application quickly, so I used the Google Material Design framework because it was the most comprehensive cross-platform framework at the time. I worked with the art director to incorporate the Ritchie Bros. visual identity into the framework to create a unique on-brand experience. I developed user flows, wireframes, and a prototype, followed by high-fidelity mockups. The designs tested well and generated excitement from customers.

Some of the designs

Outcome

It took the team about four months to build the mobile application. However, after further discussions with the leadership team, the decision was made not to ship it. Instead, the work was used to enhance the auction results experience on rbauction.com.

I gained a deeper understanding of the Google Material Design framework and how to gain quick alignment with cross-functional teams by using methods such as design sprints.