Wheel & Packages Usability Test

Uncovering Online Buyer Needs to Boost Wheel Sales​

Method

mixed methods

Timeline

2025 march

goals

insights to actions

Industry

Tire & Wheels

Overview

Wheels + Package Research Plan​

Research Objectives

To understand customer behavior and identify opportunities to increase wheel sales, focusing on the online experience, wheel/tire package offerings, and addressing customer knowledge gaps. 

🧪 Remote Usability Testing — 8 participants

📹 Screen Recordings & Think-Aloud

🔍 Click Tracking

🎤 Employee Interviews — 4 regions, top/bottom sales stores

📊 Survey Analysis — Prior quantitative insights to guide segments

$20/participant 

Total: $160 

Participants to Recruit   
 MUST-HAVE CRITERIA 

Criteria to include or exclude to find the required participants.

  • Include customers who seek to buy wheels soon or have in the past 

 NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS NEEDED 

8 total  
5 enthusiast
3 circumstance  

Worked alongside another UX researcher and cross-functional teams in product, design, and digital marketing

Research revealed that many customers choose competitors for wheel purchases due to better prices or specialized selections. There is also a clear need to educate customers-especially first-time buyers-and to enhance the online purchasing experience so it reflects the trust and resources found in-store.

These findings support the goal of increasing wheel sales by informing e-commerce and marketing teams as they prioritize improvements to the website, product information, and bundled offerings. By addressing pricing, selection, customer education, and digital experience, the organization can better meet customer needs and drive measurable growth in wheel sales

solution

insights to action

discoverability & Navigation

What the customer struggled with

  • “View on My Vehicle” tool was missed in PLP but used in PDP
  • Customers looped repeatedly between PLP and PDP to compare

Packages & Expectations

Customer Frustrations

  • Lack of prebuilt packages for newer vehicles caused frustration
  • Users expected all services (installation, balancing) to be included

Visual Appeal & Price

What the customers wanted

  • Finish, style, and price were top priorities for wheel buyers
  • Shoppers expect multiple angles and current vehicle images

Filtering & Sorting​

From rough takes to refined vision

  • Filters disappeared on load or reset scroll position
  • Sorting options were considered less important than visual filters

Key results

for wheel & packages study

Enhancements
0 +
Cross-collaboration
0 +
Presentations
0
Participants Analyzed
0
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Participant 3
Participant 4
Participant 5
Participant 6
Participant 7
Participant 8
Participant 1
intro-slide-wheels-and-packages
Impact
  • Findings shared with e-commerce and product teams
  • Informed redesign of wheel visualizer tool (new version launching soon)
Next Steps
  • Triggered backlog tickets (e.g., filter bugs, color retention, image bank updates)
  • Supported roadmap for product strategy and SEO adjustments

Recommendations

Improving the End-to-End Experience

This usability study focused on understanding user behavior and pain points in the wheel and tire package purchasing process. While participants found the site generally easy to navigate, challenges emerged around filtering, visualizing wheels on their own vehicles, and discovering suitable pre-built packages. 

Key improvement areas included enhancing the wheel visualizer, fixing filter usability issues, expanding pre-built options, and providing clearer package pricing and value. Importantly, shoppers prioritized aesthetics and price over technical specs — underscoring the need for a visually engaging and seamless experience.

Users miss the visualizer on PLP

Increase visibility, change “View on Wheel Visualizer” label

Users can't compare multiple wheels on their vehicle on the product list page.

Allow multi-wheel preview directly in visualizer 

Inconsistent image coverage

Add newer vehicle images & improve PDP photo variety

Lack of prebuilt packages

Expand prebuilt library and clarify value of deals

Filter bugs

Improve loading state, preserve scroll position

Participant 7

Package for Tire & Wheel

“In all honesty, considering mine didn’t show prebuilt, even if it did, I think I would go with build your own because I feel like I can customize it better to my liking.”

particpant 4

Feedback on Vehicle

“Gotta change the color again. I kind of wish it would save to the same color I put it last rather than resetting every time.”

the wheel & package study

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