TIRE AMERICA: A REVERSE-FUNNEL
CRO REDESIGN.
I audited an underperforming agency build to resolve high-impact revenue leaks. By optimizing from the checkout up, I delivered a high-conversion UI/UX blueprint ready for immediate development.
Client
Tire America
Duration
18 Months
Platform
Web (Mobile + Desktop)
Industry
Automotive Retail
Methods
Usability Testing · Wireframing · Benchmarking
Research Scale
120
Participants across 6 unmoderated tests
Desktop Usability
46.5%
vs ~26% industry competitors
Testing Depth
72+ hrs
Of video recordings analyzed
Platform Coverage
2
Mobile & Desktop optimized
Watch: A walkthrough of a high-fidelity checkout funnel. Includes annotated wireframes for developer handoff, created in Axure prior to the inspect feature.
The Objective
Improve Conversion Across
The Entire Purchase Journey.
Problem
An agency-built tire purchase flow suffered from high drop-off rates. Product cards buried key specs, shipping defaults caused accidental selections, and the calendar UI on mobile was effectively invisible for transit windows beyond 3 days.
Insight
Session replays revealed two friction layers: PLP decision fatigue (too much noise, not enough scannability) and silent checkout defaults that routed users into the wrong fulfillment path.
Outcome
Delivered streamlined PLP → Checkout wireframes. Redesigned product cards for scannability, replaced dropdowns with explicit fulfillment cards, and drove a 46.5% desktop usability score — nearly double the competitor average.
Phase 1 · Product Discovery
PLP Clarity + Confidence
Product cards were the first decision gate for tire shoppers. The legacy design buried critical information — specs, fitment signals, pricing clarity, and shipping ETAs were either missing or competing for attention, causing decision paralysis.
View Execution Details
Challenge
Key product specs, fit and value signals, and delivery ETAs were buried or absent from tire cards. Users couldn't make confident decisions without drilling into detail pages.
Action
Redesigned the product card hierarchy to surface tire specs, fitment badges, competitive pricing, and Ship-to-ETA at a glance — enabling confident add-to-cart without leaving the PLP.
Result
Improved scannability and decision confidence, reducing the need for detail-page deep-dives and enabling faster path-to-cart across both mobile and desktop.
Phase 2 · Checkout Optimization
Frictionless Fulfillment
Two critical checkout decisions were invisible to users: fulfillment method and installer/delivery date selection. Customers silently defaulted into the wrong shipping path and the swipe-based calendar caused missing available dates — both driving backtracking and drop-off.
View Execution Details
Problem
Silent defaults routed users into 'Ship to Home' without intent. The swipe-based calendar hid available dates when transit exceeded 3 days, making date selection feel broken on mobile.
Solution
Removed the silent default — required explicit fulfillment selection. Replaced dropdowns with visual fulfillment cards (installer partners, Ship-to, Pick-up). Swapped the swipe calendar for a traditional full-view calendar.
Result
Eliminated accidental fulfillment selections and calendar confusion. Users now make intentional choices earlier in the checkout flow, reducing backtracking and cart abandonment.
Before
After
Design Artifacts
Cross-Functional Collaboration
Design Is A
Team Sport.
Engineering
Delivered dev-ready annotated wireframes via Axure with interaction specifications, conditional logic documentation, and responsive breakpoint annotations — reducing design-to-dev ambiguity.
Product Management
Partnered on prioritization of checkout friction points using session replay data, aligning UX improvements with quarterly conversion targets and business roadmap.
Research & Analytics
Co-designed the 3-round benchmarking study across 5 competitors, establishing standardized usability, learnability, and confidence metrics via Userlytics.
Research Methodology
Evidence Over
Intuition.
Conducted 3 rounds of remote unmoderated usability testing across 120 participants, benchmarking Tire America against 5 industry competitors on usability, learnability, visual aesthetics, and confidence-to-buy.
Testing Rounds
3x
Remote unmoderated tests via Userlytics
Benchmarked Against
5 Competitors
Industry-wide usability comparison
Final Impact
Outperforming The
Industry Benchmark.
Tire America
Desktop
46.53%
Mobile
43.65%
Competitor A
Desktop
27.16%
Mobile
36.56%
Competitor B
Desktop
26.33%
Mobile
19.78%
Usability scores measured via Userlytics benchmarking study — 120 participants, 6 remote unmoderated tests, metrics include usability, learnability, price satisfaction, visual aesthetics, and confidence to buy.
Reflections
Lessons Learned.
Silent Defaults Are Silent Killers
Users don't notice what they didn't choose. The accidental 'Ship to Home' default was invisible in analytics until session replays exposed the pattern. Never assume a pre-selected option is a user decision.
Read Lesson
Dev-Ready Means Annotated, Not Pixel-Perfect
The most impactful handoff artifact wasn't the polished mockup — it was the Axure prototype with interaction specs, conditional logic, and responsive breakpoint annotations that eliminated engineering guesswork.
Read Lesson
Benchmark Against the Market, Not Just Yourself
Internal A/B tests show incremental improvement. Benchmarking against 5 competitors revealed where Tire America was truly differentiated (desktop usability) and where gaps remained (mobile learnability).
Read Lesson
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