A Digital Auction Platform for Imported Heavy-Duty Vehicles
Industry
Automotive, E-Commerce
Timeline
Oct 2023 - May 2024
Team
4 Designers,
9 Developers,
Microvan Inc. is a vehicle import company based in Subic, The Philippines, selling secondhand trucks and construction equipment to other businesses via auction. Prior to this project, they operated entirely offline, maintaining only a Facebook page. Our team was brought on to digitize their operations—building a dual-interface auction platform for both bidders and Microvan administration (acting as auctioneers).
✦. ── The Big Problem
How might we digitize Microvan’s fully manual auction system into a reliable, easy-to-use platform while preserving trust, supporting non-digital workflows like deposit slips, and remaining accessible to Gen X users unfamiliar with online tools?
Filipino Auctions, Reimagined for the Web
✦. ── Understanding the Auction Process
To get our bearings on the project, my team and I conducted a preliminary interview with Microvan’s head and deployed a staff survey. We found that the existing vehicle auction process was fully manual: bidders had to visit the physical site, pay a deposit in person, place bids on-site, and complete payment and paperwork offline. Staff tracked sales using spreadsheets, with no centralized bidder management or reporting system.
Key Quotes from the Survey and Client Interview
Courtesy of Microvan Employees
The goal of our platform was to translate this workflow into a secure, intuitive online auction system that preserves the business model while improving scale, transparency, and user trust. Our platform needed to support:
Bidder registration, deposit verification, and auction access
Bid logging, winner tracking, and payment recording
Inventory and vehicle listing management
Financial reporting tools (e.g. statement of accounts, sales summaries)
A streamlined user flow replicating the in-person auction stages
Interfaces tailored to a Gen X Filipino user base with limited digital familiarity
Microvan Staff Speaks: What’s Not Working (Yet)
✦. ── Core Pain Points From Stakeholder Insights
From our staff survey, we identified five core pain points. Key insights included:
Wider ReachStaff saw online auctions as a way to cut costs, bypass middlemen, and reach more buyers across the Philippines.
Trust NormsOutside major platforms in the Philippines like Shopee or Lazada, online credit card payments are generally seen as untrustworthy in the Philippines. Microvan’s customers prefer manual bank deposits and physical receipts for added security.
Transparency GapsErrors in payment tracking and inconsistent vehicle descriptions have led to disputes. Staff want clear bidding status, winner details, and financial obligations.
Monitoring Business PerformanceFor in-person auctions, tracking bids and payments requires manual Excel work. Reports are all on paper, and are more for archival purposes rather than analysis. Admins want a real-time analytics dashboard instead.
Adoption ChallengesMost users are Gen X. Simplicity, clarity, and alignment with familiar offline workflows are critical for adoption.
A Tale of Two Interfaces
✦. ── Prioritizing Features Based on Staff Needs
From our client interview and user research, we realized the platform needed to serve two distinct user groups: bidders and administrators. This meant designing both a bidder-facing auction interface (to host the auctions) and an admin-side management dashboard (for auction setup, payment tracking, and business analytics).
Bidder-Side Information Architecture
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Admin-Side Information Architecture
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I did not realize how big this project actually had to be! So my design team & I prioritized features based on staff survey responses. The highest-rated needs centered on financial visibility (e.g., billing summaries, statements of account) and auction tracking (e.g., winning user data, sale prices, model information). This prioritization allowed us to define a focused MVP that met core operational needs for both bidders and admin users.
Feature Prioritization Matrix
Yellow = Admin-side Features
Blue = Bidder-side Features
Building a Visual Identity from Scratch
✦. ── Branding & UI Foundation
The only brand asset Microvan gave us was a single low-resolution logo. We then developed a full visual identity from this starting point: establishing guiding UI elements, typography, and color schemes that communicated simplicity, professionalism, and trustworthiness.
Clarifying the Five Stages of Auction Participation
✦. ── Designing Various Versions of Auction Access
Microvan only runs one auction at a time. But the platform needed to support five distinct user access levels, each reflecting a different stage in the auction process. This initially confused my team and will definitely confuse bidders if we aren't careful. So drawing on my computer science background (specifically: boolean algebra), I created a simple truth table to clarify the underlying logic. This especially helped the development team align backend permission logic with the design team's intended front-end experience.
Truth Table Defining the 5 User States in the Bidder-Side UI
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Unlike typical digital platforms, key parts of this process happen offline: bidders must manually deposit funds at a bank and upload a deposit slip for verification before participating. The same applies when paying for a winning bid. So I designed the necessary user flows for each access level, ensuring a seamless transition between stages. Since I also designed the home page, I made sure it always clearly indicated the user’s current auction status and next required action.
User State A: The bidder must register for an account
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User State B: The bidder must log into the site
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User State C: The bidder must register for an auction
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User State D: The bidder must wait for their auction registration deposit to be approved
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User State E: Bidder can begin bidding in the auction!
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Designing for a Gen X User Base
✦. ── Simplifying Interactions & Language
[Moving online] will help to easily see the status of the bidding. However, staff may be resistant to change and learning to use the system well.
─ Microvan Employee
With a user base primarily composed of Gen X business owners, we made deliberate simplifications in both interface and language.
I initially proposed "Gallery" for the auction explore area, but client feedback revealed it was too ambiguous. We switched to "Listings," a term familiar in the auction space, to better align with users’ mental models. Small UX writing changes make big waves.
Our user base—both admins and bidders—are developing a new mental model for virtual auctions, often for the first time. To support this, I prioritized system visibility: users should always know their current stage, status, and next steps.
For example, in the admin-side UI, I designed a fixed navigation sidebar to make sure users always know where they are within the information architecture. By using dropdown menus, Microvan staff can easily see where they are and navigate across pages in one click without losing ever context.
Extending UX Beyond the Screen
✦. ── Statement of Accounts & Offline Integration
Statement of Accounts
Generated per auction
As per the client’s request, I designed an auto-generated downloadable statement of account for winning bidders. Since payments are made via offline bank deposits, it was essential that these documents be clear, professional (ie. aligns with the Microvan visual branding we designed), and directly traceable to the user’s on-screen actions to create a sense of trust.
This taught me that UX doesn’t stop at the on-screen interface. It must account for the entire user journey: from depositing funds at a bank to receiving a formal, trustworthy invoice. Every touchpoint matters.
Designing for Business Insights at a Glance
✦. ── Admin-Side Analytics Dashboard
I led the design of the auctioneer dashboard, focusing on metrics that matter to Microvan: total number of bids over time, revenue and profit margins per auction, revenue and profit margins per auction, and platform engagement statistics. I put these into two categories of insights and designed accordingly:
I realized that these correlated to how we should layout information on the Admin-Side UI.
I designed an analytics dashboard for admin. I designed it to be scannable, focusing on high-level comparisons. I designed dashboards for both short term (ie. per auction) and long-term data.
Bidder-Side vs. Admin-Side Experience
✦. ── Final Product
Final Bidder-Side UI
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Final Admin-Side UI
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Lessons from a Cross-Cultural Design Challenge
✦. ── What I Learned
I was working with a team of three other product designers. Balancing these multiple design perspectives taught me to let go of designer ego and engage in healthy debate as a tech professional.
The client typically knows their users best. While I initially questioned some decisions (e.g., requiring users to manually upload deposit slips), I learned to respect industry and culture-specific workflows. In the end, the platform was well-recieved, because it reflects how business is actually done in the Philippines.
Usabilty isn’t universal. What feels intuitive and secure in one market may be confusing or untrusted in another. Designing with cultural specificity is critical in global product design.
