ALD Automotive is a global leader in mobility solutions providing full service leasing and fleet management services across 43 countries and manages 1.70 million vehicles worldwide.
During 2019, I had the opportunity to be an Intern Designer at New Products & Innovation department based in São Paulo.
Across the New Products department I could collaborate with the design of mobility solutions such as ALD Mobility Card, ALD e-Vehicles, ALD Carsharing and others. Moreover, during my time at the Innovation department I contributed to on data based projects such as 1st ALD Hackathon - Employee Experience and designing digital prototypes estabilsh on drivers' demands.
Below, I'm going to show the case of ALD Mobility Card and explain the steps. I've been working on the product with the my team, the clients and stakeholders for almost 9 months.
ALD Mobility Card is an international prepaid credit card that allow payments of mobility expenses such as taxis, car apps, bike sharing, scooters and public transportation. This solution is offered for companies that want to expand their mobility options and avoid bureaucracies like refunds and lots of paperwork.
The product is simple: the users have a credit card and they can see their balance and control their expenses through an app. In the other hand, the fleet manager from the company that the users works can access all the expenses in a single report and pay only one invoice for the service. This solution provides more comfort and safety for both user and company.
When I started working at ALD the solution was already in a pilot with two companies: Heineken Brasil (São Paulo) and L'oréal (Rio de Janeiro).
Lets understand how these firms allowed the use of the ALD Mobility Card by its employees:
I had the opportunity to work closely with Heineken during their pilot phase. At the time of entering the project, the company had been using the product for while.
My first action as the product designer was to talk to every part involved at the Heineken's operation - the executives, the fleet manager and the human resources department - and take their feedback. The main point of this activity was to map the problems they were having with the solution.
Most of them related the same issues in different situations, such as:
We noticed that some product information has been lost due to bad communication between the parts.
Our hypothesis were that if the HR department informed all of the Heineken's employees that they had a new benefit addressing all the information related to that, it could help the users to understand the new solution and guide them during the use of the product.
According to this, we made an infographic for them explaining every single detail about the ALD Mobility Card. The message was clear about:
- What the new solution is
- Who can be awarded
- How it works
- How to ask for the card
- Which app is the right one and their features
- What to do if you have any problem related about the service
After the implementation of the new communication strategy, we did another round of feedback. We noticed that the users were not asking for informations to de HR department as before. They also improve the evaluation of the product.
At the end of the successful pilot, we wanted to reward them with a special gift for collaborate with us to build the product. We delivered all the ALD Mobility Cards with a paper wallet design by me and Dobra. The paper wallet reflects the concern of ALD Automotive and Heineken about sustainability and how it must be connected with mobility.
We presented the pilot's results to our board members. After they measured the business opportunities and risks, we got their approval to implement the product.
We gather with Ticket Edenred - our technology supplier that provides the application and the credit card for ALD Mobility Card - to deliver the final version of the app and print the final credit cards for Heineken and L'oréal.
At this phase, I worked closely with Ticket Edenred. I had three main responsibilities:
Work with those stakeholders in many phases of the process made me look at the product from many different points of view.
ALD Mobility Card made me exercise different soft skills - collaboration, empathy, project management - and hard skills - research, user interviews, UI, graphic design.
It was an amazing opportunity to be a part of the creation and deliver of an innovative product in the mobility field.
*In 2020, ALD Automotive have been rebranded and some adjustments were made in the app due to that. The mockup is representing the old version that I have worked on.
