The problem
For the ID.4 launch, Volkswagen needed a digital reservation experience that still worked through its existing dealer network. Customers needed a simple path from configuration to deposit, while the product had to account for regional rules, payment failures, and dealership fulfillment.
I joined midstream to finalize trim configuration, checkout, and post-reservation onboarding. When COVID-19 moved the project out of the colocated studio shortly before launch, distributed development teams carried the product through delivery. The handoff made it clear that the state logic needed to be documented as carefully as the screens.
- Role
- Product Designer (focused on configuration, checkout, onboarding flows)
- Timeline
- 6 months (joined midstream, delivered to launch)
- Team
- Myself + other product designers, 1 PM, 1 PO, with VW’s design system team in Germany
- Tools
- Figma
- Status
- Live. Evolved by the team after launch
2x
Volkswagen’s internal reservation target
500+
Dealerships activated through the platform
35%
Lift in organic search traffic at launch
How we got there
Keep dealers in the loop
The reservation could not behave like a direct-to-consumer checkout because fulfillment still belonged to the dealer network. We kept the customer journey digital through reservation, then made the dealer handoff explicit instead of hiding it behind the interface.
Recover without starting over
A decline, timeout, or interrupted session could not erase a configuration or create an uncertain reservation. We treated recovery as part of the main journey, with defined states for retrying, returning, and confirming what had been saved.
Make every state buildable
Multiple engineering teams needed to build in parallel after the project moved into remote work. I documented inputs, dependencies, validations, and recovery states so the implementation did not depend on interpreting finished mockups.
From choosing a vehicle to knowing what happens next
01 / Trim & Feature Selection
Trim & Feature Selection
Problem
Customers needed to understand trims and options without selecting incompatible or unavailable configurations.
Exploration
Comparison, progressive disclosure, dependency rules, unavailable states, and saved configurations.
Outcome
Dependency rules prevented incompatible configurations while preserving the customer’s progress into checkout.
02 / Checkout Flow + Reservation
Checkout Flow + Reservation
Problem
Payment failures, timeouts, and interrupted sessions could lose a reservation or create dealer-support calls.
Exploration
Defined the critical path from configuration to reservation ID, including authorization, decline, retry, timeout, and recovery states.
Outcome
Recovery states preserved the customer’s configuration and reservation intent through declines, timeouts, and interrupted sessions.
03 / Onboarding Experience
Onboarding Experience
Problem
After reserving, customers needed to understand what happened next while hundreds of dealerships prepared for fulfillment.
Exploration
Confirmation, triggered communications, reservation status, dealership handoff, and support escalation.
Outcome
A shared status model kept customers, dealers, and support aligned on what had happened and what came next.
Designing state logic across the reservation journey
Configure
- Success
Trim/features selected → Checkout
- Constraint
Option unavailable → Disabled state
- Recovery
Abandoned session → Saved on return
Checkout
- Success
Payment authorized → Reservation ID generated
- Constraint
Payment declined → Inline retry message
- Recovery
Timeout → Session expired fallback
Confirm
- Success
Confirmation screen → Trigger email
- Constraint
Processing error → Retry screen
- Recovery
Email not received → Support escalation route
If you’re interested in working with me, please contact sincerelyjorge@gmail.com.
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