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I was tasked with redesigning the filtering experience for Arnold Clark.

The redesigned Arnold Clark vehicle search filters.

Overview

Arnold Clark is one of the UK's largest car retailers, with over 3 million monthly visitors. The vehicle search filters are a vital part of the user journey, yet they were underperforming, especially on mobile. This project focused on redesigning the filter experience to make it faster, clearer, and more effective for users to narrow down search results.

Problem statement

Analytics revealed low filter engagement and high drop-off rates on the search results page. Users struggled with inconsistent behaviour across devices, cluttered options, and a lack of intuitive grouping. The experience felt overwhelming and did not support confident decision-making.

Early sketches exploring the filter layout and grouping. Wireframes of the mobile-first filter panel and active-filter states.

Approach

I conducted user interviews, card sorting, and competitor analysis to understand user expectations and mental models. Using insights from tree testing and Google Analytics, I redesigned the filters mobile-first with simplified categories, a sticky collapsible panel, and improved visibility of active filters. I prototyped in Figma and refined the design through multiple rounds of usability testing.

Two filter flow variants tested with users; the secondary flow performed better.
The version with the secondary flow tested better with users.

Outcome

The new filter experience launched across desktop and mobile with measurable improvements: a 28% increase in filter usage, a 15% rise in click-throughs to vehicle detail pages, and faster task completion on mobile. It also laid the foundation for future UI consistency across the platform and became a reference point for other product teams.

Impact

This project demonstrated how research-driven UX can improve both usability and business outcomes. It also helped strengthen UX maturity within the organisation by showing the value of testing, iteration, and design leadership in a high-traffic environment.

The launched filter experience on mobile. The launched filter experience on desktop.
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