McLaren Automotive

Simplifying complex configurations

What was discovered

The team and I visited the McLaren technology centre in Surry where we met with the research team. As you can imagine McLaren invests a huge amount of time in research, not just on the cars but also on their customers. We learned that customers don’t use car websites to research or buy supercars. Instead they or someone appointed will come to the technology centre in person to see the cars and make specification choices. The vehicles are assembled by hand by McLaren engineers and customisation is expected, the problem is there are literally trillions of possible combinations of colours, wheels, interior setup and options as the cars are so customisable. So how can we help prospective buyers choose?

What was designed

Working closely with McLaren’s chief designers and our own team of designers and engineers we began to source data about the vehicles. We had learned from the data that a vehicle is defined by its series first, then body style, then transmission but this is not how customers like to make choices. We knew from interviews that people prefer to make the simple choices first, like colour, so we began to model the data around the choices users would make first but in a way that it wouldn’t cause conflicts in the configuration. Not an easy task.

The collaboration also included a team of award winning CGI artists who were permitted to use McLaren’s vehicle CAD data to start modelling the cars in 3D. Once complete render farms exported thousands of images that could be layered together to make any possible configuration for any vehicle. The interface manages which combination of images are visible at any one time.

What problem this solved

The new online car configurator gave McLaren a way to simplify and visualise the endless choices available to customers in an engaging way. Not all viewers are looking to buy a car though, they know from market research that many of the visitors to the website are young fans. These early engagements with the McLaren brand of people looking at their ‘dream car’ can lead to sales in the future.

What impact this had