π Public Launch β Release Notes
After months of tweaking and iterating in a closed beta with trusted dealership partners, driverseat is excited to change the way next-generation dealerships run their online business.
When we released the first version of driverseat, the modern web framework world was the wild west with no true winners. Most big companies were implementing DIY solutions, and it was hard to follow the leaders. Over the last year, a clear winner was established βΒ Vercel.
With this in mind, we decided that it was time for us to differentiate ourselves even further, by improving our performance scores to be the best in the biz, refreshing our design, and setting ourselves up to easily add additional features in the near future (user accounts, consignment, AI engine recommendation, etc)
Speed & Stability
Rewrote the platform using Nextjs and hosting is now done on Vercel which is used by the biggest silicon valley companies like Netflix, Uber, and Ticketmaster
More tests β we've written 4x the tests and now use a static language (Typescript) to catch potential bugs at build time before sites are deployed
Google Lighthouse scores greatly improved. Set a new target of 90+ for every release moving forward
Optimized from the ground up for the new Google Web Vitals, which will improve dealer search engine performance
The entire website is now cached at the edge, ensuring that it will never go down even if the API fails
Navigation and page loading is even faster as a result βΒ making dealership websites more accessible even on the slowest networks
GTmetrix scores have far surpassed every other dealership website provider
General Improvements
Complete facelift on the home page, to bring the sites in line with the latest trends while improving the user experience
Improved the above fold content to provide more actionable items for shoppers
Improved the use of space by redesigning some existing sections
Implemented a new way to search for a vehicle by determining shoppers' wants and budget
Smarter 404 pages, with similar vehicle suggestions when a car has been sold
Converted every section into a standalone component that will be editable via the dashboard, allowing for instant on the fly changes
Improved the "meet our team" page with a greater focus on profile images and a better way of sending a message
Redesigned the blog list and post views to improve readability, as well as fix any display issues across content types
Dozens of improvements to other existing pages to unify the design language and performance. The browsing experience should now be improved for customers across all screen sizes
Improved OpenGraph images cross the main pages to provide more context when shared
Improved meta descriptions for primary pages to optimize for some long-tail search queries
VDP
Price alerts via Mobile Pass are now default on every lead submission, providing dealers with an additional channel to engage with potential buyers
Added new component with additional vehicle photos towards the bottom of the page to keep customers engaged
Optimized vehicle recommendations for "Similar Cars"
Refreshed the above fold layout
Testing more "bold" buttons on important CTAs
improved clarity around which dealership the vehicle is located
improved readability of additional vehicle features and specifications
Inventory
Added a small hero with title and vehicle counts (+ points to technical SEO for now adding an H1 title to inventory)
Used the analytics from the last year to determine most popular queries, and optimized new filters visible right away
Ability to quickly remove individual filters, or clear the entire search
A new way to apply multiple filters that's more reliable and user friendly
Replaced filter sliders for pricing and mileage categories with more intuitive filter groups
Optimized vehicle cards for screen real estate by removing bulk
Filtering by year is now easier
Infinite scroll is back for vehicle cards β now works correctly, and remembers position when navigating back from the VDP
Improved search functionality (ex, results no longer populate mid-word, but rather wait for a break in typing input)
Mobile feed is much faster and easier to swipe through images without going to the VDP
More user-friendly "empty state" for when no results are found
Bug fixes and general improvements (i.e. filter modules no longer scroll in the background, sorting works as expected on mobile, language changes on sorting drop-downs, etc)