Honda Indonesia

Context

I joined a revamp whose brief kept shifting between the platform, the app and individual features. More screens would not resolve the competing directions. I proposed that we agree on the information architecture first: what the product was for, how its services related, and what riders should find at each stage of ownership.

Working with the Lead Product Designer, Senior Researcher and Product Manager, I turned that agreement into the IA, navigation and a homepage that changes with the rider’s situation. I began as a Product Designer; this project became an important part of my progression into a senior role.

A motorcycle is rarely just a purchase. In Indonesia, people use them to commute, take children to school, run small businesses, and reach parts of cities that public transport does not always serve.

Buying one is practical, but it is also personal. For many riders, a motorcycle is a major purchase, a daily means of mobility, and something they expect to use for years.

That relationship begins long before the keys are handed over. People explore models, compare prices, consider financing, speak with a dealer, wait for approval, track delivery, and imagine ownership. Once the motorcycle arrives, the needs change: maintenance, service appointments, payments, documents, spare parts, insurance, and eventually resale or trade-in.

Motorku X is Honda's digital platform connecting motorcycle discovery, promotions, payments, service, and dealer interactions. More personalised services and external partnerships were also planned. The risk was clear: adding every new service as another feature would grow the product while making it harder to understand.

The product had services, but no centre

The existing product appeared comprehensive. But usefulness was not the same as coherence. Purchase tools, payments, promotions, maintenance, rewards, and ownership information competed for attention. Related actions were scattered, while the website and app often covered the same parts of the journey.

This created three connected problems:

1. Riders had to understand the organisation before they could use it.

   Feature categories reflected an internal view rather than how people choose, buy, and live with a motorcycle.

2. The rider and their motorcycle had no unifying centre.

   Ownership information existed, but sat alongside other services instead of giving them context.

3. The roadmap would amplify the problem.

   Every new service meant another decision for the rider and another exception for the product team.

Different signals were pointing to the same gap

There was no single research finding that gave us the answer. The direction emerged by reading several bodies of evidence together. Rider research showed that ownership is not one behaviour; it described riders across four levels of confidence and involvement.

These were not four separate personas requiring four products. Confidence changed by task. The IA used the Essential majority as its clarity baseline, adding guidance when confidence was low and revealing greater depth only when relevant.

The roadmap introduced new information, partners, regional content, and data about riders and motorcycles. Scalability meant adding capability without asking people to relearn the product each time it evolved.

Ownership became the organising principle

Ownership became the shared context connecting the rider's situation, their motorcycle, and the next useful action.

The same principle clarified the contribution of each touchpoint across Discovery, Pre-Purchase, Purchase, and Post-Purchase.

The ownership journey was continuous, but information and actions were previously organised around separate channels and features. The opportunity was to make ownership the shared context connecting the rider, their motorcycle, and the product ecosystem.

The IA used three inputs:

These inputs separated stable product homes from information that only needed to appear when relevant. Navigation protected predictable destinations; the homepage decided what deserved attention now; ownership became the shared context between them.

Designing a foundation that could absorb change

The proposed IA was designed in two layers: foundation and expansion. This was not a release plan split into short- and long-term features; it separated what needed to stay stable from what could continue to evolve.

The foundation changed the navigation homes that would support the homepage and future development.

The foundation clarified platform roles, grouped services around recognisable rider needs, and made the motorcycle relationship central to the app. Riders should be able to answer: what is happening with my motorcycle, what can I do next, and where can I find history or detail?

Richer data could improve reminders, predictive maintenance, dealer recommendations, payment visibility, insurance, and trade-in. New services would enter through the ownership model when relevant, deepening the experience without changing its basic grammar.

The homepage made the strategy visible

The homepage translated the IA into a daily experience. Its hierarchy changed with the rider's relationship to a motorcycle instead of giving every content type equal attention.

Before purchase, the homepage supported models, comparison, financing, trade-in, and dealer contact. Once a purchase began, credit approval, order status, and delivery progress moved ahead of generic discovery. Waiting was not treated as empty; visible progress acknowledged the anticipation around a major purchase.

Once a motorcycle was connected, the homepage made it the anchor: current status, service needs, history, payments, and the most relevant next action. The ownership space, Motor Saya, shifted the product from a generic homepage to a contextual ownership hub.

In later interviews, riders clearly recognised the difference between a homepage for choosing a motorcycle and one that helped them care for it.

We tested the map before polishing the interface

Because the problem was structural, we first tested whether people could find their way through the proposed IA without relying on visual design.

The tree test involved 538 participants, divided evenly between the existing and proposed structures (269 participants in each group). They completed eight tasks covering discovery, comparison, financing, purchase, ownership information, service, and accessories.

Overall task success increased from 70% in the existing structure to 83% in the proposal. Failure fell from 30% to 17%. Five of the eight tasks achieved more than 80% success in the proposed structure, compared with three in the existing version.

Because the test removed interface styling, the improvement pointed to clearer grouping and labels. Failed paths were then used to refine terminology and categorisation.

The next round tested the structure inside the homepage and purchase journey. The study included 533 Honda owners in an unmoderated usability test (160 existing Motorku X users and 373 non-users), followed by seven qualitative sessions.

Within the usability study, satisfaction reached 99% on the top-two-box measure. Participants found the revised page more focused and motorcycle-related features easier to see. The ownership view encouraged greater attention to maintenance.

What changed

The outcome was more than a new IA. It gave the team three capabilities for developing the product.

Reflection

Large ecosystems rarely become confusing because they lack features. They become confusing because every part of the organisation has a valid reason to be visible.

The difficult work was deciding what the experience should consistently mean to the rider. For Motorku X, that meaning was ownership.

With that meaning established, platform roles, navigation, homepage states, personalisation, and future services could be judged against the same principle. The result was an architecture that could hold more while staying understandable as the product grew.