©2026 Darnell Wilbrink. All Rights Reserved.
Autofit
<— Back to Projects
What's this about?
For this project our team FixVooruit worked within the ANWB AutoFit programme, which aims to make car maintenance more transparent and affordable, especially for people with a low to moderate income. This group depends on their car but often has limited technical knowledge and little budget for unexpected repair costs.
Our job was to design a mobile-first webapp where users can enter their licence plate and immediately see an overview of what maintenance their car needs right now, what's urgent, and what they might be able to fix themselves.
Our goal
"Give people quick clarity about the state of their car, without unnecessary stress or confusion, even if they know nothing about cars."
The problem
·People on lower incomes depend on their car but can't predict maintenance costs
·Most car tools assume technical knowledge most people don't have
·Unexpected repair bills cause real stress for this group
·No simple way to know what's urgent and what can wait
What we were aiming for
·A clear maintenance overview you can check while standing next to your car
·Colour-coded urgency so you instantly know what needs attention
·Plain language, no jargon, with video support for tricky steps
·Familiar ANWB visual style so it feels trustworthy straight away
How we worked
Iterative from the start. We kept testing with fellow students and adjusting based on what we learned.
Research & brief
We worked from the ANWB briefing and studied the target audience. People with limited car knowledge who just need to know what to do next.
Design & style
Mobile-first layout following ANWB visual guidelines. Whitespace in steps of 8, clear typography, colour-coded status indicators.
Build & test
Built in Figma with a full screen-by-screen flow. Tested with fellow students and collected feedback to identify friction points.
Refine
Addressed expo feedback. Transitions felt abrupt in places, so we improved the flow and added clearer progress cues.
What we ended up building
A seven-screen mobile flow that takes you from entering your licence plate to a full personalised maintenance report.
Home
Licence plate input and a 'Do the check' button. Featured ANWB videos below for context and trust.
Auto check intro
Confirms car details before starting. Makes it feel personal and builds trust.
Questions (1-3)
Three sets of questions covering tyres, wipers and oil. Video links, short explanations, simple Yes/No answers.
Results and advice
Red is urgent, orange is soon, grey is fine. Cost estimate and a map of nearby garages for immediate action.
Some design decisions worth mentioning
A few choices that shaped the product in ways that weren't obvious at the start.
Colour as communication
Red, orange and grey on the results screen communicate urgency instantly, without reading a word. We tested this and it worked immediately for people with no car knowledge.
Videos at every step
ANWB already had instructional videos like 'De juiste spanning' and 'Wel opletten!' so we wove them into each question. It lowered the technical barrier and made the tone feel less clinical.
Mobile-first, always
Every decision assumed the user is standing next to their car. Short copy, big tap targets, a flow that works on a small screen in daylight with one hand.
Honestly, what did I think?
This project taught me a lot about designing for people who aren't like me. The target audience has limited technical knowledge and real financial stress around their car. Every word, every label, every colour choice had to work harder than it would in a standard project.
The ANWB house style was a genuinely useful constraint. Having a defined visual language meant we could move faster on the look and focus more on the flow and the logic. Working within boundaries isn't limiting, it's often clarifying.
What I'd do differently is get in front of the actual target audience sooner. We tested with fellow students, which was useful, but they're not the people who'd actually struggle with this. Real user testing with someone who genuinely doesn't know how to check their oil would have changed a few things.
The expo feedback about transitions feeling abrupt was fair. We had focused so much on individual screens that we hadn't thought enough about moving between them. Design the transitions, not just the states.
Design for the actual user
Not your fellow students. The people who really struggle with this stuff should be in the room.
Constraints speed you up
The ANWB style guide meant fewer decisions and more focus on what actually mattered.
Design the transitions too
Individual screens matter but so does how they connect. We left this too late.
Colour does heavy lifting
The red/orange/grey system on results communicated urgency better than any copy could.
Where could this go?
Solid foundation. Here's what would make the next version meaningfully better.
Add transition screens between question sets so the flow feels less abrupt
Personalise results based on driving behaviour or user preferences
Test with the actual target group, not just students
Build in a reminder or follow-up system for upcoming maintenance
Explore integration with a real ANWB backend for live car data
Add more vehicle types beyond the current scope
Refine the garage finder with real-time availability and prices
Add an option to save and share the report directly with a mechanic