All the Things, Volkswagen
Shaping Ownership, Connection, and Experience at Scale
I’ve helped shape the digital experience at Volkswagen by defining long-term experience vision across ownership and connected services. I’ve led UX strategy, explored new interaction models, guided teams through ambiguity, and worked closely with global design teams, product groups, and stakeholders to align business priorities with real customer needs.
My work spans UX design, information architecture, journey mapping, SEO, user research, and purposeful content design. I’ve helped break down silos, brought structure to complex problem spaces, and used metrics to inform decisions and measure impact. This included managing cross-functional initiatives, supporting designers, and building alignment across product, research, content, engineering, and leadership.
Here are a few highlights from the journey. If you are interested in a more detailed look at my processes or would like to request a case study, feel free to visit the Methods page or contact me through the About Me page.
The Volkswagen App
A Concierge and Utility for Your Vehicle
I guided the vision for the Volkswagen app across the product lifecycle, helping define its role as both a utility and a long-term engagement tool. I managed a team of designers and worked cross-functionally with product, engineering, research, and marketing to ensure alignment across priorities and execution. I led design efforts across core user journeys, enrollment flows, and feature enhancements, while driving consistency through shared patterns and scalable systems. This work was grounded in a clear understanding of vision, identity, and purpose as core design principles.
I supported research planning and usability testing, facilitated stakeholder workshops, and produced documentation that improved clarity and sped up decision-making. I established UX standards and design operations that boosted team velocity, strengthened collaboration, and elevated product quality.
The Challenge
Creating the Volkswagen app was not just about launching a product. It was about laying the groundwork for a connected ecosystem. We needed to align across multiple departments, navigate technical limitations from in-vehicle systems, and build a foundation that could scale with evolving customer needs.
Balancing usability, business objectives, and engineering constraints was a constant negotiation. It required collaboration, adaptability, and a shared commitment to delivering value.
The Solution
We established a shared product vision by aligning design, engineering, and business teams early in the process. Through collaborative concepting, customer journey mapping, and rapid iteration, we identified the moments that mattered most to users and prioritized them together.
We benchmarked competitor apps, defined MVP features, and built a modular design system that allowed for speed without sacrificing cohesion. Regular working sessions and critique loops ensured continuous feedback across disciplines and kept us grounded in both technical constraints and user needs.
By approaching challenges as a unified team, we created a flexible app framework that could evolve with the platform and deliver meaningful value from day one.
The Results
1.6 million unique interactions
The foundation we built has made the Volkswagen app a central touchpoint for owners. In 2024, the app recorded over 1.6 million visits, with more than 686,000 users exiting to schedule service—showing that the experience is both intuitive and effective.
With a 4.7-star rating across 212,200 reviews, the app’s success reflects its usability and real-world impact. The scalable design continues to support new features, respond to customer feedback, and drive business growth.
Vehicle Ownership Experience
Owners and Services on the Web
I led the creation of Volkswagen’s ownership platform by designing a unified digital ecosystem from the ground up. The challenge was to consolidate a collection of disconnected, single-purpose sites into one scalable, user-friendly experience that could support vehicle owners across the full journey.
Information architecture was the foundation. I worked with stakeholders and researchers to map journeys, define service blueprints, and build a flexible IA that could accommodate both evergreen content and evolving business needs. This structure informed everything from navigation and content strategy to design systems and search behavior.
To support long-term scalability, I introduced workflows that improved collaboration across SEO, legal, and content teams. These processes helped standardize reviews, reduce time to publish, and improve the overall quality and
The Challenge
The existing ownership experience was fragmented across numerous micro-sites. Each had its own tone, layout, and navigation. Users struggled to find key information, and internal teams lacked a scalable framework for updates or future enhancements.
We needed to create a streamlined experience that was intuitive for customers, flexible for the business, and aligned with technical constraints. At the same time, it had to preserve what makes the Volkswagen ownership journey unique.
The Solution
We approached the redesign with a system-first mindset. Starting with customer journey mapping and stakeholder workshops, we identified key ownership moments, from post-purchase onboarding to service scheduling and beyond. These insights informed a scalable information architecture that supports both evergreen content and evolving business needs.
I helped lead the creation of modular content templates and design components to ensure consistency across the new platform. We built in flexibility to accommodate different vehicles, feature sets, and customer types. We introduced a unified tone and voice, consolidated duplicate resources, and developed SEO workflows to ensure that every page was optimized for search visibility and aligned with organic discovery goals.
Collaboration was essential. We partnered closely with engineering, legal, and product teams to ensure feasibility, governance, and long-term sustainability. The result is a strong foundation that solves for today while supporting future growth for the brand and its customers.
The Results
Grew from zero to 1.5 million visits
The reimagined ownership experience had an immediate impact. In 2024, the platform welcomed more than 1.5 million visitors and nearly 3 million page views. Around 300,000 users arrived through natural search, showing the effectiveness of the updated SEO structure and content strategy. Nearly 1 million unique visitors spent an average of 3 minutes on the site, indicating strong engagement and content value.
More than just performance metrics, the streamlined architecture and modular design system created a foundation for long-term success. The platform now supports faster updates, greater scalability, and a more cohesive and intuitive customer journey.
Community and Brand
Evolving the Digital Experience Beyond the Transaction
I helped shift Volkswagen’s digital presence from a product-focused experience to one centered on community, advocacy, and emotional connection. This work aimed to elevate storytelling and narrative across the site to foster long-term brand affinity and engagement beyond the purchase journey.
I developed the foundational strategy and used storytelling, persuasion, and cross-functional collaboration to influence leadership and build internal support. Together, we created momentum around the idea that brand engagement should extend beyond in-market activity.
My contributions included defining the information architecture, identifying high-impact content opportunities, and ensuring brand values were consistently reflected across digital touchpoints. I also improved SEO performance through content strategy and structural clarity, helping the site rank better while delivering a more meaningful brand story.
At its heart, this work was about creating resonant moments for the many people who admire and support Volkswagen, even when they are not actively shopping.
The Challenge
Volkswagen’s digital ecosystem was heavily optimized for visitors who were in-market for a vehicle, but it offered little to the broader community of owners, fans, and brand advocates. There was no clear space or strategy to support long-term engagement, showcase lifestyle content, or highlight stories about sustainability and innovation.
I worked to reframe the problem for leadership by shifting the conversation toward emotional resonance and brand loyalty. The challenge was to design an experience that could meet short-term business objectives while also supporting long-term brand building, using an architecture flexible enough to grow and adapt over time.
The Solution
We built a strategy focused on creating a digital home for Volkswagen’s brand voice—one that could scale across storytelling, campaigns, outreach, and owner engagement. I helped define a flexible information architecture that supported both evergreen brand pillars and timely cultural moments. Our approach combined lifestyle content, sustainability milestones, and human-centered storytelling into a cohesive experience.
We brought this to life through high-impact campaign moments, including Super Bowl activations, Saturday Night Live integrations, and branded content that blended entertainment with purpose. We launched outreach programs, featured customer and community stories, and highlighted Volkswagen’s progress toward carbon neutrality in ways that felt engaging and authentic.
My role spanned from vision to structure. I collaborated closely with creative, product, and communications teams to ensure alignment and consistency, while championing long-term brand building that reached beyond the small percentage of users actively shopping for a vehicle.
The Results
+1 million engaged
The shift toward community-driven storytelling and branded experiences significantly expanded Volkswagen’s reach and relevance beyond in-market shoppers. Our Super Bowl and Saturday Night Live campaigns generated major spikes in traffic and engagement. Branded content consistently outperformed product-focused pages in both time on site and shareability.
Outreach programs and owner stories helped create a stronger sense of belonging. The updated content architecture made it easier to surface lifestyle features, sustainability milestones, and cultural moments within a unified experience. We saw measurable gains in SEO performance, returning visitors, and social referrals—clear signs that the strategy was connecting.
Just as important, the work sparked a shift in internal mindset. Leadership began prioritizing narrative, emotional connection, and long-term loyalty as essential elements of the digital experience. This laid a strong foundation for future brand-building efforts.
Rachael (Hustyi) Zaluzec
CMO & SVP @ Volkswagen of America | Customer Experience, Brand Marketing