Innova RepairSolutions2

RepairSolutions2 could read any car — engine codes, sensor data, diagnostic charts, everything a mechanic needs. It just happened to be built for the mechanic, and it was being handed to the driver.

So the app knew exactly what was wrong with your car, and told you in a language you didn't speak. Trip data, diagnostics, maintenance — each in its own tab, so you could see what the car was doing but never how it fit together.

A language the driver already speaks

The real problem was language. The app spoke in codes; drivers think in symptoms. Closing that gap started before any screen — with the product's own voice. A warmer mark, and a type system tuned for reading a warning at a glance instead of scanning a spec sheet.

From there, the rebuild: one connected app instead of a stack of tabs, so trip, diagnostics, and maintenance finally read as a single story.

The screen that mattered most

It wasn't the dashboard. It was the half-second right after a scan finished. In the old app, that screen could say “P0301: Cylinder 1 Misfire Detected.” Technically correct — and exactly where people left, for a search engine, a forum, or a mechanic, because it showed the car's language before telling them whether to worry.

The easy fix was a green check: hide the messy data and just say fine or not-fine. I passed on it. A checkmark you can't question feels calm right up until something's wrong — and then you're back to asking a stranger. So I rebuilt the result screen in a deliberate order: severity, then symptom, then the evidence underneath.

First, the redesign refused the old tab split. Trip data and diagnostics had lived apart — easy to build, and exactly the problem: you could see how the car behaved and how the trip went, never how they related. Now they share one connected view. Sessions ran 35% longer once there was a thread to follow.

Severity first. The scan resolves into Vehicle Health with a color before any code — red for issues, green for none. That answers the only question you actually have in the moment: do I need to deal with this?

The finding as a symptom, not a code. Each issue is written in plain terms, with a sense of how urgent it is, sitting next to everyday checks like brake life and tire pressure. Nobody has to go translate “P0301” on their own.

The raw code, one tap away. “P0301” and the sensor data still live under “Learn More About This Issue” — for the driver who wants proof and the mechanic who needs the dump. The plain-language layer sits on top of the real data, not in place of it.

None of this made the diagnostic any simpler. It changed the order you meet it — severity, then symptom, then the evidence underneath. Drop-off after a completed scan fell 40%, at the exact screen that used to lose people.

A reason to open it every day

A code reader is something you open once a problem has already happened. I wanted it open every day, so I brought driving in through the Waze SDK. It was scope the app didn't strictly own, plus the maintenance that comes with it — but it gave the product a reason to be there on an ordinary drive. Daily active users doubled within three months.

One system, built up front

Standardizing type, spacing, color, and components before every module existed was slower than shipping screens one at a time. I made the slower bet so a driver never has to relearn what severity or vehicle health look like each time a new module or vehicle type shows up.