Overview

This is a case study showcasing a dashboard and connected control app design concept for vehicle HMIs. Here I created a fully digital, distraction-free autonomous in-car experience. I showcased concept designs for a vehicle dashboard, a vehicle controller mobile app, and a smart-watch application.

Research Findings

Every good product out there is built on the foundations of solid qualitative and quantitative research. With the little time, I had to work on this project, I started by delving into the world of HMIs (Human Machine Interfaces), went further to read up on the latest trends in the automobile industry, and finally talked to some close friends about their experiences with automobile HMIs (getting to know user pain-points). I highlighted some of my findings as this informed my design decisions.

• HMIs are interfaces that allow users to communicate/control machines; in this case a vehicle. It also allows one to get feedback or know the status of instructions given to that machine.
• To delve more into the subject of this case study; Automotive HMI **enables drivers to communicate/control their vehicle via touchpads, buttons, or speech systems without getting distracted.
• Some of the trends in the industry are; Advanced driver assistant systems (ADAS), Augmented reality Head-ups displays, Voice control systems, and Gesture controls.

Here are some of the feedback I got from some user experiences.

• A need for a more automated system, they want to be able to communicate with their vehicles from different devices e.g mobile phones, smart-watches, tablets, etc.
• Most users prefer a more futuristic interface design.
• They want systems that prioritize their safety.

N.B: These are feedbacks from a handful of people, more thorough research might be needed to validate some of these findings.

The Solution.

The findings from my research gave me insight into the way I should approach the designs. I started with a mobile app controller that allows a user to perform important functions through their mobile, like unlocking and locking their vehicle doors, starting and offing their engines, etc.

Let's dive right in.

Mobile app car controller