Project Overview
From August 22 to January 23, I’ve had the opportunity to freelance as an end-to-end UX designer along with a small group of like minded designers to produce a case study in response to a design challenge.
I was able to work alongside an existing team and present research data, user feedback and solutions to a project manager and stakeholders;
To improve Tesla’s Model X User experience as a response to customer base/public/research that the users’ experience is inefficient and often distracting on the three most used interfaces while driving; The navigation, climate control and the settings interface.
Scope
The info-tainment tablets user experience found in Tesla model X/ Plaid S while maintaining much of Tesla’s current design language.
Stakeholder Problems
$50-$200 a month for transportation.
What these companies failed to address are the safety issues associated with vehicle infotainment consoles that cause increased driver distraction and require more time and attention to complete tasks and there's been a lot of feedback from the customer base, the public and through research that their UX could be inefficient requires a lot of time and attention and because of that could be a danger.
My solution will address this gap by redesigning Tesla vehicle infotainments user experience.
My focus will be non-tech savvy drivers who are distracted by technology and who also need a shallow learning curve when it comes to multitasking with touchscreen technology and driving.I'll know I'm successful with key performance indicators like time on task.
The current state of the electric automotive market domain has focused mainly on eco-conscious, private homeowners between the ages of 25-50 who would spend between
Problem Framing
Take a minute to write an introduction that is short, sweet, and to the point.
Market Research
After our first sprint I completed some secondary market research to
uncover user / customer segments like behaviors and psychographics and other
segments of electric vehicle owners. I also completed some primary
research of actual Tesla drivers via Tesla Motor club and forum , interviewing them about their user experience with the touchscreen interface.
User Feedback Research
Some user feedback regarding the experience of interacting with the interface.
The Problems’ Research Hypothesis
After our 2nd sprint, the stakeholder and business problem was clearly defined.
Excited, I proceeded with my 2nd round of research with assumptions / hypothesis to validate whether or not In-Vehicle tablets and touchscreens could be distracting to drivers, resulting in several safety risks; using this research to drive ideation.
Stakeholder & Business Outcomes
Improved customer feedback.
Improved customer retention.
Easier user adoption
Creating safer drivers and conditions
More inclusive interaction design.
Improved driver habits.
Less distraction while driving.
Less time spent on tasks.
Personas (Users)
Persona “Types”
A city dwelling, show binging software
engineer at a tech start up located in
Upstate New York.
Needs to watch the road for common rural
obstructions (animal crossings, tractor trailer debris, road kill.
low-cost eco-friendly transportation
for road trips with friends.
Needs to watch the road for city driving hazards,
including other motorists, delivery cyclists, single vehicle motorists etc.
A tech savvy content creator who wants the latest in E-vehicle technology features and capabilities.
Needs less distractions and to keep eyes on the road
while driving at high speeds.
Hypothesis Statement
I believe I will achieve decreased distractions and improved usability,
if our software engineer and single father retail district manager,
will attain more alertness, and more confidence interacting with the system,
with redesigned User interface components and redesigned information architecture and layout.
and accessibility improvements.
Goals
Prioritization of goals
p0 Improved Accessibility.
p1 More usable Component design.
p2 Inclusive Information Architecture.
Solutions
Ideation (How might we?)
Make drivers more focused on the road
Make drivers less distracted
Make the tablet interface less distracting
Remove the distractions altogether?
Create a less distracting way to interact with the vehicles console?
Minimize the amount of steps to complete a task
Make distractions useful?
Increase safety contingencies for distracted drivers.
Lightboxing certain function from others during interaction.
Limiting the number of task available on the console
Simplifying the interface, reduce steps to complete tasks
Remove tablet console, hide non-essential tasks/function from view
Redesigning the tablets user interface/Include voice commands.
Dividing functions and task to other parts of the vehicle beside the tablet console
Using reminders to keep focused on the road
Create distraction contingencies, for eg: users are allowed a certain amount of time to execute specific tasks and functions while the car in drive.
User Outcomes & Benefits
Emotional: Users feel more confident driving with less distractions.
Emotional: Users feel good about being a safer driver.
Less cognitive load while interacting with the interface.
Shorter learning curve for the interface.
More inclusive interaction design.
Users can earn safe driving points towards new features and upgrades.
Improved accessibility.
Less time spent on tasks.
Users feel smarter and more comfortable operating their vehicle.
Sketches
These are thumbnail sketches that are a combination of explorations with alternative interaction components and interface layouts with the most commonly used functions: Settings, navigation, and climate controls.
Navigation
Wireframes
These wireframes are the foundations to the layouts and compositions of the hypothesized solutions. They will be used to design the prototypes used for testing settings, navigation and climate controls.
Climate Controls
Settings
Navigation
Lo-Fi Prototype
These Lo-Fi prototypes showcase the composition and layout of key features as well as the interaction design patterns associated with them.