DIGITAL DISPLAY CASE STUDY
Client: Autocar
When your product’s #1 selling point is reliability on the road, critical functionality can sometimes overshadow the delight of the drive. AutoCar needed a UI that could deliver critical information without distraction and let drivers focus on enjoying their work with reliability and safety paramount.
We quickly saw the passion, knowledge, and pride drivers and technicians had for their trucks. There’s a strong community behind the job, from sharing rigs on Facebook to offering tips and tricks to fellow workers across the US. It was essential to design an interface that would strengthen this passion while providing a better working experience for drivers.
UX Design | UI Design | Visual Design
KEY SERVICES
- User Research
- UX Design
- Use Case Scenarios
- Information Architecture
- Concept Exploration
- UI Design
- Launch and Support
THE PROJECT
Information Overload
Drivers have enormous responsibilities and process loads of information to keep themselves and other drivers safe. AutoCar was looking for an improved cabin experience, integrating a new digital display into their existing analog dash.
Their old dash was clustered with gauges and dials, with limited space for warning lights, making it difficult to process the sheer volume of info a driver needs to handle. With warnings, pressures, speeds, and several other eyefuls of information to respond to, the new UI needed to be easy to interpret and navigate.
Customer Experience
Real People, Real Experiences
It was vital to get as much information as possible, from typical operation to micro-interaction, to achieve AutoCar’s vision. To get a better understanding, we turned to current users and technicians of Autocar trucks and others within the industry.
We rode along with drivers on their routes and conducted interviews with mechanics to get in-depth knowledge of their working experience and pain points – then created journey maps and outlined everyday use case scenarios from what we observed.
It’s important for us to understand our client’s business and their vision.
ITERATE AND REFINE
Information When Needed
Our initial objective was to create a digital interface that could replace rows of physical dials and gauges while allowing quick access to critical information.
We designed a situation-responsive framework that allows the driver to see the necessary information for specific tasks with a simple interaction. Drivers can select a dedicated interface or “Driver Mode” most suited to their current job with a single action. The UI adjusts to deliver the most relevant information while clearly highlighting warnings and critical issues so drivers can make swift resolutions.
IMPLEMENTATION
A Better Experience
Working with the client’s development teams, we provided all graphic assets, UI navigation flows, motion guidance, dimensions, and other specifications. Our team made refinements as issues arose, and we iterated on the design until the client had a strong candidate for release.
A SUCCESSFUL PROJECT
We Are Your Team
The actual test of the adoption of our design is the satisfaction of the end-user. New and existing customers were excited to see the new display and the resolution of information it brings compared to the old, overbearing gauges and dials.
Drivers and technicians love the easily accessible driver modes and the customizable options they provide. Drivers are more confident monitoring their rig information and, with less distraction, everyone is safer.
We need to understand our client’s business, internal team members, and overall vision. Their goals become our goals as we strive to empower them with our expertise to solve challenging obstacles, both big and small.
We believe our primary contribution to a project is our ability to guide you to success by fostering design collaboration between all teams involved. We brought together product managers, developers, and others to experiment with us. In this collaboration, we strive to bring out the best ideas from everyone. We feel we’re especially good at guiding and illustrating concepts that people have difficulty demonstrating on their own. We believe this brings out the most robust vision for the end product.