Designing next-generation HMI's is in our genes and for CES2020 we have teamed up with Faurecia and other parties to design and develop three inspiring in-car experiences, ranging from a complete interior redesign of a Ford F150, to standalone wellness and media exhibitions.
Value
Demos are an excellent way of showcasing what the future of a market segment could look like. As a creative partner, particularly focussed on designing top-notch user experiences, we teamed up with Faurecia’s design team to build a full infotainment and in-car experience that includes a cluster, centre stack and rear-seat touch displays.
Contribution
In roughly four months we have built an open-ended, integrated HMI that works seamlessly with Faurecia's hardware, such as seats, HVAC, sound, steering wheel and other components. Endless prototyping, roleplaying and pushing the boundaries of Unity allowed Faurecia to inspire thousands of customers at CES 2020. The pace of designing and building this exhibition has been remarkable.
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Faurecia rebuild a Ford F150 that showcased a brand new multi-view centre stack screen, presented a multimedia module that highlighted shared gaming and movie streaming services and a wellness module that allowed visitors to experience different in-car wellness services.
The multi-view design of the MyTrenza system, which we have helped to refine, was used across all three demos, supporting the demo presenter to highlight Faurecia’s new technology.
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Designing an infotainment is one thing. Designing one based on personalisation, resizing and fluidity is another. Our designers and developers used Unity, a tool primarily used in the gaming industry, to push the boundaries of what was previously thought impossible.
Besides kick-ass animations, transition effects, special effects such as particles and extremely efficient iteration loops, working in Unity allowed us to developed a system in only a few months that was integrated with Faurecia's hardware.
The MyTrenza multi-view allows three applications to be open at the same time and resized based on user preferences. The user can choose between one of the eight native applications, all having the ability to be resized and dragged into a viewport.
Designing responsive HMIs requires a thoughtfull prioritisation effort. As the windows get smaller when the user changes its size, some of the content will have to disappear or resize. Together with all stakeholders, we have defined all app features and ranked them based on priority.
Consistency across the system is key to ensuring a pleasant experience. Together with Faurecia we have established ergonomic guidelines, touch targets, interaction patterns, states and much more to bring consistency in all of our designs.
A design system was created to not only help the designers to think systematically, but also to help the developers to find component states and various interaction patterns in one place.
Prototyping can be done in various ways, whether it is to prototype UX flows in Figma or create high-fidelity prototypes with mock data in Unity, we continuously push our own and other stakeholder’s boundaries to achieve something that was previously thought impossible.
Our designers and developers worked closely, had daily stand-ups and created several rigs that were positioned in the office for continuous testing and progress updates. Throughout the process we role-played the demo and created endless prototypes as communication pieces.
Only when working in close proximity of each other we were able to move forward efficiently and iterate quickly based upon new or revised requirements.
Not a single successful demo goes without great collaboration and a willingness to push boundaries. Hats off to everyone involved and making this happen. More information can be found here.
