People rely on cars to move safely from one point to another. The driving experience needs to be simple and understandable for everyone.
The Problem
There is a lack of consistency in design, usability & interaction in the automotive landscape. Misleading UI, unintuitive affordances, and a lack of clarity can all degrade automotive experiences and compromise safety.
What if...
Google developed a multimodal design system for automotive interfaces, guiding the development of the in-screen experience, and physical controls?
The design system can be made to adapt across different vehicle segments and use cases, to design a safe experience for everyone.
Holistic interactions between physical controls and displays promote safety and usability.
Core Experience
Luxury Vehicle
Utility Vehicle
Multimodal Design System
Reductive display of information: Only necessary information is shown. To reduce distraction the UI design features high contrast monochromatic graphics that are harmonious with the vehicle interior.
Dynamic interface framework: The interface leverages contextual recommendations and a widget framework to intuitively adjust to the driver’s needs throughout their trip and reduce driver workload.
Physical controls: While screens offer flexibility, and rich feature sets they can’t always replace the precision and ease of use of physical affordances. This design system can identify use cases where physical controls are superior to digital controls, and determine the most intuitive balance between the two.
Micro interactions & animations: These can improve safety and usability by giving drivers feedback, whether they are interacting with a physical, or virtual control.
Framework
The philosophy of the interface design system is to reduce the vehicle controls and visuals to the essentials, and create a core design system upon that can adapt to different vehicle segments. The same framework can be used for a utility vehicle that needs a larger display for cameras, and a luxury vehicle that needs sleek and integrated buttons and controls. The interface framework places the most driving critical information directly in-front of the driver.
Adaptive UI and contextual recommendations
A flexible framework made of widgets enables the display to show information according to a driver's needs. Whether they are driving to work or performing complicated driving maneuvers etc.
Contextual recommendations can aid in shortening the drivers pathway to performing a task by displaying features and controls for the driver when they will need them.
Steering Wheel: everything you need in reach
The steering wheel to enable drivers to access the features they need most
Physical controls
Physical controls can help to enable different vehicle use cases. remote, extra control bank on steering wheel.