I was given the task of creating a concept in 16 hours, considering the future’s mobility.
As the scope was broad and time was limited to 16 hours, I had to streamline the process. It came to look like this:
1 h: Thinking about the concept, what to create and how.
3 h: First sketches, thinking about scenarios.
1 h: Palette work. Setting up rough components and other assets in Figma for later modification and reuse.
0.5 h: Writing scenarios.
9 h: Prototyping in Figma. Creating screens, adjusting colours, working with dimensions. Finding icons, populating the screens, etc.
1.5 h: Creating a pdf for presentation of the work, describing the concept and process.
=16h
Concept Idea
We all need to take a break sometimes, even if we are travelling in an autonomous car. Maybe we know what we want when getting into the vehicle. Maybe we feel a sudden urge for a coffee while on the road.
In this solution, the interface mitigates easy communication between driver/passenger and car.
1. Sketching
As usual, I started out by collecting my thoughts by making some quick sketches on paper.
2. Setup
When my ideas started to crystalize into screens, I went to Figma to set up some basic components and used Paletton to try out colour schemes for the concept. This to help me think more clearly about how the concept could turn out.
3. Scenario
Next, I created a scenario to put my concept into context, helping me to clarify which interactions would be used in a common setting:
A woman and her two kids are going on holiday to a hired cabin a few hours drive away. The car is Level 4 autonomous. The kids in the backseat want burgers or pizza and will be hungry in approximately two hours. They will need to stretch their legs once every hour. Sometimes one of the kids needs a bathroom instantly.
1. Mom asks her kids what they want to have for lunch.
2a: They would like burgers or pizza, so she selects this in the app.
2b. As the kids won’t be hungry for a few hours, she sets notifications to start at 11.41. Then she presses Go.
3. The app is connected to the car’s IHU, so it will start showing relevant notifications when it is time. After the set time, notifications about relevant restaurants will show up as the car approaches them. The woman can tell the car to drive there, or call to place an order.
4a. Suddenly one of the kids needs to go to the bathroom, so his mom presses the Restroom button on the IHU. The interface displays all nearby places with bathrooms.
4b. When pressing one of the suggested places, more info is displayed, together with the possibility to reroute or call there.
Future
Work
Since this assignment was conducted in a limited amount of time, the process had to be streamlined.
In a work-life situation, it would have been appropriate to design for several scenarios, which included proper personas. I would also have spent more time on colours, components, and details in Figma.
Of course, I would also have made several iterations with evaluations to steer the development.
The technical details regarding the connection between the app and the IHU would also be expanded upon in the design.