Audi Fast Track
This was a collaborative project sponsored by Audi. As a UI/UX designer, I designed the user experience for a novel futuristic concept car in collaboration with industrial and interior designers.
PROJECT TYPE
Team Project (FT 40)
Design an Audi car in 2040 to express passion for cars in the future urban environment
INTERVIEW & KEY FINDINGS
First, we conducted user research in order to understand our target audience and their needs. We interviewed 9 car enthusiasts from different demographics and geographies who currently own luxury cars. We used affinity diagrams to identify key trends and pain points.
Car enthusiasts who own luxury cars want…
More time and new opportunities to fully enjoy driving their cars
Simple and intuitive features, even though many are tech-savvy
Personalized experiences that automatically conform to their needs
DEFINING THE CONCEPT
We brainstormed potential solutions before finally narrowing down to the final track concept. We used what we learned in user research to simulate the experience. For example, we printed out a large map and pinned important locations in their daily journeys, and identified how the track would interact with each location or building.
DESIGN PROCESS
User Journeys, Storyboards, Brainstorming
After creating a persona to represent our users, we built storyboards and user journey maps in detail. Using these, we brainstormed features for each part of the journey, and then using user testing and prioritization, we narrowed them down to our final experience.
Defining Surfaces
During this process, we identified the primary UI surfaces the user would interact with, and integrated these into the physical design of the car. For our project, we decided that the apartment window and the front & side car windows would be our primary surfaces. We utilized the real-size car model to test and ensure they fulfilled our users’ needs.
GUI Design & Iterations
I made wireframes for 4 key screens that represented major points of our persona’s journey, and made countless iterations based on feedback and testing.
Live Testing & VR Simulation
During the design stage, we tried several VR tests to adjust UI elements such as size of the text, layout of the screen, and more. The physical clay model also helped me to have a better understanding of the car’s proportions.
HIGH-LEVEL DESIGN CONCEPT
STORYBOARD
Day in the Life of Matt
It’s a Thursday morning. Matt wakes up and tells the AI when he wants his car ready to go to work. The AI proactively consolidates all external information, in order to calculate the best time to leave for work and sync the apartment settings to the car.
The AI notifies Matt that the car is ready as he steps out of his living room and directly into his car that has a parking system integrated with his apartment.
Like every Thursday morning, there’s a traffic rush when Matt goes to work. In order to avoid traffic, he has an ‘Audi Fast Track 2040’ connected to his apartment that easily helps him skip past traffic. The AI tells Matt that they’re taking the fast track to work.
While the car is on the fast track, Matt has time to go over his daily schedule. The AI notices Matt has a doctor’s appointment at 4pm today and sends his body scan data to the doctor’s office to help him save time.
Matt is done with his work day and he jumps in the car to leave for his doctor’s appointment. The AI lets him know that his body scan information it sent earlier that morning is fine, so it canceled his doctor’s appointment.
With time saved on not having to go to the doctor, the AI suggests a route for Matt to enjoy the 30 minute drive back home.
Once manual driving mode is engaged, colors shift from mint green to orange and only the most important UI is present to augment the pure and uninterrupted driving experience.
Matt enjoys the exciting driving experience on his way back home. He is glad to spend quality time with his family for the rest of the day.
FINAL GUI
Intelligent Home Integration
The AI proactively consolidates all external information, in order to calculate the best time to leave for work and sync the apartment settings, such as temperature, humidity and music to the car.
Smart Assistant & Scheduler
The AI helps the user to handle their routines as efficiently as possible, including identifying opportunities to clean up the schedule and make more time for relaxation and enjoyment.
Mood-based Driving Suggestions
On the automated drive home, the AI recommends an exciting manual driving route based on the user’s mood and driving patterns, while presenting relevant information to augment the experience.
Transitioning to Manual Driving Mode
Once manual driving mode is engaged, colors shift and only the most important UI is present to augment the pure and uninterrupted driving experience.
TAKEAWAYS
This project was a great opportunity to collaborate with designers from different areas including industrial, interior, fashion and graphic in every stage of design. By planning and executing the entire design process and pitching my ideas every week, I learned how to ‘visualize’ my concept quickly and effectively to people who are not familiar with UX design.
Even though I had little prior knowledge about automotive design, I learned that no matter what the industry is, after all, the most important thing for UX designers is the core principle I have already known – ‘Always think about users and their needs’. I also learned more about futuristic technologies such as AI, VR and AR.
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