Connected car experience for drivers and passengers
INJOY® Infotainment System
During my 18 months of experience at Guangzhou Automotive Corporate Research and Design(GAC R&D), I joined the new established digital product team and worked on projects of all sizes- from the in-vehicle infotainment system, streaming in-car apps, mobile apps, voice interaction, and service design.
I Shipped and road mapped various design features for INJOY® infotainment system (approx. 200k units sold) pre-installed on connected cars.
I teamed up with the infotainment engineering team to customize pre-installed app features such as streaming music, EV charging, Navigation, Mobile Car Key, and Smart Voice Assistant.
My major focus was on in-vehicle infotainment solutions that deliver a cohesive experience to our target audience. The design outcome is several big and small features that are dispatched across in-car and mobile-based apps.
Client
Guangzhou Automobile Group (GAC) R&D Center
Role
Sr. Interaction Design Engineer, Infotainment
Team
PM, Software Engineer, Frontend Development Engineer, Vehicle System Engineer and Vendors
Timeline
2017.01~2018.10 ,18 MONTHS
#in-car #connectedcar #ev #multimodalities #infotainment
Impact
Wireframed the universal account login flow which was the hero feature of our 2018 release.
Established the UX principles of the first digital product team; optimized design-engineer collab. with the heuristic evaluation method.
Published GAC Enterprise Standards Digital Car Product Assessment Guidelines 2018 and Design Guidelines for Voice User Interface in the car.
Outcome
Released on 2018 Model GS4, GS8 of GAC Cars. The features were installed on 400+ vehicles sold between 2017Q4~2019Q2
Due to NDA, some details are obfuscated, and the information does not reflect the actual features shipped but only to showcase the decision-making style for the designs.
From interface to interaction
Major Things I've Worked On
INJOY is a smart HMI system with connectivity and runs on both web-based and customized android apps. (released on 2018 Model GS4, GS8 of GAC Cars).
INJOY® Infotainment System runs on top of the vehicle level that provides delightful features to drivers like media, vehicle set-up, navigation, and intelligent voice assistant.
* A smart In-Vehicle Infotainment system (IVI system) equipped with gestural and voice controls. The system has internet connectivity enable so that it can bring rich services such as stream music, charge station navigation, payment and etc, to car owners.
Multi-modalities
Our solution expands into the mobile device, where users can connect the phone to the cars and use it to sign in, sync music playlists, or turn on the A/C. For instance, users can expect to see what they have in their Spotify playlists show up in their car playlists.
INJOY® Connected Car App 4.0
Remote Car Amenities Control to interact with GAC Cars from smartphones, (published in iTunes Store 2018.09)
2017.04~2018.10,4 MONTH's
research, competitive analysis, wireframe
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Iterated wireframe, research, and MVP prototypes.
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performed competitor analysis
Cross-device Solutions
Another project I've worked on was the carpool managing app for our internal commuters.
GAC Carpooling App for Enterprise
Ride-hailing, Route planning
2017.03~2018.07, 4 MONTHS
research, competitive analysis, prototyping, user testing, project management
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defined ride-hailing product features
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created UI assets for onboarding, request push, rider matching
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managed projects with developers and product owner.
Approach
How I strategized my solutions
When designing for in-vehicle systems, the problem is always not simple. The features within the system are like a mesh of self-substantiate programs, each serves a purpose within its tiny scope.
However, from UX standing point, we never see anything as unrelated. For us, the solutions should always be a flow of actions that matches the mental mindset of our users.
With this philosophy, my role as a product designer is to craft a seamless experience for the drives across all touchpoints along the way. I follow users from A to B and integrated multiple features together including muli-modal channels.
I uncover discrepancies among the vehicle system, particularly the driver-facing end. Also, I had utilized frameworks from HCI as well as vehicle systems info-architecture to lay down a solid blueprint for my designs. My domain knowledge supports me in building the right design that is both tech-feasible and delightful to use.
Methods
in-vehicle ride-along researches, competitor analysis, A/B testing, user interviews, focus groups, and various qualitative methods.
Samples of work-in-progress
