Automotive - HMI

Interfaces designed to offer a clear, pleasant, and smooth interaction between users and electric vehicles.

A personal project with the aim of learning from the automotive environment and implementing my UX skills in the design of a real proposal of GUI that users could find intuitive and attractive. 

Type: UI / Interaction Design

Tools: Illustrator, Figma

EV Dashboard

Functionalities 

EV Dashboard interface.

We can observe different parts within this interface. One of them is the lower bar, where the functional safety features are indicated. These features like light status or airbag status, are according to ISO26262 AILS – D (Automotive functional safety rules).

In the center of the dashboard, the speedometer displays the instant energy consumption and regenerative brake recuperation level, as well as the navigation system which identifies the road and exposes turn by turn indications as an AR overlay.

Both sides of the interface are intended to contain the information regarding battery status and estimated range and the right-side panel is a contextual zone that is currently presenting media controls.

The main idea was to have all of our critical information at a glance but keeping the interface clean and clear, approaching a neumorphic style.

Design guide:

Colors: Background: #101010 – #1C1B1F;  #000000        Font-color: #FFFFFF;    Road: #1E5DFF – #101010 – #FFFFFF (gradient)  Energy consumption: #1E5DFF; Recuperation level: #14FF1E; Safety features: #14FF1E – #FF0000; Music progress bar: #00FFE0 – #253A3B;

Font-family: Segoe UI (regular) 

Conlusions

Inside the mind of a driver

By doing this project I wanted to understand what the drivers think when they interact with new digital interfaces that are being designed by brands like Tesla or Mercedes. It was very interesting for me the whole process of research regarding accessibility. Interfaces with more complex designs caused certain rejection among the users and those with a more «realistic» interface had a better acceptance. On the other hand, interfaces made in a «simple» design didn’t cause a remarkable reaction compared with those which offered more refined details but keeping simple shapes.

New horizons

Beyond the design of interfaces for mobile Apps and websites, I find it very exciting to learn from other environments. User experience is highly variable and in constant change and the automotive industry knows how to adapt quickly to the needs in demand. This project gave me the chance to learn more about the application of user-centered design practices.