We collaborate with Connected and Automated Vehicle (CAV) team, who builds and installs the semi-autonomous features. As a member in the HMI-UX team, we design and improve the user gateway that connects user with the existing vehicle safety features and enhance usability with the car-sharing mobile app interaction.

This year, our team focuses on solutions towards:

• Educate car renters who has not experienced with semi-autonomous vehicle features before their trips

• Integrate infotainment system with car-sharing app to provide guidance for using particular semi-autonomous features during the trips

Year 1 is when the challenge was introduced and the HMI team recruiting process took place. Soon after, the team starts to brainstorm initial ideas, potential designs, and future roadmaps after analyzing the challenge statement. By the end of the first year, some researches has been done and an executive summary was produced gauging the future 3 years direction.

Year 2 carries on the research and design deliverables from year 1 with further execution. Sub-teams was formed to focus on two distinct design direction: in-car infotainment system and mobile app. The goal for year 2 was to create higher fidelity of design deliverable, after rounds of competitive analysis and user researches, which establishes the foundation for driver onboarding implementation in year 3.

My Responsibilities in Year 3

I joined EcoCar Challenge during Year 3 of the challenge. Since app and infotainment system design wireframes were mostly established during year 1 & 2, the HMI team is divided into design and research sub-teams.

My main assignment is in the Design sub-team, but I was also assigned participated in usability testings with research team to communicate design directions with participants, from the designer’s perspective.

My responsibilities are designing the onboarding tutorials screens for driver education, within car sharing app and in-car infotainment system, and further polishing the user interface from previous years. Then, collaborating with the research team to conduct usability testings and assisting to compose feedback write-ups.

2. User Journey

Extending from the initial ideation, we have moved on to create a synthesized user journey with every team member’s sketches and comments.

In addition to my versions of the user journey sketches, I have also contributed to composing the initial written user journey summary by synthesizing the differences and similarities between everyone’s idea and present in front of the team for further discussions. Then, in collaboration with other teammates, we convert the written descriptions into bullet points and build the finalized user journey map using Figma.

This user journey map focuses on the process of booking the car with the “car sharing app” and the interaction with the infotainment system to complete the safety feature onboarding tutorial.

Year 3 Wrap-Up

We have concluded year 3 competition in mid-May, with everything perfectly follow the schedule. Our team was awarded 4th place out of 11 competitors this year against other universities. Based on the judges’ notes, we had a thorough design process and thoughtful explanations for our design decisions.

Reflection and Looking Forward

Participating in EcoCar Year 3 competition has given me so many hands-on experience in the field of UX design. This is the first time that I work closely with teammates and come up with first-hand design solutions.

In the upcoming year 4 competition, the final year, we will elevate the interface into a high fidelity level and potentially implement these interfaces through coding languages as a real mobile app or certain infotainment system features. There are more to come in the upcoming year! Stay tuned!