SafeTuned

Background

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Desk Research & User Survey

More and more vehicle functions are now controlled via touchscreens.

Globally, 97% of new cars have at least one touchscreen, and they are metastasizing quickly. Also, the demand for modern minimalistic vehicle interiors and the trend of cost reduction have minimized the use of physical buttons, with more functions now being controlled via touchscreens.

Conventional physcial controls in a car

Touchscreen-centric driving environment of Tesla brand’s car

— Meanwhile, drivers still find it challenging to use in-vehicle touchscreens.

68%

"Feeling insecure and confused."
We asked 66 drivers who own vehicles from Tesla, a brand known for its in-vehicle touchscreen, "How did you feel when using the touchscreen for the first time?" 68% of respondents reported that they didn't feel confident and found using it confusing.

However, drivers' lack of knowledge of vehicle functions increases the risk of accidents.

Tesla, known for its touchscreen-centric vehicles, reports the highest accident rate among all car brands. Experts suggest that insufficient prior learning about Tesla’s unique features and drivers’ inexperience in operating them may contribute to these high accident rates.

How might we reduce the challenges of adapting to a touchscreen and make its use safer while driving?

Problem Definition

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Three Insights from User Survey

To identify what could be improved in in-vehicle touchscreens to enhance driving safety, we surveyed drivers who own vehicles from Tesla and gathered 66 respondents. The questions focused on four key areas: 'General Driving Experience,' 'Onboarding Experience of Touchscreen,' 'Current Experience of Touchscreen Use,’ and 'Touchscreen Use While Driving.'

1. Complex navigation and lack of onboarding hinders adaption to the touchscreen.

Q: What factors hindered your adaption to the touchscreen?

(Measured in people, total: 66; multiple choices allowed)

2. Users feel frustrated when it's hard to find the functions in need while driving.

50%

3. Customization options for touchscreen is needed to enhance safety while driving.

53%

User Persona and Journey Map

We created a user persona to embody the ideal SafeTuned user based on the insights from the problem discovery, user surveys, and major pain points. By synthesizing the gathered data, our aim is to represent the user's preferences, pain points, and behaviors, allowing for a more effective design for our ideal user.

Name

Theodore

Age

34 years old

Job

Tech Manager

Eductaion

Computer Engineering

Location

California, USA

"I just bought a brand-new electric car. The touchscreen looks futuristic and cool, but I've only driven cars with physical buttons for the past 5 years, so I'm worried about whether I can adapt easily and drive safely."

Starting

Getting on the new car for the first time.

Onboarding

Setting the environment with the touchscreen.

Driving

Trying to utilize a function on the touchscreen

Off Driving

Reflecting how the first drive was.

"Looks so cool! Can’t wait to start driving."

"This is not a familiar way to me, but let’s hit the road and see!"

"It’s hard to find the function while driving simultaneously."

"It was overwhelming. It might take a while to get used to using touchscreen while driving."

Let’s make it easy for users to find and use the functions they need while driving, right from the first use.

Ideation

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Developing a Solution

Interactive Onboarding and Customization Options of Accessible Vehicle Controls.

With SafeTuned, users can explore and experience essential vehicle functions on the touchscreen before their first drive. Through SafeTuned's Onboarding feature, they can personalize various controls, naturally becoming familiar with their operation. By allowing users to customize controls to fit their needs, we aim to make them easily accessible while driving, reducing distractions and enhancing safety.

Learning How to Use Accessible Controls

Customizing Accessible Controls

While Driving...

Using Accessible Controls

Moodboard

Intuitive, Experiential, Safe and Futuristic.

Following the User Flows, we delved into researching products renowned for their exceptional user experience, as well as infotainment systems with clear user interface designs. This research helped us identify essential elements that should be included in SafeTuned.

Onboarding Feature Inspo

Intuitive feature descriptions of iOS (left) and the interactive tutorial of Duolingo (bottom) gave us ideas on how to help users easily learn and experience various functions before driving.

Dribbble Concept Inspo

The sleek font style (above) and dark mode with a neon gradient (right) convey a futuristic aesthetic.

Infotainment Interface Design Inspo

We drew inspiration from Snapp Automotive's design to create an interface that prioritizes safety when using the touchscreen while driving. The key is to balance sufficiently large touch targets with easy accessibility to essential functions.

Designing Main Screen

Iterative Testing to Maximize Usability of Accessible Controls.

Before starting the high-fidelity design of the driving mode layout, where customized accessible controls would be placed, we focused on defining how these controls should interact with users to optimize safety in the driving environment. To achieve this, we created low- to medium-fidelity wireframes and tested them with paper prototypes, observing user behavior and gathering feedback. Through multiple iterations, we refined the design based on insights from testing.

Low-Fidelity Wireframes

We rougly positioned essential driving functions, focusing on customizability and user interaction.

Paper Prototype

To enhance the safety and usability in the driving environment of Accessible Controls, we conducted multiple paper prototype tests.

Medium-Fidelity Wireframes

Based on feedback from paper prototype testing, we made significant improvements at this stage.The images above are only a portion.

Significant Improvement Throughout the Iteration.

Horizontal to Vertical Accessible Controls: Minimizing Distraction

Gaze Distraction

With their eyes on the road, drivers’ line of sight doesn’t align with the bottom-positioned controls. They must look down to scan, diverting attention from the road and compromising driving safety.

Horizontal

Vertical

Reach Distraction

Vertical Accessible Controls are positioned closer to the steering wheel, allowing drivers to reach functions with minimal hand movement, reducing distraction while driving.

Horizontal

Vertical

As is: Horizontal

To be: Vertical

Designing Onboarding & Customization

Crafting User Experience: Naturally Adapting to Accessible Controls with Easy Customization

To help users easily understand various vehicle functions and naturally adapt to Accessible Controls, we focused on creating an interactive, experiential onboarding experience, and keeping the customization process simple and intuitive.

These images showcase some of our layout variations, ideated to discover the most optimized design for a seamless Onboarding and Customization experience.

We chose to further develop this version as it offers ample space for essential customization features, allowing users to navigate detailed information with ease.

Delivery

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Final Design: UI for Digital Prototype

1. Onboarding: Experiencing Accessible Controls

Simple Interaction with Clear Visual Feedback

We designed Accessible Controls for single-tap operation, allowing users to toggle functions with minimal distraction while driving. Also, high-contrast colors between statuses provide clear interaction feedback within the driver’s line of sight. Through onboarding, users can naturally familiarize themselves with how these controls work.

off

2. Customization of Accessible Controls

Customizing with Ease and Enhancing Familiarity for a Safer Drive

Users can explore various vehicle functions and personalize Accessible Controls by adding the features they use most while driving. Our goal was to give users ample time to get accustomed to these controls before their first drive, minimizing potential safety risks caused by unfamiliar operations. To enhance this experience, we designed the customization process, including exploring, adding, and rearranging, to be seamless and intuitive, eliminating unnecessary complexity.

A Part of Select-Functions Components: Add, Remove, Rearrange and List

3. Main Screen: Safe Use of Accessible Controls

Maximizing Touchscreen
Customizability for Safer Driving

Users can utilize their customized Accessible Controls while driving and adjust the size of frequently used features such as maps and media. By providing flexible customization options, we aimed to enhance convenience and ensure a safer touchscreen experience on the road.

Screen of Expanded Media

4. Appearance: Light and Dark Mode

Usability Test

Evaluating SafeTuned with Real Users in Diverse Driving Conditions

To evaluate SafeTuned's design and gather user feedback, we conducted a usability test with five drivers in an actual vehicle using a Galaxy Tab Pro 8 (16-inch) device. Each hour-long session included interviews, task performance, and a System Usability Scale (SUS) survey. To ensure inclusivity, we tested under various lighting conditions and recruited participants with diverse backgrounds in gender, age, nationality, driving experience, and education.

All the sessions were recorded for further analysis of user behavior.

During the session, participants were given specific tasks while we observed their behavior and assessed task completion ease. If a participant struggled or failed to complete a task, we followed up with an interview at the end of the session to understand the challenges they faced.

Task: Turning off the activated functions on Accessible Controls

Task Result Sheet: Easily Done (1, Blue), Slightly Struggled (2, Green), Significantly Struggled (3, Orange), and Failed (4, Red).

Users found Accessible Controls convenient and safe to use while driving.

SafeTuned achieved an average score of 70.5 on the System Usability Scale (SUS) survey, which falls within the 'Acceptable' range. This indicates that minor improvements are necessary. Two participants who scored below 68 had struggled significantly with Maps and Media operation. However, all users responded positively to our main feature, Accessible Controls, throughout onboarding, customization, and in-drive operation on the Main Screen.

User Feedback

Positive

Negative

"Since I customized the functions myself, it was easy to use although it was my first time."

"It was convenient since the controls were close to the steering wheel."

"The simple interaction made it feel safe to use while driving."

"The handle to resize the map was hard to see."

"The media player was too small and not well-visible."

Conclusion