Our brainstorm wall
I first decided to start with hardware layout. Because it will highly influence the interface. Is it right to have many displays in a car? What kind of cockpit layout is the most apposite solution? I wanted to answer with my design.
Existing BMW's interior is full of hardkeys, it seems quite complex. Copy right @PK3D Studio
Take a look of one old BMW car, hard keys are everywhere. Those physical buttons make the car look like an old TV remote. How to simplify things? I divided the in-car space into 6 main control areas, so it would be easy to distinguish what buttons to keep:
There're 6 in-car control areas
The focused areas should be steering wheel area and front-row area, those 2 are like a website's homepage.
Driver foot area, most people are used to have brake and gas the same time, so it's ok to keep it.
Door area is also fine, no further optimization needed.
Front-row roof area usually contains light control and rearview mirror, we can use a digital camera to project views on the central display or cluster. In this way, the driver's eyesight can be even more focused on a horizontal line. The physical buttons can be moved to armrest box area, so it's easy to reach.
Rear seat area, I didn't think that rear seat passengers need so many controls besides of AC. Watching a big display while driving will only bring people carsick. If they really want to entrain, they will be ok with their own smartphone. Also, a BMW is a sporty car, not a family car, rear seat passengers may not exist most of the time. So I left no button or touchscreen there.
For front-row area, my solution is moving some controls to central display, using voice and smart mode to combine certain functions. For example, we can offer some default settings: if it's summer day, the in-car temperature is more than 28℃, then the AC can first start AC cool max. When the temperature drops at 26℃, then switch AC cool max to normal AC cool. In this way, control buttons' usage will be lower, so it will be ok for us to put them into the screen without worrying about safety. All front-row's hard keys were moved up to central display and co-driver display.
Steering wheel area, hard keys shouldn't be erased, because those're highly relevant with safety. The problem is that those hard keys were put everywhere, some on the surface of steering wheel, some on the back, some under the instrument... That's bad for staying focused. I got inspiration from race cars, they usually put all controls on the steering wheel's surface. It's quite easy for drivers to react in a short time. I took this setting to our design and gave 2 proposals:
Steering wheel proposal A
Steering wheel proposal B
The finial selection is Plan B, because a semicircle steering wheel is actually hard to use.
After defining the basic control area, we then needed to detail the screen size. I thought that it should be a car also for co-drivers, so the co-driver display was kept. Also because there's a set condition for this concept: autonomous driving will be there in 2024. People should be able to have more free time in car. Well, quite optimistic forecast from our tech team. We all know that it didn't happen in 2024. But it was one important hypothesis from our technical department. So I even made those 2 screens moveable to fit autonomous driving scenario more.
The chosen display size was 17 inch. The market existing popular size is already 12 inch, it should be bigger to cover all information 5~7 years later. I put it 21 inch in the start, but then I found out it was too big during user testing.
4 scenarios of front-row display
Final interior layout
The chosen display size was 17 inch. The market existing popular size is already 12 inch, it should be bigger to cover all information 5~7 years later. I put it 21 inch in the start, but then I found out it was too big during user testing.
HUD was kept because as a sporty car, driver should be able to experience full joy of driving. User can fold screens, then HUD will be the only place for information.
We did many usability tests to find the most suitable solution
After defining the hardware layout, process entered into digital interface. The core message I wanted to deliver was "One Task at a Time.". The home page is basically a destination search page, so user can finish their main task "From A to B." efficiently. If it's autonomous driving, they don't need always see the map. If they drive, then they can scroll down to see a detailed map.
Home Page is a destination search page to help users solve "From A to B." quickly
Home Page will change based on time, weather or other conditions...
Car control app and music app also are based on this "One Task" theory, their first page is a simple task: Quick car control and music player. Scroll down to see more detailed settings and content.
Frequent used car control app and music app also have "One Task" home page
One interesting add-on would be using a vintage BMW model as the car model, because our users showed a high fond of vintage cars.
Use a vintage model to build emotional resonance
The phone call should be easier, so I put keypad, contacts, and messages all in one page to boost efficiency.
All information is divided into 3 sections, no extra page scroll needed
I also imagined a new account page, user can easily manage all car relevant activities there such as pay for violation, finish the last mile with a bike easily or even book a road trip with all detailed tips...
Gather all information in one place
The mobile app's structure is simple, I used "Explore", "My Car", and "My Life" as 3 main pages, user can swipe to change views. All important information was listed as primary layer, swipe down to see more. The same logic like in-car HMI.
Mobile app is also one important touch point
Not limited to all written above, we also made a lot try-outs. This concept work is really a nice chance to build my imagined work and got paid the same time, the key takeaways I got are:
Exploration without any pressure is really nice, all designers should have this kind of experience once in their career life. We have too many chances to design under rules, design for fun is absolutely necessary.
