BMW Car System Re-design

A car control system design aimed to minimize distractions while driving based on two primary tasks: changing a song and the temperature

Introduction

Role

Designer, Researcher

Timeline

4 weeks

Class

Product Design Methods

Team

Jalil Cooper

Khuyen Nguyen

We were tasked with redesigning an existing interactive system to address cognitive human factors issues. The Interactive System must be one where a user primarily engages in another task and two secondary tasks. We designed a car system focused on attention-deficient users with the primary task of driving and the secondary task of changing music and temperature. Worked with BMW USA Technology group on the project.

The Challenge

Current control systems on new BMW models are almost entirely touchscreen. Users who want to perform multiple tasks might face distractions that can be dangerous, especially people with attention deficit issues.

How do we minimize on-screen distraction when a user is changing a song or the temperature while driving?

Initial Research & Ideation

Design Heuristics &

Exploration

User Flows

Paper Prototype

Low-Fidelity Prototype

User Feedback

Our initial research started with our user group and the current issues we see with most car systems nowadays. Controls are often hard to navigate when you have to focus on the road, especially when the controls are not centralized in one place. We conducted interviews as well as road tests with our user group— people with attention deficit issues and noticed that:

  1. Temperature and music are the two tasks our user groups perform the most

  2. The car console serves as a primary interactive interface for drivers

  3. Most newer cars have console systems that are mostly touchscreen and centralized (BMW newer models)

We noticed from our test drives that:

  1. Small fonts of the song’s name can cause users delayed in picking a song since they are spending more time squinting

  2. Incoming notifications or calls that interrupt the music playback can be distracting

  3. Temperature changing bar was too far to the right, making the user overreach

From our initial observations, we set out three main criteria for our design:

  1. Minimal and Aesthetic Design - minimizing clutter and easy for users to navigate to

  2. Error Prevention - preventing error to ensure safety

  3. Flexibility and Efficiency of Use - accommodating both expert and novice users

Initial sketches for ideas exploration

We came up with 4 different strategies for our tasks, but ended up with 2: a music wheel for changing music and a slider as well as a saved temperature menu for temperature control.

Flow chart for changing music

Flow chart for temperature control

We came together and came up with ideas on how to simplify and centralize the interactions the users would have to perform and prototype it on paper. Our design would reflect:

  1. Music control wheel for changing music

  2. Temperature slider for temperature, fan intensity, and climate control

  3. A saved and customizable temperature menu for easy and quick access

Based on our paper prototypes, we proceeded to create grey-scale, low-fidelity interactive prototypes of our screens with temperature sliders at the bottom of the screen

We tested our low-fi prototypes with a driving simulation with drivers who have expressed they struggle with paying attention performing multiple tasks while driving

Testing with drivers on campus

1

User Testing Insights

The use of icons and numbers

One user suggested that “there is a lot of space on the home page, perhaps this allows you to make the circular menu bigger.” Furthermore, bigger icons will make it easier for the user to quickly read and determine the function of a given feature. In addition, users suggested that the slider alone left them with a lot of ambiguity.

2

Confusion over saved settings navigation

A lot of users were confused about what the gear icon was in the middle of the sliders when doing testing. When we were doing our testing, users didn’t find it intuitive and there weren’t any clear indications that it would lead to saved temperatures

3

What if I’m driving past a certain speed?

This was suggested by a user since they expressed concerns over being able to use these features if they’re in an environment where they’re driving fast and require attention such as the freeway or when making an exit

Final Design

Temperature Slider

Saved Temperature Settings

Music Control

Speed Limiting

In our final UI design, we decided on the use of a dark grey blue, not too bright but still enough to gauge the user’s attention to key features.

In addition, all of all our key controls were made left-leaning and moved closer to the wheel

Control Home Screen

  1. Temperature slider dropdown menu through radio buttons at the bottom of the screen. By integrating radio icons for the temperature sliders we lessen clutter on the screen

  2. The slider would show the temperature number and fan intensity number as the user scrolls. This would give users an accurate gauge of how much they’ve increased the temperature

  1. Saved temperature settings so users would not have to navigate through all the controls to get to their desired temperature

  2. By adding words to substantiate the icon we make it more clear on how to access the saved settings and get to a commonly used mode without having to manually change the temperature

  1. Circular toggle page where the user can click around the circle to select the music library they’d like to find their song in (e.g songs library or playlists)

  2. Centralized control near wheel (concentrated on the left) so that users can easily navigate and change music with minimal distractions

  1. Pop-up warning that prevents users from accessing certain features when they are past a certain speed limit

  2. Ensure that the user is paying attention, especially in situations that are potentially dangerous (going fast, on a freeway, changing lanes, etc)

Takeaways

This project was unlike any others I’ve worked on, as I’ve never designed a car console system before. This project taught me how different designing for different mediums can be, and how important it is to have a comprehensive design system.

Also having empathy and designing for users with special needs!

Next, I want to develop this project into a full-scale system and not just focusing on two tasks.