Infotainment System
With this case, we got the task to create an infotainment system from scratch. An infotainment system is a system within a car, usually in the form of a touchscreen virtual display.
We primarily focused on creating a streamlined design that fits well within the use cases of a car. We avoided incorporating fancy or distracting features, as those do not belong in a system that goes hand in hand with driving. We also designed this system in a dark mode style, to reduce strain on the eyes and make it less likely to blind you if it were suddenly turned on.
For this project, I was in charge of designing the climate control aspect of the infotainment system. I focused on the necessary fundamentals that were assigned to us by our product owner such as airconditioning, seat heating, and temperature controls. I also added a small weather display that informs users of the current – and the upcoming weather. That way, drivers using this system can always know what to expect when they hit the road.
You can see the final design I came up with for the Climate Control on the right here.
Our Process
During this project, we worked in three different iterations based off the fidelity of the prototype we were going to create. The first iteration was all about sketching, lay-outs and creating a low-fidelity prototype. For this I decided to experiment a bit and create my low-fidelity prototype as a laser engraved wooden plate. I chose this to give users during testing the feeling of having a proper “tablet” in their hands rather than a fragile sheet of paper.
In the second iteration, we began creating medium-fidelity prototypes as a team. This is when I got the chance to play around with Figma and pick up the basics. For our medium-fidelity prototypes we focused primarily on the lay-out of the designs, keeping them simple without a lot of thought yet into what the eventual style and visuals would be.
In the third and final iteration, we sat down as a team and established a styleguide. After that we began working on our final designs, making sure to incorporate all the feedback we’ve received during testing our low- and mid-fidelity prototypes.
Methods we used
As this project was very centered around the creation of various prototypes, we also began looking into various ways of testing these prototypes and how different methods could be utilized to give us the results we were looking for.
For the low-fidelity to mid-fidelity prototypes, I primarily focused on A/B Testing, giving testers various lay-outs and designs to compare and write down the benefits and drawbacks for the designs.
When it came to testing our high-fidelity prototype, I decided to try out Blackbox Testing. With this method, you present your prototype to an user and give as little detail beforehand as possible. This way you can test if users interpret what the design does, is for, and if it’s intuitive or not.