An exploration of a modern vehicle control app design. I researched and designed this concept in 10 hours for an interview process.
2016
UX Design, Branding
One of the great things about our modern world is the interconnectivity between our things. We can control nearly everything remotely: lightbulbs, our tv's, even our refrigerators. The task given to me was to create an interface to control a modern vehicle.
As I thought through all the systems in a car that one might want to control remotely, I began constructing a map of how I could structure the app.
A great resource for inspiration while looking to solve problems is to review what competitors in the same space are doing. Not only may it help you solve the problems you're facing, it can help you identify areas where you can make your product stand out. Here are a few of the apps I evaluated to get a sense of the state of vehicle apps today.
When designing this concept, I tried to only build features that users might actually use. There are so many bells and whistles that get added onto our devices today that are unnecessary. Here are some of the features I focused on including in this concept:
I designed the main screen of the app to display the current status of your car and have as many controls immediately accessible as is possible. See the current weather, activate your climate presets, and get reminded where you parked your car, all from this one page.
Many of the apps I reviewed would mark the GPS location of your car, but that doesn't really help if you parked on a multi-level parking structure (which level was it?...) or underground where you can't get a gps signal. I designed a homing beacon so you can more easily find the location of your car. Honk the horn or flash the lights for a little extra help, and once you find the car you can unlock right from this screen.
Warming up the interior of the car is great, but what about your cold leather seats and steering wheel? And even if the inside reaches 75 degrees, your windows may still be frosted. I built a simple, intuitive interface where you can toggle on all those different pieces of the car, so you truly will be ready to go once you make it out to the car.
Once you've programmed your preferred settings, a simple widget will let you quickly get your car ready. It also displays your current car climate and a predicted time to ready, so you can know right when to head out to your car in the morning.
While exploring interactions, I realized that time optimization was my goal. Having to open a phone app can be slow and cumbersome: pull out your phone, turn it on, unlock it, navigate to the app, open the app, then you finally reach useful information. A much quicker interaction would be through a smartwatch. I reformatted the app for an apple watch to make daily tasks much more accessible.