Summary
‍I designed the user interface, information architecture, and interactions to highlight the innovative in-vehicle services and functionalities developed by the Research and Development team for a successful showcasing to investors and consumer engagement at CES.

Crafting Our First Self-Service Portal to Enhance Customer Engagement
The business' target customers for the new in-vehicle infotainment console app were drivers, passengers, families, tech enthusiasts, business travelers, and automobile enthusiasts. Consumers who view their in-vehicle infotainment console as an indispensable companion for every journey they embark upon.

Research indicated that users would quickly revert to relying solely on their personal mobile device due to ease of use issues with an in-vehicle console app.
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We learned that consumers struggle with interfaces that are difficult to understand and navigate while driving, leading to distraction and frustration.

My role in the project
As the product manager, designer, and front-end developer, I directly collaborated with our Research and Development team to iterate on and test prototypes.

We each had specific responsibilities. My tasks included providing an attractive UI design and interactions, supplying production-ready graphic assets, developing front-end code, and setting up usability testing sessions to engage users and understand why they might fall back to using their personal devices.

Mandate: To have a working user interface in three months that will attract attention at CES
The CES event was only a few months away and the business needed a user interface design ready to go out the door with the code. R&D needed someone who could design along side them as they made features available for the launch.

Week One:
For the first week, I researched the types of in-vehicle apps on the market and user pain points. I found that visual interface issues stemmed from complicated menus and difficult navigation, causing driver frustration. Some interfaces demanded too much attention, diverting focus from the road and compromising safety. Also some  users just didn't like the aesthetic saying they looked old compared to similar apps on mobile devices.

Week Two:
I spent this time understanding the in-vehicle space and user interactions with the physical console monitor and mocking up initial wireframes of the entire system.

In my research I realized the monitor chosen for the demo uses display aspect ratios, that if not accounted for in the end design, would make my screens look elongated or compressed. Effectively, they would look unprofessional and unpolished.

Higher fidelity screen mockups were created toward the end of week two going into week three.

‍Week Three:
I created the production graphic elements and front-end code and then finally brought it all together and loaded the first screens into the demo monitor. After a few modifications, success! The screen designs looked and behaved as intended.

Toward the end of the week I took the monitor connected to a laptop, positioning everything as it would be out in the wild. I took note of color contrast and the angle of the light at particular times of the day to understand the glare factor introduced by the lighting (or lack of) in the environment. This resulted in making decisions on the default monitor settings (brightness, contract, etc), and best color intensity of UI elements to offer best possible visual clarity in the real world.

Week Four:
Working closely with the R&D team through daily build reviews, I refined the global and local navigation paths. I also focused on improving the usability and visual language of product/service icons and interactive elements like buttons, sliders, and scroll bars.

Expanding user testing through colleagues and friends, we also spent time improving interaction flow and looking for opportunities to introduce shortcuts.

Ultimately the solution we implemented allowed the user to navigate without being disoriented or having to spend too much time in the interface guessing what to do next.

I was not personally at the CES show but I was told the demo was a success as it attracted convention goers, captured their interest enough to sign-up for more information. The demo was a hit used at multiple shows thereafter.
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