MCLAREN
COMBINING KEY FEATURES FOR AN IMPROVED DRIVER EXPERIENCE
As part of the hiring process for a UX Engineer position at McLaren Automotive, I was asked to complete a design task exploring how Navigation, Trip Computer, and Dashcam could be merged into a single application that makes journeys in a McLaren, “effortlessly epic.”
I was offered the job, but unfortunately funding for the position was pulled before I could start.
For this brief, I FOLLOWED a four step approach
01.
02.
03.
04.
Competitor anAlysis
IDEA GENERATION
IDEAS IN MOTION
CONCEPTING & DESIGN
01.
Pre plan
HUDs
Less is more
brand PRESENCE
Multiscreen
Competitor anAlysis
Before answering the question of how I combine Navigation, the Trip Computer, and the Dashcam, I needed to understand what I didn’t know. What was popular in the luxury vehicle market? How were the biggest names in the industry handling in-car systems? What did I like? And what did I think wouldn’t work for McLaren?
To answer these questions I spent some time in the dealerships of Porsche, BMW, Mini, Genesis, and Polestar, playing around with the infotainment systems in their cars and chatting to the sales people.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to sit in a McLaren so I had to use online resources and McLaren’s car configurator to gain a better understanding of their internal systems.
KEy findings
Whether it’s through a companion app, or in the car, pre-planning a journey is a prime opportunity to add value to a users journey.
HUDs are on the rise, they look good, but have obvious usability problems
Over complicating infotainment systems, both with features and UI leads to confusing interactions
The infotainment system should feel unique to that manufacturer, through both features and feel
There are two screen available, make sure they’re used effectively and appropriately
IDEA GENERATION
02.
Once I had a better understanding of how various car infotainments systems worked, I began to ideate.
I took influence from my research, alongside popular navigation apps, F1, GoPro and Playstation to create the following ideas.
The Navigation System should benefit from an updated route planning procedure, offering different routes dependant on driver needs and preferences.
the navigation system should also gain greater awareness of it’s surroundings, with the ability to feedback relevant information to the trip computer
Think Waze but with suggestions for the best driving roads
NAVIGATION SYSTEM
The Trip Computer should use the data it captures to better understand driver behaviours, allowing the navigation system to provide improved route calculations
the trip computer should also communicate with the navigation system to suggest, and enact, updates to the vehicles performance settings.
Think having an F1 pit wall in your car.
TRIP COMPUTER
The dash cams should always be in use, they should be recording the drivers journey to allow for clips to be saved on the go, and provide a highlight reel at the end of the journey
The dash cams should also be able to scan the road for upcoming hazards and communicate this to the rest of the vehicle
Think instant highlights of your drive across France..
DASH CAMS
03.
IDEAS IN MOTION
To properly demonstrate my ideas, I thought through a user’s journey of driving a McLaren from Nice to Monaco, from first getting in the car, to arriving at their destination.
This allowed me to demonstrate all the ways in which my ideas would improve the Navigation Systems, Trip Computer, and Dash Cams and show how they would work together in various different, real-life, scenarios.