Automotive HMI

Introduction

This project covers a small portion of what I did in my final year of undergrad.

Ever wondered what car cockpits could look like? Can they even be called that? The promised future is autonomous, and technologically driven (no pun intended). How do we empower users with the best technological features that comes with their vehicles?

I was fortunate enough to intern at Tata Elxsi (Sep to Dec 2021) with their HMI team. During this time, I worked on projects that explored the future of in-vehicle infotainment experiences for Jaguar Land Rover vehicles.

This is the project that helped me bag that internship, and in turn contribute to a great final year expierience.

Let’s get moving.

Design Brief

The main goal for this project was to take a leap into the complex world of car interfaces. Some have evolved over the years, some still don’t support Bluetooth. My goal was to understand and segment the different types of interfaces offered to customers at various price points.

After some research about the history of car interfaces and looking up current trends, I came up with these four categories:

The categories are:

• Sports EV
• Consumer EV
• Formula E
• Luxury EV

Despite being a conceptual project, I wanted to kept the UX writing consistent and as close to real-life as possible. I always like to keep my designs grounded in reality, as I feel it elevates the impact of the presentation. It’s all about the little details.

Sketches

Below is some of the planning that went into this project. What you are seeing is the result of multiple iterations, based on the same four fundamental categories I’m designing for.

Visual Design

Sports EV

Consumer EV

Formula E

Luxury EV

Learnings

I was initially very scared to approach this topic. I was afraid of the outcome, since I had never done something like this before. Being someone who likes rules and guidelines, I had a bit of a learning curve when it came to defining them for myself.

At the end of the project, I had a good understanding of how automotive interfaces are constructed, as well as the limitations and possibilities when it comes to the same.

Future Scope

I would also want to create something interactive that I can send to other people to toy around with, and give me their feedback (optional).

It will also test my web dev skills, as I’m sure I will have a blast creating such a prototype!

Thanks for your time!