Tech demo
Automotive UX R&D
Instrument cluster
Infotainment system
Connected Services integration
Physical rotary knob
User Experience Design
Visual Design
Prototyping
Qt Development
Industrial design
The demo is based on 3 physical screens spanning an entire dashboard. There are an instrument cluster and two touch screens for the infotainment system. The middle display has a physical rotary knob bonded in the lower section. User can interact with the prototype by touch gestures (e.g. swipe) and using a rotary knob. Qt 3D and Mapbox were selected as the technology for the demo as these are great for prototyping.
Preh Car Connect team has been responsible for the high-level concept, integration and manufacturing. At Siili_Auto we have been responsible for the design of the driver experience and software development of the interactive demo.
We’ve had 2 months to deliver the demo. At Siili_Auto we follow a 4 step process to transform concepts into working software that helps us stay focused, iterate quickly and test ideas:
Discover
Define
Develop
Evolve & Deliver
We’ve begun by defining the target audience, the demo setup during the show and summarizing what is important for our customer to showcase. We’ve asked ourselves a few questions:
We’ve gone through the ideation phase and created a user journey that included the features which we wanted to show. This helped us to look at the demo through the end-user’s eyes and draft the concept that combines multiple standalone features into a new and seamless experience.
Final User Journey was – Mr. Xu and his wife are driving from home to the hotel as scheduled on holiday.
Few findings from that phase:
A rotary knob connects well-known mechanical operation systems with digital displays. This is something what user is familiar with. A different functions (based on context) can be placed on the small display within knob. Thus we use this space to show volume change, temperature change and more.
Nowadays gestures are well and common known interaction between user and devices (such as smartphones, tablets etc.).
In our concept 2 screens supports multi touch. So we utilized this feature to build a few different views for particular app. For example, when Navigation is shown on center screen, swiping to the left is changing instrument cluster content - it shows "turn-by-turn" Naviagation right on instrument cluster (see animation below).
HVAC view gives user possibility to adjust climate in car to meet personal expectations. Additionaly with multi-purpose rotary knob user can set temperature, air flow strength.
The rainy weather situation is automatically recognized by the vehicle during drive (e.g. via rain sensor). To avoid a fogged windshield, the system proposes a change in climate settings. There are 3 predefined climate profiles to choose.
For presentation we've used Mapbox maps. Highly customizable and easy to integrate. With 3D view for easier navigation.
Based on communication between cars and surrounding infrastructure, in this particular case with traffic lights, driver is advised to adjust speed to reach the lights when on green.
This kind of warning alerts drivers about another car braking hard some distance ahead. When the first car brakes suddenly it sends out a warning message advising of a sudden braking action. Thus cars behind can take action and warn drivers.
Approaching to the intersection driver is warned about possible collision.
Siili Auto has partnered with Promotives, a company specializing in navigating autonomous cars in parking areas, in building a prototype car instrument cluster shown on QT World Summit 2017.
The Qt Company was in urgent need of a demo for TU Automotive America exhibition 6-7.6 at Detroit to show how their Qt 3D Studio can help cluster design process to be more efficient. Siili’s design and technological skillset was perfect fit for this tight scheduled task with multiple deliveries.
