Thesis Process
Concepts and sketches along the way

I had 3 research questions at the beginning of my thesis:
1. How do telematics devices affect the car experience?
2. How can interfaces of telematics devices be designed more intuitively?
3. How can I improve the connectivity of the driver?

My aim was to design in-car products that are feasible and producable in the near future. So I started with a vast background research and gathered information on what had been done in the telematics field so far, both products on the market and research projects. After getting a good grasp on what I am building on, I turned to my user group for first hand insights.

User interviews

I conducted 3 user interviews with drivers from Ivrea and sent out an online questionairre to 12 drivers from around the globe. I asked them how their cars fit into their daily lives, their driving habits and devices they use in their cars. Many of the drivers had a close relationship with their cars, one driver considered her car to be a pet. Elena from Ivrea said about her car "When I saw her for the first time in the store, I knew she was the one." As for device use in cars, not surprisingly, mobile phone usage came up as the common pattern. Some drivers "confessed" to not only reading but also writing SMSes while driving, as well as making phone calls. Who can blame them in today's world where we all demand to be connected? These initial interviews brought some concepts to my mind immediately.

1. How do telematics devices affect the car experience?

1.a.Kurumagochi

This concept taps into the car experience as a whole and designs a common interface for both areas: inside and outside the car. People love their cars, and they usually develop a personal relationship with their car. Some people tend to see their cars as pets. Cars, like pets, need to be fed, cleaned, loved, and taken care of. My Pet Car is an interface that displays the data coming from the car to the owner/driver in a personal way, reflecting the intimate relationship between two. This would mean, for instance, instead of seeing the gas level going down on the dashboard, the driver will see that the car is “hungry”. The system receives info from the gas tank, speed controls, essential points of the car likely to be damaged in an accident, audio controls and telematics devices.
Additionally, the system can perform the following tasks;
a) remembers where the car is parked and guides the driver to that location
b) warns the driver when the car is tampered with
c) alerts the driver for specific tasks (alarm clock/calendar functionality)
d) sees other systems in the vicinity and communicates with them
The interface for the system is both in the car and on a handheld device, or on a cell phone application. The user can therefore reach the information related to the car when she is inside the car or when she’s away from it, for example at home or at work.

1.b.Car Compass

I created this concept when I was working on Kurumagochi and looking into how people get to their cars. How many times have you lost your car in the parking lot of a shopping mall or in the streets of a town you don’t know too well? Car Compass is an application for people who cannot easily remember where they parked. It uses GPS tracking to point out the location of your car and is also used as a key/remote control for the vehicle. When you want to get to your car, you look at your device to see in which direction your car is and follow the device’s directions.

1.c.Auto2mobiles

Distractions are one of the main causes of traffic accidents. The actions we take while driving from our driving style to adjusting the radio, concerns not only us but also others we are sharing the same road with. This concept of making the driver’s actions inside the car visible to the outside, plays with this trust and responsibility issue among parties in traffic. Making distractions visible allows others to be aware of the attention level of the driver, so they can take necessary precautions for themselves or warn the driver. The system in the car first warns the driver to focus back on driving, and then warns others that the driver is distracted.

2. How can interfaces of telematics devices be designed more intuitively?

Electronic devices for wireless communications and entertainment surround the driver of today. In an environment, where his primary attention needs to be on the driving activity, driver also monitors and operates these devices. Driver distraction from in-vehicle telematics devices would be less of a problem if these systems were designed in a way that made them support or be compatible with driving.

2.a.Initial sketches

2.b.Ambient Navigation

Navigation systems on the market today are screen based: the map and turn-by-turn directions are displayed on a screen usually placed on the dashboard or attached to it. Some of these devices also feature audio cues for giving turn-by-turn directions. A few of the built-in models in cars feature head up displays that help the driver focus on the road. Screen-based systems are not very suitable for driving activity, as they take driver’s attention away from the road, and audio cues to support the driver can sometimes be unpleasant for others sharing the car space with him. Ambient Navigation is a system that gives you turn-by-turn guidance in a subtle way that doesn’t require your primary attention. It is not intended to replace the current GPS systems; however, it acts as an extension of the navigation system, taking away driver’s dependence on the screen-based interfaces.
Learn more about Ambient Navigation here>>

3. How can I improve the connectivity of the driver?

Being connected to their social network is essential for today’s drivers. For this reason, many of them will use their mobile phones while driving, although it is illegal in many countries. It’s not that drivers are not aware of the danger of talking on the mobile phone, they use it simply because they need to, or in some cases, they want to. While distractions coming from using a mobile phone is still debatable, banning the usage doesn’t solve the problem or answer the needs of drivers. Although they are not supposed to answer and make calls, send or read SMSes,
they do. The opportunity is to design for specific needs to enable these actions with minimum interaction.

3.a.Pronto? I'm Almost There

Before widespread use of cell phones, meetings would be arranged in advance with a time and place set beforehand. Last minute calls to say “I am late” or “I will not be able to make it there” were not as common and easy to make as now. In the worst case scenario, you would be late and your friend would have to wait for you for an hour or two, perhaps get angry, and then leave when you didn’t show up. You, on the other hand, might be stuck with an appointment you could not get out of, without any means to contact your friend. Thanks to mobile phones, we can be late now without a second thought and give a call or send an SMS to our friends who have all the time in the world to wait for us. We can also call or SMS our friends who are late and say, “Hey, where are you? I have been here for 20 minutes already!” These types of communications happen so often that pre-arranged meetup times are not particularly valid any more. These types conversations happen in car space as well. However, it’s not as safe and
easy to reply to an SMS or a call while driving, as it is when sitting at a café. What if you could let your friend know of your location in real time, without having to call or SMS him every 10 minutes?
Learn more about Pronto here>>