What does BlackBerry look like in the Automotive industry?
After BlackBerry’s acquisition of QNX—an operating system already integrated into many vehicles—I was tasked with exploring potential user experience opportunities should BlackBerry choose to invest further in the automotive space. What better way to uncover insights than by putting participants directly in the car?
Year
2014
Topics
Automotive Design, UX Research, Strategy, Design
Company
BlackBerry
/ Put Them In the Driver Seat (Discovery)
For this study, I had users tell stories while in the car. Afterward, we reviewed concepts based on those scenarios on the entertainment screen.
We had 10 participants from small business owners and those with families come to talk about their current vehicle scenarios.
/ Insight 1: Tablets Win Over the Passenter
I learned that we couldn’t design a better passenger experience than a tablet. So, we focused on the driver.
/ Insight 2: Car Time is Precious
The vehicle is the final place where there is no obligation to answer work or fulfill familial chores. Instead, they use this time to phone their family and friends. And they LOVE IT!
/ Insight 3: Final Leg Of The Trip is the Hardest
Maps are often a staple for small business owners or families going on a road trip. I learned that location services are only used in the final miles when the area is unknown or not available in the map application.
/ Insight 4: My Music Vs. Kids Music
Parents are required to listen to what their kids want to listen to before they are dropped off at daycare. How might we design experiences that allow the parents to listen to heavy metal on the way to daycare?
/ Designing to Uncover Insights
We focused on three experience areas to tease out insights during our discussions. We made some assumptions on the designs recognizing that they would change. These allowed the users to "pretend" to drive and do common tasks.
Media: We separated the navigation from the content for the driver. It was a difficult balance since you know their eyes are on the road the majority of the time.
Browser: in this concept, we wanted to show what a bigger display could bring. It allows for a bigger keyboard while having a great browser experience.
Maps: We decided not to show designs since the insights we gathered were so off from what we put together.
/ Impact
Identified strong user preference for familiar navigation tools, leading to the attempt to partner with Google Maps rather than build a proprietary solution. Due to the cost of Google Maps, and the lack of functionality we would be able to provide, I was able to convince the business not to invest in building a maps application.
Inspired future car show concepts centered around a connected family van experience.
Developed a set of user-centered scenarios to guide and inspire future feature explorations across product teams.
What does BlackBerry look like in the Automotive industry?
After BlackBerry’s acquisition of QNX—an operating system already integrated into many vehicles—I was tasked with exploring potential user experience opportunities should BlackBerry choose to invest further in the automotive space. What better way to uncover insights than by putting participants directly in the car?
Year
2014
Topics
Automotive Design, UX Research, Strategy, Design
Company
BlackBerry
/ Put Them In the Driver Seat (Discovery)
For this study, I had users tell stories while in the car. Afterward, we reviewed concepts based on those scenarios on the entertainment screen.
We had 10 participants from small business owners and those with families come to talk about their current vehicle scenarios.
/ Insight 1: Tablets Win Over the Passenter
I learned that we couldn’t design a better passenger experience than a tablet. So, we focused on the driver.
/ Insight 2: Car Time is Precious
The vehicle is the final place where there is no obligation to answer work or fulfill familial chores. Instead, they use this time to phone their family and friends. And they LOVE IT!
/ Insight 3: Final Leg Of The Trip is the Hardest
Maps are often a staple for small business owners or families going on a road trip. I learned that location services are only used in the final miles when the area is unknown or not available in the map application.
/ Insight 4: My Music Vs. Kids Music
Parents are required to listen to what their kids want to listen to before they are dropped off at daycare. How might we design experiences that allow the parents to listen to heavy metal on the way to daycare?
/ Designing to Uncover Insights
We focused on three experience areas to tease out insights during our discussions. We made some assumptions on the designs recognizing that they would change. These allowed the users to "pretend" to drive and do common tasks.
Media: We separated the navigation from the content for the driver. It was a difficult balance since you know their eyes are on the road the majority of the time.
Browser: in this concept, we wanted to show what a bigger display could bring. It allows for a bigger keyboard while having a great browser experience.
Maps: We decided not to show designs since the insights we gathered were so off from what we put together.
/ Impact
Identified strong user preference for familiar navigation tools, leading to the attempt to partner with Google Maps rather than build a proprietary solution. Due to the cost of Google Maps, and the lack of functionality we would be able to provide, I was able to convince the business not to invest in building a maps application.
Inspired future car show concepts centered around a connected family van experience.
Developed a set of user-centered scenarios to guide and inspire future feature explorations across product teams.
What does BlackBerry look like in the Automotive industry?
After BlackBerry’s acquisition of QNX—an operating system already integrated into many vehicles—I was tasked with exploring potential user experience opportunities should BlackBerry choose to invest further in the automotive space. What better way to uncover insights than by putting participants directly in the car?
Year
2014
Topics
Automotive Design, UX Research, Strategy, Design
Company
BlackBerry
/ Put Them In the Driver Seat (Discovery)
For this study, I had users tell stories while in the car. Afterward, we reviewed concepts based on those scenarios on the entertainment screen.
We had 10 participants from small business owners and those with families come to talk about their current vehicle scenarios.
/ Insight 1: Tablets Win Over the Passenter
I learned that we couldn’t design a better passenger experience than a tablet. So, we focused on the driver.
/ Insight 2: Car Time is Precious
The vehicle is the final place where there is no obligation to answer work or fulfill familial chores. Instead, they use this time to phone their family and friends. And they LOVE IT!
/ Insight 3: Final Leg Of The Trip is the Hardest
Maps are often a staple for small business owners or families going on a road trip. I learned that location services are only used in the final miles when the area is unknown or not available in the map application.
/ Insight 4: My Music Vs. Kids Music
Parents are required to listen to what their kids want to listen to before they are dropped off at daycare. How might we design experiences that allow the parents to listen to heavy metal on the way to daycare?
/ Designing to Uncover Insights
We focused on three experience areas to tease out insights during our discussions. We made some assumptions on the designs recognizing that they would change. These allowed the users to "pretend" to drive and do common tasks.
Media: We separated the navigation from the content for the driver. It was a difficult balance since you know their eyes are on the road the majority of the time.
Browser: in this concept, we wanted to show what a bigger display could bring. It allows for a bigger keyboard while having a great browser experience.
Maps: We decided not to show designs since the insights we gathered were so off from what we put together.