Posted by Mr. Robot | October 7th, 2018 | No responses
There has been so much technology being thrown in our faces lately, that I feel like almost every product being brought to market is a cash grab vs making the user’s life better. I own a new car and the user interface and user experience in the digital dashboards are horrible. Of course I don’t own a Tesla or anything crazy fancy like that, (as they say you get what you pay for) but nonetheless it is no excuse that the experience should be this bad. This is where I began my user research into the world of digital huds for vehicles. I then discovered something called Navdy. Navdy was a heads up display with some pretty cool features making it easier for the driver to navigate, take calls, make calls, and get information without it being intrusive. I thought this was pretty nifty, so I naturally began to comp up some designs on how I would improve the design.
Now I didn’t do too much of a deep dive in these screens, but I did take some time to create some relatively simple ideas and make it my own. Story time! I used to be a fierce Adobe Photoshop user for creative all my designs. I mean I stood by Photoshop like Custards last stand. I argued in interviews , debated my colleagues, everything but tattoo Photoshop’s iconic PS blue logo on my ass. Alas I was definitely in denial of adapting to the new ways of designing by staying away from apps like Sketch. Boy was I wrong. So ever since then I have been using Sketch and only looking back to Photoshop when I needed to edit a photo. So these screens here are a combination of Adobe Photoshop with Sketch App.
So of course I created some screens with additional ideas on how I would improve this heads up display, and then Navdy goes out of business and liquidates. From what I understand JBL purchased the technology or something like that. Either way those who bought the product have been left out to dry without the support of an expensive and non functional HUD. Have no fear though, as long as there is a demand, there will be other opportunities for this to either be a third party product, or something that will eventually integrates with the cars of the future. I mean we are already seeing better user experiences out there, but you just have to have the coin to afford it. Maybe this is all a waste of time since the vehicle will end up driving you wherever you need to go in the end. It is still fun to explore these possibilities with design. We just need to keep our heads up and see where this all goes.
Hello friend.
