It was 2015, and Jaguar Land Rover was looking to the future of luxury vehicle design. They brought in Particle Design to help rethink the relationship between users, vehicles, and mobile devices—to think about the vehicle experience holistically—and build those insights into innovative product strategies.
Our first undertaking was to help Jaguar Land Rover reimagine what an in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) system could be.
The landscape analysis we conducted to understand the future of interactions between users and technology surfaced a key trend: anticipatory design. We used that and other observations to develop an IVI system that would get to know its users and intelligently predict what they might want, based on the time of day, who’s in the vehicle, and more.
We imagined an IVI system for the future, designed the concept from the ground up, and built a full-featured prototype of the media component that simulated the user experience.
The drivers in 2020 will have different user expectations than the drivers of today. Our design must be forward thinking to meet these expectations, as well as flexible enough to accommodate opportunities not yet on our radar.
Matt Adamo
Director of UX Strategy, Particle Design
Next, we helped Jaguar Land Rover rethink the role mobile devices could play in the relationship between users and their vehicles.
Through ethnographic research, we cultivated a real understanding of how people currently use their phones before, during, and after they’re in the vehicle. We also developed strategic insights about how people thought a car and a device should interact with each other.
What if your smartphone set your car’s comfort levels, based on the time of day or pre-driving activities? What if the music you were listening to while driving continued to play on your phone when you got out of the car? What if every seat had its own comfort zone and screen that could be controlled independently by a mobile app?
By the end of this six-month project, we were able to build a prototype that not only demonstrated the app’s functionality but also simulated the user’s in-vehicle experience with the app.
We helped JLR envision the relationship between users, vehicles, and devices differently and developed concepts that would elevate and delight users before, during, and after a journey.