Xevo Glass
Overview
Xevo Glass is product suite for in-vehicle infotainment. The products include a HMI design system, AI recommendations, maps, navigation, voice, app store, app catalogue, editable themes, e-commerce, and an off-board management portal. OEMs can choose the full package or hand-pick the specific product they want to integrate.
Goals
Business
Create new SaaS products that builds on our existing automotive relationships.
Retain more users by providing a competitive product to CarPlay and Android Auto.
Provide a product suite that gives the OEM more control over their experience, new ROI opportunities, new after-sale opportunities, seamless 3rd party integrations, and extensibility.
User
Provide solutions for core user needs that are traditionally not fulfilled an sending them to CarPlay and Android Auto.
Create a merchant experience that is seamless, natural, and organic.
Delight users with approachable HMIs that are easy to update and keep aligned with user design expectations.
Deliver recommendations when appropriate and based purely off user data.
Improve the driver experience.
“Things which are different in order simply to be different are seldom better, but that which is made to be better is almost always different.”
Challenges
Fragmentation
Hardware
Software
SDKs
Lead time
Vehicle and software requirements are locked-in years before launch.
Regulation
NHTSA
Auto Alliance
Company liability teams
Proposal
Create feature flags for our product so that features can be sold and operate independently of each other.
Partner with providers who have features we want but don’t want to build and whom have contracts with targeted OEMs.
Build on our partner’s capabilities to provide an experience that is better then what they offer without us.
Deliver a new ROI channel for OEMs.
Provide out-of-the-box integrations with merchants.
Create a in-car driver experience that sets a new standard going forward.
Design Process
Process summary
Problem space
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What is the business value?
Who are our users, what are their needs, and what tasks must they complete?
What does success look like for our business and users?
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Observe your user’s in their natural environment. Keep the process organic for accurate findings.
Ask questions that are as open as possible.
The goal is not to validate your own assumptions.
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Evaluate, interpret, and weigh findings gathered.
Create requirements.
Create user stories, user journeys, and other preferred guidance documents.
Solution space
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Information architecture
Low fidelity feature flows
High fidelity compositions
Design system
High fidelity feature flows
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Early feature concepts were built as interactive flows in InVision or as light-weight locally deployed builds for testing. After proven successful they are handed-off to dev for implementation.
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InVision interactive prototypes or light-weight locally deployed builds were used to test early concepts.
After features were tested successfully they were handed-off to dev. They were then released to customers where we collected analytics, were given feedback, and conducted on-site studies.
Research
Understand
Feature breakdown
Breakdown product features into understood value propositions for business and users. This includes high-level feasibility and viability assessments.
Example:
Recommendations
Why is this important?
Business - Accelerates ROI opportunities for OEMs and merchants. Creates an impactful user experience that will lead to brand loyalty and more customers.
Merchants - Accelerates user acquisition and improves user retention. Provides new marketing and PR opportunities.
Users - Users shouldn’t have to trudge through an interface to interact with merchants and services they need. These recommendations better the driving experience by providing what is needed most in the moment.
Observe
Surveys
Surveys gave a sense of user expectations(needs) and aspirations(wants). This data was used to baseline early company investments and shared with our customers to create project evangelists.
Usability studies
We conducted A LOT of usability studies. The data was invaluable in determining product investments, securing deals with merchants, landing OEM contracts, and in bettering the driving experience.
The data we collected was used offensively to drive business deals or defensively against skeptics.
Every HMI task flow was rigorously tested by the OEM’s driver distraction team. I would like to say the process was scientific but it wasn’t. The same task flow could be submitted for an OEM’s approval and fail but pass the second time. There was little to no consistency to their testing. To combat the constant irregularity and to keep our features shipping on time I developed our own internal testing processes. The data was compiled and submitted to the OEM’s driver distraction team along with the software to test. This dramatically improved our success rate.
I conducted A/B/C testing for everything. Whether it was a complicated task flow, or a simple entry screen, it was tested thoroughly. My design efficacy standards was widely valued internally and externally. This was due to how I conducted our tests and documented the results.
Solutions
After features were validated through stringent user testing we could confidently deliver out solutions to customers.
Driver distraction guides
We developed a short-hand version of the Auto Alliance and National Highway Traffic Safety Association (NHTSA) for internal and external communication. This proved our domain knowledge and expertise of designing in-car experiences.
Merchants
Pay for fuel, order food, reserve parking, book a hotel, make a dining reservation, pay for tolling, check your bank account, join a virtual meeting, and so much more all within your cars infotainment system.
Task flows
We designed an intuitive task management system for 1st and 3rd party integrations. These served as driver distractions task flow templates for merchant onboarding. This dramatically sped up new merchant integrations.
AI Recommendations
Highly contextual recommendations are displayed based on time-of-day, day-of-week, week-of-month, month-of-year, who is in the car, vehicle telemetry, user service integrations, and usage data.
These recommendations could appear as notifications, on-arrival overlays, search results, and more.
Recommendations solve the discovery problem plaguing the in-car experiences today. They introduce hidden features and value buried in the HMI.
Maps
In-vehicle mapping services are a user expectation. Unfortunately, OEMs position mapping services behind expensive service packages. So, how do you prevent further adoption of Android Auto or Apple CarPlay?
To differentiate and strengthen an OEMs mapping product we provide a juiced-up AI and 3rd party merchant integration experience.
Voice Assistant
Voice always comes with a bundle of problem statements. A dedicated voice UX beats out design solutions that piggy-back off of existing task-flows. What about user adoption? How do user’s familiarize themselves with with the feature and what is supported?
Themes
Editable themes make branding vehicle Make and Model a breeze and introduce user personalization, which leads into after-sale opportunities.
Users love personalization. It strengthens a user’s relationship with a product as they feel more ownership over their experience.
Portal
Control what themes and apps are published to vehicles. Publish to vehicles based on year, make, model, or region.
Instrument cluster
Xevo Glass included an instrument cluster integration option. These heads-up displays were the hardest to access. A combination of hardware and software limitations made accessing these displays virtually impossible.
Results
Business
Market was licensed by General Motors and Stellantis. It became the world’s first in-car e-commerce solution connecting drivers to merchants.
We won an RFP to deliver our mapping and recommendation service in partnership with TomTom for Stellantis. At the same time we were at various stages of integrating Xevo Glass with Hyundai, Kia, Honda, Ford, Daimler, Byton, and Nissan.
Our success continued to grow and led to an acquisition by Lear for $355m.