Automotive
Overview
From self-driving electric cars to AI user interfaces, new technologies and computing methodologies are at the forefront of current automotive design, creating opportunities for innovation that will shape the future of the industry.
DCA’s multidisciplinary teams are uniquely capable and experienced in balancing the exciting functionality and user experiences that these new technologies offer with the challenging safety and reliability demands and commercial pressures that remain inherent to the automotive industry.
We will never use technology for technology’s sake. There must always be genuine user benefits. More screens filled with more information is not the answer. Often a mechanical interface is the right solution and we work closely with our Human Factors experts and our client’s brand champions to achieve the optimum blend of physical and digital interactions.
Working with clients to harness technology to deliver innovation
HMI Design
Creating the perfect automotive HMI solution is a balancing act of contrasting parameters and it is as much a technical challenge as it is a creative one.
The challenge is to create responsive graphics that adapt to the user’s instantaneous needs, the internal and external environment, and the context in which the car is being driven. By leveraging the power and flexibility of the latest gaming technologies, we are able to respond creatively to this challenge.
Combining these technologies with exciting visual techniques such as live video capture and image layering is opening up incredible opportunities for both brand differentiation and user engagement and experience.
In creating timeless graphical interfaces that won’t age we adopt the most appropriate leading edge technologies, but in a way that is natural and inconspicuous to the user. The application of technology is never an end in itself and should never be allowed to come between the user and their connection with their vehicle and your brand.
Integrating interior design and UX technology
As driver-assisted and driverless vehicles become a reality, so the focus for interior design is shifting from the traditional driver-centric viewpoint to an all-encompassing, total interior paradigm. The impact that new UX technologies are having throughout the entire vehicle means that interiors can no longer be designed in isolation from each occupant’s UX experience.
This means that interior design teams need to work even harder to find better ways of integrating new user experiences whilst retaining and enhancing the unique qualities that define and differentiate their brand. We are helping our clients to explore and implement new approaches to tackling this challenge, including digital detox, realised through the sensitive use of technology only where it delivers true value for manufacturers and their customers. Simply providing more screen estate is certainly not going to be the answer for the future of every new vehicle interior design.
Creating new User Experience visions
Autonomy and electrification represent both an opportunity and a threat to automotive manufacturers. Existing brand differentiators and established corporate know-how may be swept away by these new paradigms, forcing manufacturers to seek out alternatives such as unique user experiences to fill the void they leave behind. They will need to communicate and prioritise completely different information to a range of vehicle occupants in totally different usage scenarios. This opens up many exciting opportunities to deploy new and emerging technologies to deliver unique user experiences that can become the cornerstone of future automotive brands.
In helping our clients to establish new automotive visions for the future, we are deploying a mixture of physical and digital technologies to create practical demonstrators on which new interaction models can be assessed and refined. We are working to track and understand social changes and technology trends that are likely to impact the way people use and interact with vehicles. And we are pushing the boundaries of possibility while remaining realistic and relevant to the end user, and aligned with the manufacturer’s brand requirements.
Detailed engineering
With DCA’s engineers and designers working side by side in mixed studio environments, the collaboration required to incorporate new technology in a controlled but agile fashion is naturally embedded in every project. The resulting combination of creativity and pragmatism allows new solutions to be fast-tracked though to production.
In two recent autonomous vehicle projects we have been required to optimise the locations of a range of sensors. Our engineers used gaming engines and VR modelling to address this problem, modelling and testing the sensor coverage and performance jointly with the design team in a virtual environment. This meant they were able to explore and select preferred arrangements that not only performed well, but also provided the best visual design opportunities for the exterior shell required to house and protect the multitude of equipment necessary for autonomous transportation. The result was a clean, modern and user-friendly aesthetic that integrated with the base vehicles to reflect our clients’ innovative brand values.
Fast track new solutions into production
Models, rigs and prototypes
To build confidence in the real-world potential of an idea, our designers, engineers and technicians work together to create the right level of model at the right time in a project programme. These rigs, models and prototypes allow us to communicate and test our ideas in an accessible physical form that all stakeholders can actively engage with.
They can support focus groups and co-creation workshops in which we build and refine our ideas jointly with target users to create optimised relevant solutions to real-world issues. They can quickly and effectively demonstrate the potential of new proposals to senior decision-makers who don’t have the time in their busy schedules to review, envisage and assess lengthy technical presentations. They can also accurately replicate a production solution, allowing final performance and user acceptance testing, as well as production and in-service support planning, before committing to volume manufacturing.
From early proof of principle rigs and mock-ups to fully functional prototypes, we have the tools, the facilities and the know-how in-house to produce the models, rigs and prototypes needed to manage and reduce the development risks in your project.
Digital Craft
For us and our clients, creating original digital solutions by applying technology in novel and surprising ways represents a new design challenge, but also provides a unique design opportunity, with an abundance of innovative techniques now available to call upon. As one example, we are currently experimenting with dynamic lighting effects on a range of projects, exploring ways to display and showcase these effects within the user experience – generating results that are relevant to the user as well as visually stunning.
With our work in this area, we are accelerating the adoption of such digital technologies in production vehicles. In this way, we are shaping how the digital world impacts on everyday user experiences and determining how it influences the user’s relationship with technology.
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