Quick
overview
QUICK is an independent graduation project undertaken in collaboration with the Tata Elxsi JLR team, focused on rethinking human–machine interaction (HMI) in luxury vehicles. The project explores the challenges drivers face while interacting with the infotainment system, instrument cluster, and steering wheel controls. By identifying usability gaps and understanding driver behaviour, the aim was to redesign in-vehicle interactions to reduce cognitive load, minimise distractions, and create a safer, more intuitive driving experience.
year
2022
role
UX Research
UX Design
UI Design
company
Tata Elxsi
(JLR Team)
Problem Area
Distracted driving is a leading cause of accidents today, posing a significant threat to road safety in modern vehicles, the infotainment system has itself become a significant contributing factor to driver distraction.
The AAA foundation for traffic safety research report
Commissioned researchers from the University of Utah examined the visual (eyes off road) and cognitive (mental) demand as well as the time it took drivers to complete a task using the infotainment systems in 30 new 2017 vehicles. Study participants were required to use voice command, touch screen and other interactive technologies to make a call, send a text message, tune the radio or program navigation, all while driving down the road.
None of the 30 vehicle infotainment systems produced low demand, while 23 systems generated high or very high levels of demand on drivers.
0%
Low Distraction
36%
High Distraction
23%
Moderate Distraction
41%
Very High Distraction
Contexual Interviews
To understand how drivers interact with in-vehicle interfaces in real-world conditions, I conducted 5 contextual interviews and 27 user surveys across different age groups and vehicle types. The research focused on identifying usability challenges across the infotainment system, instrument cluster, and steering wheel controls.
The findings revealed that existing interfaces often demand a high level of visual attention and precision, making interactions difficult while driving. Lengthy navigation flows, frustrating voice commands, repetitive information, and cluttered displays added unnecessary cognitive load. Tasks such as typing and scrolling became particularly challenging in a moving vehicle, forcing drivers to divide their attention between the road and the interface.
These insights highlighted a clear design opportunity: to reduce the effort required for in-vehicle interactions by simplifying navigation, minimising visual distractions, and making essential controls more intuitive and accessible. The goal was to create an interface that adapts to the driving context, allowing drivers to interact with technology without compromising their attention on the road.
“In latest vehicles, with lot of options available, sometimes it becomes difficult to understand every option easily. Screen looks very busy.”
“Sometimes voice assistant does not take command properly.”
“Calling takes time and diverts the attention. I face problem while selecting contacts to dial.”
“While playing music i look at the screen and loose control.”
Problem Areas
Multi-modal cognitive load
Driving is a complex multi-modal task which includes using various cognitive skills (decision making, way finding, judgment), physical (legs, hands), Sensory (see, hear), and psycho motor skills, parallel.
The out of context touchscreen
The interaction with mobile phones resembles with that of infotainment. If using phone is unsafe for a person walking on road, how is it safe for the drivers to use touchscreen infotainments?
The lost power of muscle memory
While touchscreen is dynamic and clean looking to hold many features, the muscle memory that helped driver to have maximum attention on road through tactile buttons is compromised.
MIT AGE LAB report | Seeing Voices
An online survey was conducted to understand the priorities, preferences, and usability challenges associated with in-vehicle infotainment systems across different genders, age groups, and cities in India.
Each response was analysed to identify patterns in user behaviour, expectations, and interaction preferences. Rather than taking responses at face value, the analysis explored the underlying reasons behind user choices, distinguishing what users say they want from what they actually need. These insights helped translate user behaviour into actionable design considerations, establishing a foundation for ideation and guiding decisions towards more intuitive, efficient, and driver-centric interactions.
The results (from 117 subjects) showed that they rated the voice tasks as being about as demanding as those that used buttons and knobs.
Competitive Analysis
A competitive analysis of five vehicles was conducted to understand how existing automotive interfaces structure interactions across infotainment systems, instrument clusters, and steering wheel controls. Interaction modes, control mechanisms, and information architecture were mapped to evaluate usability, accessibility, and the cognitive effort required to perform everyday tasks.
The analysis revealed recurring challenges, including complex mental models, excessive choices, repetitive information, cluttered interfaces, and high cognitive load. Many interactions relied heavily on visual attention rather than muscle memory, increasing driver distraction. Steering wheel controls also presented opportunities for more efficient, eyes-free interactions.
These findings highlighted an opportunity to simplify information architecture, reduce decision-making effort, and shift interactions from visual dependency towards more intuitive, muscle-memory-driven controls. The goal was to create an interface that prioritises essential information, minimises distraction, and allows drivers to interact with greater speed and confidence.
User Journey
Ideation
Multitouch gestures are designed for driver to have a quick interactions with minimal steps with absolutely no demand of precision.
Quick navigation flows minimise steps and cognitive effort, enabling drivers to access essential functions with minimal visual distraction.
An instrument cluster that smartly provides just the information that you need.
Voice assist
Voice assistant needs a lot of visual attention from the user as it requires user to get a visual feedback when activated, for a cue to start speaking, and also after giving command to see if the assistant picked it up correctly. Voice assistance is used when the driver needs the task to be done quickly and handsfree so the inclusion of it in the instrument cluster makes the visual feedback loop easier and efficient for driver to use.
Learnings
This project is a proof of how understanding ‘context’, which is one of the first things learnt in design, is somehow skipped while designing touchscreen interfaces in the automotive industry. In fact, context is a major part of design followed by functionality and aesthetics. When user centric design is being highly discussed on one end, "following trends" is becoming life threatening to the users. As a designer it is a responsibility to see through the user’s needs, and then design to achieve the core cause. User centric design is not to be confused with what user wants and aspires but to understand and empathise with what user needs. Design is not an application of technology, rather technology is a tool for designing which must be used wisely. This project has provided me with a major learning of how to break away from the existing products to design in a different dimension. It was a continuous learning process of analysing and designing by keeping in mind an ocean of data and insights.
