A new sleek look for a sleek car.

BMW 4 Series Gran Coupe's new car dashboard design.

Context:

The BMW 4 Series Gran Coupe is a sporty, sleek, and well-designed car. All that is missing is a fully incorporated UI dashboard. Although this car is not electric, we believe that the 4 Series Gran Coupe deserves a full dashboard like other electric cars. BMW was founded in 1916 making premium motorcycles and automobiles and also became a provider of financial and mobility services across the globe.

Hypothesis:

We believe that by creating a UI car dashboard for BMW's 4 Series Gran Coupe that allows people to feel safe and have an accessible, easy-to-use dashboard, we will help meet users' needs and keep the roads safe.

We will know this to be true when we see people purchasing more BMW's and when we have positive customer feedback.

Duration: ~2 weeks

Team: Natalie Alpers (lead product designer)

Tools: Figma, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop

Personas.

Based on our research, we created two personas from our qualitative interviews. These two personas represent two people struggling to find what they need and our team will use these personas to drive us forward to create a car dashboard that has everything they are looking for.

Brian.

“Accessibility is important to me and I want a car dashboard that is easy to navigate."

“Keeping my nieces entertained during LA traffic is a hard task."

Jen.

Jen landed her dream job at Apple last year. She has been saving up to purchase a new car and wants a car that drives well, is reliable, and has a nice UI dashboard with all the features she needs. Since she is new to the area, the Maps App is an important feature.

Brian works at Google in Los Angeles, CA. He helps watch his nieces and needs a UI dashboard that has movies and TV shows for kids while they are sitting in traffic. He is ultimately looking for something easy to use that will help him keep his nieces entertained during long car rides.

Needs:

Easy-to-use maps app
Dark mode to help with screen glare

Pain Points:

Doesn't know the area well
Bright screens

Needs:

Entertainment dashboard feature
Simple and easy to navigate

Pain Points:

LA traffic
Too many screens and a confusing layout

Style Tile.

Next, I created a style guide that represents BMW's personality and history. I used cool tones and their classic Bavarian Blue for the color palette. I used BMW's classic font, Arial, for all typography to stick to its core values as a company.

High-Fidelity.

Our high-fidelity screens show BMW's vision coming to life. I took what our users asked for and created a car UI dashboard that gives them what they need. So far, we have a few pages, but as we develop the UI dashboard, more pages will be added.

Welcome screen:

When the user enters the car, a welcome screen interaction will appear. Swipe left and enter the home page!

Home screen:

The home page includes a navigation bar, map, status bar, seat adjustment, volume, and music.

Music:

The music screen consists of a browse section, recently played, and saved playlists. Bluetooth connection, volume settings, and a search bar for all needs.

Vehicle:

On the vehicle screen, users can check the tire pressure and battery, and change gears. Users can change the seat adjustment and are given more settings.

Light version:

From the Vehicle Screen, the user is able to turn on light mode. Users also get a new color in light mode.

Prototype.

While creating BMW's new UI dashboard for their 4 Series Gran Coupe car, I also created a prototype to show our developers and users what exactly this dashboard will look like and what features it will have. Check out the button animations and the welcome screens!

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