An in-vehicle experience for electrifying adventures

Lead Product Designer · Conceptual

Redesigned the Ford Explorer infotainment experience from a hardware-organized control model to a unified, customer-first launcher — consolidating climate, media, navigation, and radio into one surface with ≤2-tap access to all primary controls. Extended key flows to a mobile companion for pre-trip setup. Led the core experience framework and cross-functional alignment across engineering, safety, and digital design.

Scope
0→1 concept

Platform
In-vehicle + mobile

Team
Cross-functional

Constraint
Safety-critical UX

Ford Explorer® SUV
Reimagining the in-vehicle & mobile experience

In-vehicle Experience Overview

Background & Business Problem

Feature-first design was getting in the driver's way

The existing Explorer infotainment system organized controls around hardware taxonomy — climate lived in one place, media in another, navigation elsewhere. Everyday tasks required multiple taps across disconnected surfaces, pulling driver attention away from the road. The core question:

How might we shift from a control-focused model to one organized around what a driver actually needs?

Approach|

Unified launcher with a context-first structure

1 - Reframed the problem
Shifted focus from feature organization to "what does the driver need in the next 10 seconds?" — a time-action model rather than a category model.

2 - Designed a unified launcher
A persistent dock for the 5 highest-frequency actions (climate, media, navigation, phone, home) with contextual cards for deeper tasks — all reachable in ≤2 taps.

Mobile as pre-trip, not remote control

3 - Extended key flows to mobile
Adapted pre-trip setup (destination, climate presets, media queue) to a companion mobile surface — so drivers configure before they sit down.

4 - Multidisciplinary Sync
Worked with cross-functional teams spanning digital design, engineering, and safety to align the concept framework — ensuring the experience vision was grounded in real platform constraints.

What I Drove
Reframed the design problem around time-to-action rather than feature taxonomy. Defined the core interaction model — a persistent launcher with ≤2-tap access to all primary controls. Resolved key tradeoffs: single consistent UI over mode-split, fixed controls over adaptive layouts, mobile as pre-trip setup rather than remote control.