Plus.ai

Plus.ai is shaping the freight truck industry with its artificial intelligence technology. Their self-driving trucks provide driver safety and 25% fuel savings with their best-in-class Level 4 autonomous driving system. 

Goal

Plus.ai needed an interface design that accomplished three goals:

• Communicate operative functions clearly while retaining driver focus on the road.

• Account for driver usability, behavior, and pain points.
  

• Represent a refined engineering product and brand.

Discovery

Interviews

Engineers - I interviewed the lead engineer to learn the product's capability, requirements, and boundaries.

Truck driver - I participated in a test-drive with Plus.ai's truck driver to observe behaviors and pain points.

Pain points

Limited attention - Driver must keep eyes on the road for safety. They can only glance at the screen momentarily.

Driver peripherals - Legacy dashboard was optimized for engineering and testing purposes, not driver peripherals.

Eye fatigue - Bright lights caused eye fatigue in low light conditions.

Behaviors

I observed driver behaviors to associate functions with scenarios.

• Manual engagement - AI is most reliable in open highways.
• Road topology - System sensitivity to road configurations.
• AI disengagement - Driver can override AI for safety.

Design

Content

I scoped out all functional requirements to fully understand the system capabilities to design around. I also annotated questions and observations to drive clarification and direction with the client.

User journey

I created a user journey / interaction blueprint hybrid to discover potential user scenarios, edge cases, and problem areas.

Layouts

I experimented with super low fidelity layouts to get a sense of screen estate and potential optimization. 

The two layouts required different view angles in order to optimize road perspective to frame aspect ratio. 

Wireframing

I wireframed dashboard layouts to capture key driver scenarios and system functions. Rapid iterations at low-fidelity allowed for time-effective improvements to the design. 

Visuals

I applied a Neumorphic visual style to complement Plus.ai's modern brand identity. I chose a Neumorphic style to enhance peripheral communication with a sense of futuristic realism.

Results

Successes

• Conducted interviews and test drives to observe interaction behaviors and identify functional requirements first hand.
  
• Designed a dashboard interface optimized for driver peripherals through rapid iteration of user flows, wireframes, and high fidelity components.

• Enabled safe and successful operation of an autonomous driving system by visually communicating statuses, alerts, and signals gently yet clearly. 
  

Lessons learned

• Observing user interaction in person exposes needs, behaviors, and pain points much more quickly and earnestly than in any conversation.
• Rapid iteration, multiple options, and quick failure is key to efficiency and decision making.
  
• Effectiveness, accuracy, and efficiency of product delivery can be consistently produced by following design sprint strategy.

fredkimdesign@gmail.com