Whole cabin experience

Scope & challenge
Deliver a scalable platform that works across panoramic displays, passenger and rear-seat screens, and instrument clusters.

Define how entertainment apps (video, games, media) would adapt to non-touch displays, including rules for driver control and passenger handoff.

Establish a widget framework optimized for glanceability and safe in-car interactions.

Partner with global automakers to align platform design decisions with their roadmaps.

My role
Manager & art director

UX Team
2 interaction designers, 1 visual designer, 1 motion designer, 2 researchers

The problems

Industry is going big

OEMs have consistently increased the size of their screens to differentiate from the competition and increase the value perception of their products. However, they struggle with utilizing the newly available space provided by massive displays, and their design teams have been asking for our point of view.

Old tech

Much of the industry relies on old technologies like HDMI or poorly-optimized solutions like Fire TV (which require a physical remote for the best experience). The result is subpar experiences for passengers and drivers.

While the Assistant is great for starting a playlist or sending texts, it is not very useful beyond that. It lacked proactiveness and had limited functionality.

Scalability

Google needed a scalable UX framework that could work across panoramic dashboards, passenger displays, rear-seat entertainment, and driver clusters. The challenge was to enable rich experiences like video and games while maintaining strict safety standards, designing for non-touch displays, and ensuring clear control between driver and passengers. At the same time, we had to align these design rules with global automaker partners and present a cohesive vision to the industry.

“I think that it would be better to not have tablets just sitting around willing or waiting to be lost because I've lost a few tablets that way. Not fun.”

— Google Bulit-in user

GOAL

Design a scalable UX framework that expands Android Automotive OS from a driver display into a safe, seamless whole-cabin experience across every screen in the car.

Focus areas

System & apps

Core Framework, launcher, widgets, notifications, interaction patterns, keyboard, and stationary mode
Entertainment

Browsers, kids mode, content recommendation (concept), and personalization
Sharing

Co-piloting, co-watching & sharing, and screen management

Principles

Seamless for drivers

Critical tasks require zero or one tap and are always reachable. Enables easy control of other displays not within reach of the driver.

Fun for passengers

Entertainment serves as the core experience for passengers. Favors simplicity, content discoverability, and empower passengers to help the driver.

Surprisingly predictable

Provide familiarity and expected outcomes. Uses consistent patterns for all users and avoids abrupt changes in layouts without user input.

Hardware configurations to consider

Pano complexity

Recognizing an emerging trend in the automotive industry, we opted to concentrate our efforts on non-touch distant displays. While our existing solutions are readily adaptable to multi-touch screens, we embraced the challenge of developing something specifically tailored to unique automotive needs.

Testing interaction designs

Visual exploration

Controlling multiple screens

Customization

User control

Personal

Users can add a personal touch, such as family photos, to act as wallpapers on secondary displays
Customizable

Granular control allows more unique combinations
Moves content

Quick controls allow the movement of content around other displays
Retrieves content

The same quick controls can also easily bring content back to the main display

The impact

Multi-display support

Officially announced AAOS multi-display support at Google I/O

New Google-Built in vehicle launches

Our work directly influenced and positively impacted the new panoramic display experience at Lincoln, Ford, and Cadillac

Industry influence

AAOS partners like BMW updated their vehicle line up to have access to our OOTB multi-display experiences