Ford Mustang Mach-E APP
INTERNSHIP · UX DESIGN · RESEARCH · PROTOTYPING
Designing charging reservation, WallBox Reservation, and Trip Record experience for Mach-E owners.
Roles & Responsibilities
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User Research: Competitive Analysis, Users Interview
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UX Design: 3 Iterations of high fidelity wireframes; 3 components
Project Context
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Nov 2020 - Jan 2021
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Internship at Ford, China
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Finished prototypes for three projects
Tools Used
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Sketch
Experience
I interned at Ford China in 2020 as a UX/UI Designer working on the new electric vehicle app. During the internship, I worked on three projects for the Mustang Mach-E. I was tasked to create the Charging Planning experience, WallBox Reservation Page, and Trip Record Page. The EV app was launched in 2021. During the process, I got extensive exposure to the new energy vehicles industry and conduct user interviews, and market research to assist the design.
Learning
I interned at Ford China in 2020 as a UX/UI Designer working on the new electric vehicle app. During the internship, I worked on three projects for the Mustang Mach-E. I was tasked to create the Charging Planning experience, WallBox Reservation Page, and Trip Record Page. The EV app was launched in 2021. During the process, I got extensive exposure to the new energy vehicles industry and conduct user interviews, and market research to assist the design.
Charging Time Planner
Electric vehicle charging time planner redesign
Time length: 3 Weeks
My role: UX/UI intern working with a senior UI designer, a product manager, a marketing head, and 3 developers.
Introduction
Charging has been a significant part of the user experience for electric car owners. Car owners are facing low battery anxiety on the road. The endurance on a single charge, charging speed, and accessibility to the charging station has been determining elements when customers make a purchase decision. Also, in China, electricity usage is charged under the rule of Peak-valley prices in most cities. Car owners will be able to save lots more money if charging during the valley hours. So, we started the project to design the charging plan interface to enhance the charging experience.
When I joined the team, the first wireframes were finished. I started to redesign the process starting with user testing and competitive analysis. In the end, I finished the first iteration of the high-fidelity charging interfaces.
Design Goal
Design an efficient, user-friendly charging planning experience based on the current charging systems.
User Testing & Takeaway
We tested 11 internal users by asking them to finish the charge time plan on two interfaces. After the interview, we got the following results:
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Users all successfully finished the task.
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Users were all confused about the location selection process.
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Low usability on current forms (UX Writing, button forms).
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Users had a hard time understanding the whole planning process.
The current charging system has been confusing to users because of redundant steps (ex. location setting).
Analysis
After the research, I went through the interfaces and was able to spot the problems in the current design.
The goals of the interfaces are as follows:
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Guide users through the charging process
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Set the time of charging
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Set the targeted charging amount
To cope with the current technique problem, we have the following steps to follow:
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Plug the charging cable into the vehicle
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Start with creating a new charging location
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Save the location of the charge station, but only 2 charge stations can be saved.
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Set the time of charging
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Set the targeted amount
I then checked with the product manager about the technical feasibility and I found that:
Even though the goal for the charging time plan is to realize charging at valley time, we could not show recommended time in the design since it varies in different cities. The technique feasibilities limited us with the steps for now and a better story needs to be told to enhance the experience.
The design strategy is now clear:
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To better explain the process and make it effortless to understand the model
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To improve the gadgets and interaction mode to realize high user satisfaction
Iteration
In the following steps, I conducted more research to draft a clear charging planner user mental model. Here is one competitive product research example from Tesla.
Through the research and interview, we compared the current model and user mental model about charging were able to spot the problem in conveying the information. The problem now became how to fit the current model into users' mental models to make the experience smooth. In the next step, I created the clickable demo to demonstrate the process and propose the new components to the design system, to enable clear distance demonstration.
In the end, the design passed the group review and the app is launched in 2021. There’s more to this story. Schedule me for an interview and I’ll tell you more about this project!
Takeaway
Developing products for vehicles are definitely different from digital services. UX design is like dancing in shackles. Especially for physical product-related interfaces with long branding history, we need to consider the limitation of technical feasibility and design system. However, it doesn't mean the process of spotting problems and solving problems should compromise. UX designers' job is to find the middle ground and generate the best solution for the moment.
Except for the charging reservation page, I also designed the user experience for the Charging Log & Report, Wallbox Installation Tracking system, please talk to me for the details.
