Bringing the connected car experience to life.
In charge of the new connected service in the FordPass app, I designed an integrated experience between third-party apps and FordPass, creating memorable in-vehicle experiences that connect Ford customers with their favorite brands.
Timeline
Jan 2019 - June 2019
Client
Ford Motor Company
Role
UX Designer
Team
Product Owner, Product Manager, UX Designer, UI Designer, Engineers
The Story
FordPass is an all-in-one mobility platform that help Ford customers control, monitor, and manage their vehicles. I led the design of a new commerce feature across iOS and Android. This is the story behind my process.
The challenge was to build an automotive commerce platform on the FordPass app that allows customers to order, pay, and make reservations, all from their in-vehicle touchscreens. Within 6 months, I worked collaboratively with the team to gain a deeper understanding of the objectives, created user flows and wireframes, and led user evaluation to turn our insight into a seamless and unified experience.
Understanding the end-to-end process from the app to the vehicle.
My approach began with outlining the comprehensive process, from the initial entry point and onboarding experience to the final integration of third-party apps within the vehicle.
I explored various routes for the UX architecture to map out an effective and intuitive user journey. To validate my ideas, I created wireframes and ran a series of design critiques and testing rounds with stakeholders and end users. The iterative evaluation process enabled me to refine the design until it achieved a frictionless experience.
Providing a cohesive
experience from mobile
and vehicle, extending to life.
The product design focused on building a unified and engaging experience to help improve people’s lives through Ford’s connected car system. I looked at other features of FordPass and Ford products to ensure consistency with the newly integrated feature.
The feature required many parts to the flow such as searching apps, linking accounts, and connecting to vehicle (SYNC). The design goal was to streamline the user journey to make an otherwise complex process, simple and approachable. Working closely with the Product team and Engineers, we were able to build and integrate this newly designed experience in FordPass so that customers’ favorite apps were accessible and ready to use from their cars.
Throughout the development phase, I worked closely with Engineers to ensure we constantly reviewed the UI consistency and functionality. As a result, we delivered high-quality builds for release, and QA Engineers were able to run tests across all devices with expected behaviors.
The Outcome
The feature was released across iOS and Android and increased monthly active users by +23%.
As a team, we successfully launched the new feature and provided a cohesive experience to engage Ford’s customers with the brand and make their day-to-day more efficient through the connected car experience. This feature significantly improved customer engagement with other brands as well. The collaborative outcome helped developed a trusting partnership with our vendor partners.
Upon reflection of the process, I realized the importance of streamlining the product journey, particularly because this feature encompassed a broad flow. I dedicated considerable time to meticulously map out the flow, iterating on it five times. Throughout this iterative process, I proactively sought insights from both users and stakeholders, actively involving them at each stage. By doing so, I fostered a collaborative environment that facilitated the development of a meaningful and user-centric outcome.
My contributions to FordPass helped them achieve:
More than 1.5 million people have become FordPass users
FordPass email engagement rates are three times the auto industry average
FordPass was featured in Mashable, The New York Times, and Adweek, among others
Apple said the FordPass app is “Setting the bar for Automotive OEM Apps”