Your Own Personal Car Dashboard
Car’s are one of the best inventions in human history, evolving from generation to generation. But all of that history requires a lot of research and technology. And for those who don’t know all of that very important technology, it can be challenging if something goes wrong. I decided to tackle this problem, in the hopes that people can have an easy accessible way of learning about their cars and their different statistics.
Facts
September 2024-October 2024
Programs: Figma, Illustrator
Role: User Experience Designer
Targeted Problem
“Cars are meant to be perfect. They are complex yet simple, detailed but not too much. But if you are not a car enthusiast or someone who has been driving a long time, all of the statistics and value is relatively unknown to the person. This dashboard serves as a digital way to view that information about your own car/cars.”
Research
For the research, I wanted to bring elements like those shown on the green sleep graphic (where all the elements are separated on and in graphic form, while also having elements from what a normal car dashboard looks like (easy to recognize, good color seperation, etc.). If I was able to transform the colors and style of a car dashboard into a statistical dashboard, then everything would look well put together and more.
Having inspiration from, I collected a variety of content for the dashboard. I found that the dark greys and reds were a perfect color combination as they represented a car’s dashboard, while using fonts like Lexend Deca and Michroma brought all of everything together.
User Interface
For the user interface, I wanted the colors and separation to stand out the most. Using Adobe Illustrator, I created the car and boxes to get a good feeling on where everything was supposed to go. The car in the middle would be your own car, with the statistics being linked to side as boxes to their respected car parts, giving off an advanced technology feeling.
For the main graphics, I wanted include the following:
Miles per month
Current car value
Last system check
The car’s overall reputation (good, bad, etc.)
Weekly Gas Usage
However I also wanted to include extra content that would this dashboard be different from our avaerage dashboard, including:
A section on nearby repear places for your car
A button linking to your other cars, should you have more than one
A side bar of different pages like an account page and different car documents
Final Result
The Statistical Car Dashboard shown was able to achieve all the goals I’d hope it would. It was able to show users so much useful information, both inexperienced/experienced drivers and car enthusiasts. I found that the dashboard was able to mix both visual elements like proper structure and color, while also having a wide variety of statistics and wording. Overall, I found this dashboard a massive success on its purpose.
To the right, is a showing of some of the functions and how it would work to the audience.
Impact & Reflection
I gained a lot of experience when working on this project. Some of the major things that I was able to do were:
Understand cars in a more intimate way. I wasn’t much of a car person but now I very much am.
Work outside my comfort zone. This was challenging for me because I had never done work in the car industry before, so this was a pleasant surprise.
Make the dashboard feel like a normal car’s dashboard, but still have things that make it different. I was aware that some elements can be found in a car, but others cannot.
