Project Description:
Most of of my work at Fisker was on PEAR, and secondarily on the pickup truck Alaska. However, in late 2023, there was a redesign of the Ocean's instrument cluster in order to move the ADAS (Advanced Driver Assisted System) information from the center screen to it, to put often-critical information right in front of the driver. Another goal of this redesign was to reduce how distracting the current charging/consuming "ripple" display was, to something smaller and simpler.
There was another experienced designer who had worked on the instrument cluster quite a bit, and he did a redesign to include the ADAS elements along with using smart tell-tales to reclaim space. It also did a good replacement for that distracting energy wave display with something more traditional. However, the design director felt the design could be better and asked me to step in and look at possibly improving it. While the elements were all well thought out, upon reviewing it I found there were two issues.
First, the design didn't account well enough for the obscuration that the steering wheel created at the top corners, and had critical information from ADAS moved to and typically hidden in those corners. Second, elements which logically went together were in several instances logically separated. For example, the speed limit and current speed were far apart, but drivers would likely be comparing those numbers.
I redid the design, using the same elements but better accounting for obscuration and better organizing the information. I then met with the other designer and did the delicate task of discussing changes to the design he owned. To both our credit, all went well, and in the end the new design was presented as our design done together. We both liked the result, and happily no friction between us was created.
My Role:
♦ I began with the existing design used on Ocean and a redesign proposal done by another designer, reusing the elements but reevaluating their layout.
♦ I measured the obscuration of the steering wheel to see what parts of the instrument cluster might be obscured
♦ I created a new set of wireframes reorganizing the information to be more unobscured and logically grouped
♦ I then diplomatically worked with the existing designer to discuss the concerns seen and go over the new layouts I had created. This went well, and the reorganization became our consensus design
♦ We together presented the new design together up through the Fisker Sr. VP of design for approval
♦ We together worked with the UI designer as the design was taken to high-fldelity with visuals, and small changes were required as usual
♦ We together worked with engineering and our supplier to work out a few small issues and make adjustments until engineering fully approved the new design as well
The Design:
The existing design in Fisker Ocean, without moving over ADAS information or using smart tell-tales (showing a warning message as a placeholder):
The redesign done by my coworker, with a steering wheel obscuration approximation I added for analysis and discussion:
My general design organization:
Detailed wireframes, with red arc showing typical obscuration by the steering wheel:
High-fidelity design done by the UI designer, working together with us on the details and design adjustments. Date and time were removed, as the ones on the center screen were deemed sufficient:
The Result:
The design was well liked by the whole management chain including the CEO and approved. However, there were significant costs required to have the work done by the supplier, and it was temporarily put on hold due to money issues at Fisker. When Fisker declared bankruptcy the next year, it was therefore never implemented, sadly.