dev design darren

LED Display showing Smart Parking / Drop off feature using Voice Activation

Live Object Detection

Concentrating on a voice-only method of connecting users to rides unlocked a lot of things for us. Mainly, we could off-load the entire digital user experience part to the car itself, making sure that all onboarding happens through a low-barrier entry: phone calls. In the future, we imagine a network system that can safely retrieve any relevant accessibility data from the User through existing single sign-on (SSO) providers like Google, Apple, Uber.

The Car is the App

First Iteration -- MPH and Car Temperature front and center

Introducing BUNI: Autonomous Rideshare for the Mobility-Challenged

Research and Ideas

👟 apparel

BMW Designworks

🎤 artist

JUNE 2023 - AUG 2023

🎧 technology

Less is More

Revisions and Iterations

Future Considerations

Bose

JUNE 2023 - AUG 2023

Building Customizable Avatars with Generative AI and Emotional Depth.

I want to give a huge thank you to the team at BMW Designworks for their grace and the work they do for the car industry as a whole around the world.

So excited to share this. I (giddily) had the opportunity to work with BMW Designworks on a project to design an intuitive and appealing On-Demand autonomous mobility experience for accessibility and inclusivity. With 8 weeks to go from research to concept, it was an incredible learning experience where I got to go hands-on with the team at Designworks here in Santa Monica, CA.

Accessibility data can be saved as preferences and be remembered each time the user calls: • Accessible Languages • Preferred Seating configuration • Preferred entry side (left/right, due to strength/injury) • Service Animals • Any use of mobility aids (wheelchair, walker, cane) • Wheelchair Access • Preferrred Temperature • Prefered Music • Known accessible destinations • Avoiding different hazards

The Future of

Thank you for reading! And thanks to BMW Designworks for the lovely chance to work with the team.

But why does this matter? All signs point to the need for people with travel-limiting disabilities to be able to hail an autonomous vehicle with existing technology that they’re comfortable with already. For a good user experience, could we avoid having users sign up for yet another app? Could we reach our target market with what is out there already?

Desktop Research, Fieldwork, Concept Posters, Empathy Maps, Journey Maps, Figma Design of Concept Posters

The Future of

After another round of feedback, it was clear the novelty was wearing off for us and we wanted to simplify the experience even more. The original designs, while new and fresh, felt like we were overloading the windshield display with content and it started to feel like it "belonged in Bladerunner."

https://drive.google.com/file/d/12StWMfFWMSZ4bdBRf41pG5qF71q86ADu/view?usp=sharing

RESUME

Fin

The Future of

Timeless

Adidas

Concept Video Stills of BUNI Phone call, Luisa hailing BUNI through a call, and Luisa receiving a confirmation text of her BUNI ride details

studies

STUDIES

Second Iteration -- Revamped LED Touch Display with Temperature Gauge

Clockwise Starting Top Left: DW Design Kick-Off Briefing, Dashboard Prototype, Nerding out at DW Santa Monica HQ, First iteration on 3D Blender Scene Design

Services like Siri and ChatGPT have helped mold the public opinion of talking to an AI and this natural progression of the technology helped us simplify the experience: No need to sign up with another app. No steering wheel needed for passengers. Wide LED touchable display for interaction. Saving preferences (wheelchair needed, trunk space needed, Spanish speaking, etc.) and give them their preferred experience every time. Text messages integrate well with existing screen reader technology out there. We save users frequent locations for repeat access. A friendly, conversational voice helps process the order for the mobility-disabled.

PREVIOUS PROJECT

Building Customizable Avatars with Generative AI and Emotional Depth.

The first two rounds of iterations were focused on the number of content we wanted to display. We took inspiration from the chat dialogue structure seen in ChatGPT and Siri and thought it would be novel to display that onto the Windshield AR projection.

BUNI Prototype

The Autonomous Rideshare Experience

BUNI is an autonomous rideshare experience of the future focused on assisting those with mobility issues. We created an experience leveraging AI and natural language processing to create a service that can execute autonomous vehicle orders from a simple phone call. BUNI then texts the order confirmation details to the phone and hails an autonomous vehicle to the users location.

magic

MAGIC

Building Customizable Avatars with Generative AI and Emotional Depth.

We started to shuffle around the different pieces of content and began reprioritizing what needed to be seen. Making the windshield display more easy to read meant we needed to rethink the contrast of our information: and so moved the arrival times and time remaining to the bottom screen. We also moved the big chat style messages to the LED display and displayed that it was BUNI talking back to the user. The final designs we landed on showed a refined Windshield AR Display and a cleaner LED Touchable Display. The reception from this final mock showed that people generally found the newer, minimal look to be more preferred.

DNA3

Final Prototype -- Revamped Windshield AR Projection with LED Touchable Display displaying all conversations now

Feedback was great to this point. Introducing the users and the team to a novel concept was fun and I took a lot of joy in how it was all coming together. But there was something that was nagging me in the pit of my stomach. It’s the feeling that you get when you stare at the work for a long time and you wonder if there’s something you aren’t seeing.

The idea that the car itself is the app is a novel idea. We think we could get traction designating certain areas as BUNI zones, preferred pick up and drop off locations at major destinations like malls or hospitals. The branding for this would be a fun project to explore.

This project gave me the chance to design and iterate on a hi-fidelity car interface, explore the different niche situations riders could find themselves in, and how the brand and service could realistically exist in the future. I used Figma to design the car interface and windshield projection and brought them into Blender. After modeling the car interior, I loaded the interface and projection and rendered with real footage driving around Los Angeles.

Parked Vehicle with Projection Displaying which Door to safely exit from

Wide LED touchable display for Physical User Interaction: Adjusting Routes based on Traffic Patterns

Building Customizable Avatars with Generative AI and Emotional Depth.

S/S 2025

Pointkyo

Jinoro

Darren is an interaction designer.

JUNE 2023 - AUG 2023

Jungkook

First, we set out to conduct user research and we discovered a number of things. • 30 million people identify with travel-limiting disabilities. • It can cost up to $80K to outfit an existing car. • Those with disabilities can have a hard time with figuring out new apps. • The primary use of phones for elderly/mobile challenged are phone calls and text messaging.