Ready Engage.
Harman | Samsung
TLDR:
Harman was internally tasked to create an AI-powered personal assistant to market to OEMs.
Initial research led us to create personas and conduct competitive analysis.
Role: Lead UI UX Designer
Proposal & MVP
I was internally tasked at Harman to help create an AI-powered in-vehicle personal assistant that OEMs could skin and customize to meet and exceed their drivers’ expectations. The assistant needed to look and act tailored to the user, both visually and audibly, and with a personality set by the driver and/or OEM without being distracting. They also needed a way to CRUD (Create, Read, Edit, and Delete) this assistant both in-vehicle and through a mobile device, and learn and adapt on the fly. With these goals in mind, it was my job to coordinate and plan with the design team to determine exactly how this needed to be approached and how to implement the design strategy as we moved towards an end-of-year show and demo.
Process & Timeline
We started with the basics. Who are our users and what do they want? Our users were drivers, predominantly those most likely to be looking for a new car. Upon pursuing that line of thinking, we were met with interesting information. Our users didn’t all fall into the same one or two categories; in fact, there were so many unique use cases that I decided to define personas. Each persona clearly needed something a little different from their vehicle, and subsequently, their assistant needed to be aware of those needs too. A sports car driver who wants to go fast is going to have different needs than a family of 4 that just wants to get to school on time.
Next up was learning what was already out there. What did other character creators look like? What were existing AI assistants doing, and how were they received? How could we be better? I broke down a competitive analysis in tandem with UX user research, and from there, features began to emerge. I was deeply focused on the end user while we also had a team working on how to showcase these new features. Near the end of the year, I was able to coordinate and hand off deliverables early to the dev team to implement and test in time for them to be showcased.
Deliverables
Detailed Personas
Competitive Analysis
AI Empathy Research
User Stories
Animation & Empathy Mapping
User Flows
Demo Use Case Flows
Page Flows
Animation Flows
Dialogue Flows
Wireframes for Mobile and Head Unit
UI Designs Mockups for Mobile and Head Unit
UI Prototypes for Mobile and Head Unit
Outcome & Retrospecticve
Overall, I was incredibly happy with what we were able to achieve in just under a year. I would have loved to see more agile implementation when it came to project planning, as this project relied heavily on design leadership without a Project Manager or Business Analysts, but overall Ready Engage became one of Harman’s favorite projects to share both at home and internationally.
I look forward to seeing how they improve on and iterate this feature after the next round of UX research and user testing.
