Driving has traditionally been an incredibly disconnected experience. Beyond navigating from point A to point B, time spent in the vehicle often feels underutilized.

This underutilized time, paired with advancements in technology, has led today's automotive customers to expect more from their in-vehicle experiences. This shift has pushed automakers to transform driving into a more connected, productive and interactive journey — while still keeping safety at the forefront.

In mid-2023, Ford announced the launch of the 2024 Lincoln Nautilis, which featured an unprecedented 48-inch display spanning the entire dashboard. This panoramic screen represented a bold departure from traditional in-vehicle hardware platforms, bringing both challenges and opportunities for internal product teams to deliver amazing experiences.

Earlier that year, the Ford In-Vehicle Infotainment (IVI) team approached FordLabs to explore what digital experiences could be unlocked with this new screen. The challenge was to uncover compelling use cases that would make the panoramic display one of the key reasons for customers to choose Ford over competing alternatives.

The original ask from the IVI team was intentionally open-ended. We were essentially tasked with envisioning any form of digital content that would maximize the screen's utility, especially while driving.

Our team began with broad customer discovery, conducting user interviews, surveys and design experiments. Our initial research centered on understanding how people interact with their current devices, the type of content they consume and how those behaviors might translate to the vehicle environment. Over time, we focused more narrowly on in-vehicle behaviors, iteratively testing designs with users in simulated driving environments.

Through this process, we explored dozens of ideas, developing and refining designs with real customers. I collaborated closely with FordLabs engineers to bring our most promising concepts to life, creating working prototypes for demonstration and testing.

While the specific ideas remain confidential, I do want to share some of the lessons learned and exciting aspects of this work for me. Given our focus on in-vehicle digital experiences, this was a really unique opportunity that relatively few designers get a chance to work on.

Here are some key things to note:

• We played a pivotal role in shaping the fundamental interaction models that could define how customers engage with the content displayed on the screen. 

• We uncovered differentiated insights to guide the IVI team's product roadmap.

• We worked within a strict set of constraints with respect to driver safety and NHTSA requirements.

• We demonstrated and documented an iterative approach to IVI software development, creating a framework for IVI teams to learn from.