Designers within Ford Digital Product Design leverage vehicle data recordings with synchronized video sequences to simplify early high-fidelity UI/UX design iterations and concept validation. Convenient access to human readable data in a shared cloud environment empowers designers to design with data in their tools of choice — creating a more fruitful collaboration between teams earlier in the project.
User-centric vehicle designs depend on the involvement of a diverse and multi-disciplinary team. Automotive OEMs commonly source advanced and expensive hardware and simulation setups to enable early-stage testing of key features and experiences under development. As an accessible complement for design iterations with a faster and more cost-efficient setup, Ford’s Digital Product Design colleagues are leveraging RemotiveCloud. The tool allows designers to innovate on real vehicle data without touching a vehicle or test rig.
Cloud access to synchronized vehicle signals & video simplifies the process of design iteration and validation. This demo experience demonstrates gear changes with data from RemotiveCloud streamed into ProtoPie during a three-point turn.
By leveraging transformations into Vehicle Signal Specification (VSS), automotive data becomes more easily understood and information silos are eliminated.. Using VSS as a common data language unlocks the ability to seamlessly collaborate and share work across platforms, bucks, and mules. This optimization and time-saving create opportunities for more iteration cycles. RemotiveLabs tooling supports signal transformation of proprietary information into the relevant format including VSS and Android Properties.
“Prototypes designed and connected to VSS signals can easily be moved between bucks, mules or other platforms. Designer’s work becomes more efficient; with early access to a common set of data, the gap between engineering and design is reduced.”
Justin Danielson
Director of Prototyping, Digital Product Design at Ford
The relevance of early design demos increases as real vehicle signals and related video material are made available to designers. A simple library with collected vehicle drives can be fed into design applications or game engines. These recorded drives serve as an early set of test cases that improve the comprehensiveness and robustness of the resulting design work.
“The ability to easily access vehicle data and feed it into my design application increases my speed and capability of trying new things. I’ve used the connection to ProtoPie for new innovative ideas affecting the hardware requirements for coming models. I can provide relevant input, test and validate assumptions I wouldn’t otherwise have been able to anticipate until later”.
James Hines
Senior Product Designer at Ford
Designer-centric approaches drive automotive innovation. By adopting VSS and cloud-native modern tooling, designers and prototypers at Ford gains access to relevant vehicle data earlier, enabling faster design iterations and higher-quality outcomes.
