Bram Bos is a design strategist and automotive HMI expert. As a follow-up to his hands-on guide on testing automotive UIs with real vehicle data, we wanted to dig deeper into two key questions in automotive UX: How can designers succeed in a highly disrupted industry? And why is realism so essential when prototyping?
In today’s automotive industry, designers are navigating an era of rapid transformation. With changing business models, evolving user expectations, and complex in-vehicle systems, the rules of UX design are being rewritten.
“The biggest challenge is that everything is in free fall,” says Bram. “As a designer, you can no longer rely on past best practices. Even users aren’t sure what they want—they’ll only recognize it when they see it.”
Designing for vehicles is uniquely complex. Every design decision must balance aesthetics, usability, safety, and technology—often across multi-modal interfaces that span physical controls, screens, voice, and even augmented reality.
“Take physical buttons,” Bram exemplifies. “They worked flawlessly for a century. Do we throw them out entirely? Or find hybrid approaches? The right interaction depends on the function—adjusting temperature isn’t the same as navigating a map.”
According to Bram, cross-functional integration is the key to translating great concepts into working software.
“The best outcomes happen when designers, engineers, and business experts collaborate as one unit—not in silos,” he explains. “In smaller teams, it’s easier—you sit together. In a larger organization, you have to simulate that tight feedback loop at a subsystem level—whether it’s infotainment, ADAS, or navigation.”
He also stresses the importance of building mutual understanding.
“Designers think in human terms. Engineers think systematically. To build something great, we need to understand each other’s language, limitations, and realities. And involve designers early—ideally when the screen layout and dashboard architecture are still being decided.”
Despite advancements in design platforms, Bram sees a major shortcoming in tools tailored for automotive.
“Most tools are still 2D-centric. But modern HMIs demand multi-modal, 3D-aware design. When prototyping head-up displays or overlays for driving scenes, today’s tools fall short. So we improvise—stitching together tools and workflows. What’s missing are realistic, automotive-specific tools that let you prototype without having to explain everything.”
To make design tests more meaningful, Bram recently explored integrating real vehicle data from RemotiveLabs into interactive prototypes, using tools like Figma and ProtoPie.
“Testing UX without realism is like designing a parachute without jumping out of a plane,” he says. “Traditional tests make users imagine driving. That cognitive load distorts the feedback.”
RemotiveLabs’ solution helps overcome that barrier—by streaming real-world car data into UI prototypes, teams can simulate dynamic driving conditions in design tests, without needing a physical prototype car.
See Bram’s guide here: From Figma to interactive UI in ProtoPie
“The more real the setup, the better you can validate if your design works. RemotiveLabs makes that realism accessible.”
Bram’s biggest concern is “technology for technology’s sake.”
“We’re overloading cars with features no one asked for—just like early consumer electronics. True luxury should reduce mental energy, not drain it.”
He emphasizes that innovation should feel effortless, and warns against copying trends blindly—especially from regions with different cultural expectations.
“Designers must practice regional empathy. What works in China—like chatty voice assistants—may annoy users in Europe. Great UX understands context.”
