Designing an in-vehicle experience for the Rivian Prime Van
Senior Lead UX Designer
2019-2020
Responsible for driving the UX effort of the brand-new in-vehicle experience on Rivian Prime Vans in support of Amazon's goal of achieving net-zero emissions across all of its operations by 2040. Focused on driving the UX strategy that aimed to enhance driver efficiency and safety.
Context
In 2019, Amazon and Rivian teamed up to create the world's first all-electric delivery vehicle, as part of their commitment to achieving net-zero emissions through The Climate Pledge. As the lead designer, I had the exciting task of designing a new interface for the vehicle's larger touch-screen, while extending our existing design system.
We wanted to optimize the driving experience, prioritize safety, and ensure a seamless transition to the new touch-screen. By leveraging our design expertise and building upon our current system, we crafted an intuitive interface that drivers could easily navigate while on the road. This innovation elevated Amazon's delivery operations, providing drivers with an enhanced user experience and aligning with our sustainability goals.
My role
As a Senior UX Designer on the Amazon Last Mile UX team, I was part of a dynamic group of around 20 talented individuals. In this role, my primary focus was to drive the core strategy for an exciting new in-vehicle experience.
Collaborating closely with Design, Research, Product Management, and Engineering teams, I played a crucial role in shaping the vision and direction of the project. Together, we worked passionately to deliver an exceptional user experience that seamlessly integrated design, research insights, and innovative technology.
Early user feedback
We kickstarted the project by evaluating existing studies and identifying the core tasks performed by drivers. Based on insights from user interviews, we explored different layout choices, focusing on itinerary guidance, turn-by-turn navigation, customer and package information, and a rear-view camera.
Given the tight timeline, we quickly moved forward, testing paper prototypes to gather early feedback from Amazon drivers. This iterative process allowed us to refine our design concepts and ensure alignment with drivers' needs. Through our collaborative efforts, we set the stage for delivering an exceptional in-vehicle experience.
Designing the framework
While partnering closely with Engineering and Product Management to create a roadmap that allowed us to all agree on dates and ownership, we identified four key components of the driver journey: pre-driving, driving, arriving at the destination, and package retrieval.
Depending on the driver’s stage, the vehicle sensor data triggers different modules in the user interface, which we extensively tested with drivers, resulting in the creation of the foundational content framework that would eventually serve as the project's design backbone.
Testing one more time
The team conducted usability studies and user interviews for several months, incorporating user feedback as we progressed, and eventually we drove alignment with stakeholders on an initial experience that included both Rivian and Amazon's ever-evolving design systems.
Ready for launch
With the objective of putting 100,000 electric vehicles on the road by 2030, Amazon began supplying Rivian Prime Vans to a few US locations in 2022. So far, driver response has been overwhelmingly positive, indicating that the experience is vastly superior to that of traditional ICE vehicles.
The comprehensive case study for this project is available upon offline request.