I led in-depth research in the field, with employees, current customers, and former customers to understand Allbirds’ existing strategy, customer base, and gaps to help shape the vision for the step, stretch, and leap strategies for Allbirds to revitalize their product discovery experience for new and former customers.

  • Reimagine EV in-car systems as more than navigation and safety — positioning the vehicle as a memory-making companion.

  • Capture road trip and travel moments in immersive, playful ways.

  • Ensure the system remained non-distracting for drivers while offering social value.

January 2024 - March 2024

Interaction Design, Xenos

UX Researcher

User Research, Usability Testing, dScout Interviews, Experience Design

Alex Lansing, Paige Smyth, Palka Dhirawani

Consumer adoption of electric vehicles is gaining momentum, but XENOS (a fictional automotive manufacturer) has lagged in the EV space. As an incumbent, XENOS is struggling to innovate.At a time when electric vehicles are rapidly changing the overall automotive experience and as customer expectations continue to increase…Question: How might we create new digital interactions between car and driver that connect life's grand moments

  • User Need: A safe, joyful way to capture and share immersive travel memories from within the car.

  • Business Need: Differentiate XENOS in the EV market with a lifestyle-oriented feature that leverages existing hardware for new value and builds brand loyalty.

Phase 1: Research

Secondary Research

  • Competitive Analysis - Researched competing vehicle brands to understand their in car experience offerings.

    • Most features focus on safety or entertainment for the car's passengers

    • On average, American drivers spend more than 293 hours behind the wheel annually.

  • Competitive Analysis - Researched analogous and competing footwear and apparel brands like Hoka, On, and New Balance to understand what drives their popularity and continued discovery from buyers.

    • These brands embed into trends, social circles, and partner with prominent figures to maintain relevancy.

  • Trend Analysis - Analyzed trends in the overall retail and clothing spaces and focused more within footwear brands to understand what trends are governing business and consumer decisions

    • SET Factors - Utilized SET Factors framework to gain clarity of Social, Economic and Technological trends within Allbirds, competing brands, and analogous brands.

Primary Research:

  • Field Studies - We attended the Chicago Auto show to observe how users interface with different kinds of vehicles and how electric vehicles are shaping their in-car experiences. We studied existing features across 10+ brands and vehicles to understand the landscape.


  • Evaluative Research - We conducted 4 virtual dScout interviews with EV users to understand what motivated them to use EVs and how they responded to different concepts to gauge feature priorities


  • Usability Studies - We conducted 4 virtual usability studies to understand how a user might interact with our leading concept and how different interfaces may influence the overall experience.

  • Exploratory Research - We conducted 4 virtual interviews to understand caregivers' experiences, motivations, struggles, and needs.

  • Evaluative Research - We conducted 4 virtual concept feedback and co-creation sessions to understand care-receivers' feature priorities.

Findings:

  • Drivers want features and experiences that are as unobtrusive as possible for their main goal while adding to their overall trip

  • Drivers want experiences that help keep passengers stay occupied without being distracted themselves

  • Drivers prioritize safety above all else and want their focus to be on the task at hand

Key Insight:

Drivers want a way to safely capture memories and occupy their passengers during their drives without distracting them from their main task.

How might we help drivers safely capture memories during the EV driving experience?

Phase 2: Concept Exploration

Ideation:

Generated 5 concepts for concept feedback and strategy shaping. Brainstorm focused on different kinds of in-car experiences that could help to augment the driver's overall trip..

Testing:

We conducted 4 virtual interviews through dScout to understand which concepts and features resonated most with users.

Direction: An in-car feature that uses built-in cameras to get a set of images of the car's surrounding when interacted with.

Phase 3: Refinement & Prototyping

Refinement:

Further developed features and interactions to better fit users' mental models and create a whole experience.

Usability Testing:

We mapped 4 different user flows to test and tested variations of buttons, interactions, interfaces, and experiences to understand what was the most intuitive experience for users.

Prototyping:

  • Built high-fidelity Figma prototypes of interaction to demonstrate whole experience

    • Developed prototypes for in-car interface and mobile app

SurroundSnap:

An in-car feature in Xenos EVs that allow drivers to take a set of pictures of the car's surroundings using the built-in cameras with the tap of a button.

SurroundSnap:

An in-car feature in Xenos EVs that allow drivers to take a set of pictures of the car's surroundings using the built-in cameras with the tap of a button.

Simplified Interaction: Drivers prefer simplified features with minimal steps to enrich but not distract from the driving experience.

Multi-modal feedback: Drivers’ trust in a feature is built through clear, familiar, and multi-modal feedback that verifies the execution of their actions.

Cubbi: Modular storage/display cube that magnetically connects to Showcase; customizable with risers and lighting.


Convenience and Accessibility: Photos should be stored in a purposeful and accessible collection for drivers to refer back to at their convenience.

ViewPort: Camera attachment that auto-tracks items placed in Cubbi, mapping the collection as it grows.


  • Positioned XENOS as a future-ready lifestyle brand, not just an EV manufacturer.

  • Created a differentiating feature in the competitive EV market using existing technology.

  • Balanced safety with joy, making memory capture effortless and social while keeping driver focus intact.

  • Learned how to design under safety constraints in the automotive context.

  • Demonstrated how existing EV hardware can be repurposed into new user-facing value.

  • Showed the potential for playful, social features to strengthen loyalty and emotional connection in the EV space.