Background

• Situation SAIC’s brand MG was challenged with the new market rollout and needed a custom HMI solution to support this strategic initiative. • Brief India and Thailand were selected as Tier1 markets to introduce new HMI experience and validate the design hypothesis. The design needed to support both left- and right- hand side driving positions, vertical and horizontal layout, and be modular enough to support different vehicle trims and market-related services. • Objectives Rapidly ideate, prototype, test, and design all core use cases for the new HMI platform.

Describe the strategy

• Data gathering Star team had a number of creative and research sessions both with the SAIC team and also with MG customers in respective markets to gather needed data points that will enable our design process. • Target audience (consumer demographic / individuals / organisations) India: 28-35y.o, 5+ years driving experience, 10% female 90% male. Thailand: 30-40y.o, 10+ years driving experience, 50% female 50% male. • Approach Star has structured the program to run in separate streams; we’ve dived our team into squads of researchers, interaction designers, and visual designers and paralleled our deliverables so that we can keep a rapid pace.

Describe the execution

• Implementation Star team started with the ideation phase where we explored interaction design ideas and also mapped user journeys. After that we’ve shifted towards visual design language and when we’ve cleared that we’ve conducted a user testing session locally in Thailand and India and tested core use cases on three different design concepts. After that, we’ve started with design and UI kit delivery. • Timeline Jan 2019 — May 2019 • Placement China, USA, Ukraine, Poland • Scale Two vehicles, two markets

List the results

• Sales New iSmart HMI enabled two new markets and was a key technology feature. • Achievement against business targets HMI was released on time, new vehicles were presented on Shanghai Autoshow in April 2019.