My first attempt at designing a car console was back in high school, before I had any training in design processes or software. I created what are essentially hi-fidelity wireframes to familiarize myself with functionality and iconography one might incorporate.
2015
Click any image to enlarge
2016
The following year, I had taken a couple design courses and knew the basics of the Adobe suite, so I was able to create mockups that were a bit more complex. I also chose to switch to the much larger 17-inch display on the Tesla Model S as my form factor.
2017
The next version was my big dive into designing in Sketch. I redesigned everything, incorporating a more sophisticated structure with resizable panels, and a bold color palette inspired by this design concept.
2019
Feedback I received on the above version consisted of praise for the flexible panel layout, but criticism of the strong background colors – which were described as distracting – and confusion around the signifiers for on/off states and interactive components. With this in mind, I designed a new iteration that:
Returns to a simple, elegant dark theme
Uses clearer button styles and labels
More carefully considers driver ergonomics, with appropriately sized tap targets, and driver controls placed at the top-left nearest the steering wheel