Developing a UX digital concept for automotive inductive charging



CCD were responsible for the development of a new concept digital interaction in hybrid cars to control and manage a new inductive charging technology.

The Brief

How might inductive charging technology be developed to deliver a ‘premium experience’ for customers of luxury cars? How might the technology integrate with other vehicle technologies such as self-park?

Project Challenge

With the growth in interest in electric and hybrid vehicles, manufacturers are starting to look more at technology that will improve the experience for the car owner. It is recognised that having to physically plug your vehicle in is often a hassle and is one of the barriers to adoption.

The concept of inductive charging for automotive is similar to wireless charging for consumer electronics, automatically charging the electric/hybrid vehicle when the car is parked over a charging pad in the ground.

Service Design & Prototype

Our work includes development of the overall concept of use, defining use cases and designing interaction concepts for the in-car interface.  The scope included a service proposition for public/private inductive charging and the design of interface concepts.

Given the target market for our client, we had to capture what a “premium experience” would mean for charging a hybrid. Built on insights from design research conducted with customers & dealers, we explored the various use cases for customers using inductive charging technology and mapped the service for at home, at work, at friends or family and in public.

UX Design

We built prototype user interfaces for the in-car displays and mobile devices that allowed us to do some early feedback testing with our clients’ customers. We explored both manual and self-park implementations. We also used the research to understand if customers felt the use of the technology was ‘premium’ in line with the luxury automotive brand.

How we added value

Development of use cases defining the variety of modes of how users would interact with the technology

Use of storyboarding to communicate use cases to engineering team

Use of rapid prototyping to get early feedback from real users

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