Tesla

Finding Inspiration in Every Turn

Project: Concept creation, Marketing, UX,UI

Scenario: Four friends travelling to and from a festival. Create a user interface for Tesla that is intelligent and digitally connected to better the experience of Tesla users.

The video explains the most important features of the FESTIVAL MODE to those that would use it the most. The car being able to tell the people in the car when the air outside could be hazardous to breath, being able to share countdowns and music with friends in anticipation of the event, and having the reminder to grab all of their items from the festival site to keep it clean. Keeping the user and the planet happy and healthy during festival season. Other features of the app are important but it would take too long to show. We believe those features are more specialized and not main elements of the app and interface.

Ideation and research

Initial thoughts

Drinking and Drug Usage
Costumes/outfits causing problems while driving
Music, getting into the mood
Playing music from the artists that will be at the festival
Party lights with the interior lights of the car, synced to music -Navigation and maps (knowing where to park)
Traffic and road construction
Find things to do nearby
Keeping you awake while driving (sensors)
Overloaded cars, weight
Health Conscious
Comfort for long journeys (chair massagers, back seat TVs, etc.) -Advertising: food, gas, hotels, stores to buy supplies -Litter/garbage
A/C, heat, lights
Changing driver
Phone chargers/car battery usage
Locked and safe while away
Car alerts and sensors for car maintenance and battery Unexpected weather
Roadside assistance for breakdowns

The Tesla Brand

Tesla is known for it’s fully electric engines and being a green company. The cars are on the luxury side and show that the owner cares about their environmental impact. All models include the most cutting edge technology furthering

the experience and prestige of the Tesla brand.

They also provide services to add solar panels to houses for renewable energy source to fill up the car, to continue to decrease the environmental impact Tesla has.

While environmentally conscious Tesla users generally are on the upper scale of the income bracket and like things on the finer side. Tesla cars serve as both a status and life style symbol as well as a social change statement.

Tesla Visual Aesthetic

Tesla uses minimal design elements

to create a polished, orderly, and sophisticated feel to their interface.

Slight gradients are used in button options and the icons and type are generally white or gray when in the dark theme. Focusing more on displaying information about the car in high-tech illustrations than overloading the interface with imagery and text.

https://www.pinterest.com/surfergirlhagen/car-research/

https://www.figma.com/blog/what-teslas-model-three-ui-reveals-about-its-vision-for-the-future/ https://www.tesla.com/

Tesla Research

Bio-weapon Defense Mode:

Tesla’s air filtration system that takes out particulates, gaseous odors, allergens, bacteria, and more. The filter is so strong “You can literally survive a military grade bio attack by sitting in your car.” (Tesla Team). As the air leaves the car. It is cleaner than when it came in, helping the environment outside the car as well as in.

360 Cameras:

Tesla cars have 360o cameras for safety while also allowing the cars to be able to operate onautopilot and do other sensor related tasks for the driver.

Media:

The TESLA interface has a large screen in which several different features are shown at once

https://www.tesla.com/blog/putting-tesla-hepa-filter-and-bioweapon-defense-mode-to-the-test?redirect=no

https://www.tesla.com/models

The Bio-weapon defense mode could be used to tell when the air is hazardous to breath and could tell the user when it detects the change. The car could offer up what precautions to take for this hazard and direct you to a store to buy any necessary supplies.

360o cameras could be used to take pictures of the group at the festival as well as cameras inside the car to get some footage of the trip from different angles for travel blogs.

Connect phones to the car and allow apps and newsfeeds to show up on the TESLA interface.

This would be newsfeed specifically about the festival the user is going to and any updates itmay have. Like who is performing now, weather updates, traffic, etc.

Ideation

0.1

Reminders:

From the users phone reminders and lists, health alerts related to bio weapon defense mode, news alerts on the event you are going to and times. Weather updates and alerts, “Remember to bring a poncho, rain in 10 minuets”.

Warnings:

Warnings related to weather and health hazards. In California, wildfires produce smoke that can travel far across the state, causing hazardous breathing conditions in areas that aren’t affected by wildfires. People in those areas still need to wear protective masks even though the air seems normal, even looks like a nice day. Some concerts are held in desert areas that can have dust and sand storms causing hazards. Cities also can have air pollution from cars, factories, industrial projects, and buildings that can take a toll on average pedestrians.

Schedule:

See who is currently performing at the festival and decide if you want to see that person or do something else in the area. There could be a specific time schedule, the car could suggest things to do in the area that fall in certain time periods related to the performances. The car could connect in and live stream the performances straight to the car, or play the song that is being performed currently off of Spotify or Youtube.

Safety:

Suggested areas to avoid in cities because of crime, finds places to park and eat. Fingerprintunlocked secret compartment for valuables the user wants to keep safe while they are away. The car can log the movement around it and if there is an increased movement next to the car or it exceeds a certain limit the car will send a notification to the phone. The notification couldalso include a image or live video for the user to determine if they need to do something about it.

Health:

Sensors in the steering wheel to check the heartbeat and blood pressure to see if the user is fit to drive. Sensors for body heat and weather and automatically adjusts the temperature inthe car, seat and handwarmers, or the cooling A/C as needed for the weather outside. If the sun is coming down tinting the windows and cooling the temperature in the car. If there is freezing rain the defrosters could automatically adjust, even if you aren’t in the car when you call it there could be a heating element around the door and handle so they don’t freeze shut. The backseat warmers are controlled only on the interface in the front, if the passangers could use their phones to connect with which seat they are in they could control the different heating and cooling elements near them.

Entertainment:

Having screens in the seats for

passengers in the back. The windows in the back seat could be screens from the angle of the passenger but for the driver they would be able to still look out it as if it were a normal window. Having plenty of charging ports for everyone in the cars devices,but also the ability to see how much it is taking from the cars battery.

The user can set limits to how much can be taken before the car shuts off battery sharing so the car has enough to get to the destination or until the car is charged up again. Offering wifi in car so people can stay connected without using data, some festival sites are in places that don’t have good coverage so the car can be a place to post photos and videos to Instagram and Facebook.

Communication:

A way that the car can be a point of communication. Users can contact one another through the car. Fingerprint recognition can tell the other passangers of the car when someone is at the car if by chance their phone was lost. The user could also be allowed access to the careither as a pre-setup mode or as a remote access from the owners phone. The car could also be synced with each passangers phone and be able to collect the location data of the phone. This data could automatically create a route to drive to and pick up the passanger. Or the car could be connected to the find my friends app.

Lights:

Parking:

Have notifications come up in an interesting way, the lights in the car could lead to the interface as a way of directing the attention to a new message. Lights on the outside of the car could show a color to easily locate the car in a parking lot. This could be done like Lyft when there are multiple in the area each car has acolor displayed in the dash so the user knows which taxi is theirs.

The lights could also displaymessages on the ground around the car. The windows could be screens that display messages like happy festival or remember to clean up.

The key fob itself could direct the owner to the car by having a small screen with a directional arrow or map. The fob could also have a simple green/red light to say yes you are still going in the right direction or no turn around. A light on top of the car could turn on as the user presses the button, making a pattern to easily identify their car. On the users phone there could bean accurate aerial view of the car and the user and an easy path to their car. Most festivalparking lots are just fields that don’t have very distnguishable markers, so something that allows the user to be able to find their Tesla easily in a field of cars would be benefitial especially when they are tired after a festival experience.

UI Inspiration

Drawing inspiration from apps that use minimal color
or simplified color scheme. Open spaces for each element to fit comfortably in, not afraid of negative space. Rounded corners for buttons and the colours don’t overwhelm the type in the buttons. The type is minimal and pops when in white on top of the coloured elements. Sleek, minimal elements used in easily functional and visually pleasing ways.

Four Core Concepts

Traffic and Weather

Window tinting, cooling and heating based on outside influences, window defrosters, make noise to let people know when the car is nearby, reminders for weather. Download festival app to the car for easier access, routes and parking.

Safety and Ecofriendly

Fingerprint recognition to get into the car and/or the secret compartment for valuables, a airtight trash bin in the back for garbage. Air hazard warnings for the safety of users.

Wifi and Entertainmnet

Offering in car wifi, having backseat screens or having the windowns be screens. Lights to display messages, and show when a new notification comes in.

Locater

Parking locator by phone or key fob. Have the ability to find friends by their phone location. Communicate who is at the car through fingerprint identification and sending notification to others in the car.

Interviews

Conducted in-person and through an online survey that was sent out through social media.

The following are the questions asked on the online survey:

Have you ever driven to a music festival?
Which music festivals have you been to?
Did you stay overnight at the festival?
Did you consider yourself health conscious

while at the festival? (Dust, illness, etc)
How much did your comfort in the car relate

to your festival-going experience?
What is the most important feature for you in

the car for the music festival?
A. Traffic and weather updates?
B. Entertainment systems
C. Safety (Hygiene) and Eco-friendly D. Other (please specify):
Why did you choose your answer?
Is there any in-car function you wish you had

on previous experiences? Please explain why.
If you could customize a car for your festival

needs what would it include and why?
What was the mood on the way to the

festival?
What was the mood on the way home from

the festival?

12. How much of an affect did the weather have on your choice of festival?
A. None
B. Slightly

C. Moderately D. Considerably E. Absolutely

13. How did the weather end up affecting your experience at the festival?
A. None
B. Slightly

C. Moderately D. Considerably E. Absolutely

14. How eco-friendly do you consider music festivals to be?
A. None. B. Slightly. C. Moderately

D. Considerably E. Absolutely

15. Would you change your mind about a festival if you knew there would be significant traffic?

A. Yes. B. No

In-person interviews followed similar questioning but flowed with the conversation.

Insights

From these interviews It has been found out that:

66% of people had driven to a music festival before and\or were a passanger in a car driving to a music festival.

Festival-goers did not usually care about the traffic and it wasn’t an important feature to havein the car.

Majority of interviewees considered themselves health conscious during the festival.

Comfort in the car played a large role in the festival going experience. “Sets the tone for the beginning of the weekend”, “I was able to be more relaxed entering the festival if I was able to be comfortable in the car”, “I felt better knowing I could lick my stuff in the car before heading to festival grounds each day” (to be honest we don’t know what “lick my stuff” means or if they were trying to say “leave my stuff”). We also found that people wanted to have more room in the car for all their friends and stuff, “The ride is always a hype station, so we never really bothered with comfort so long as our tent fit”, “More seats because we had people sitting on [other] peoples laps”.

The mood on the way to the festival was almost completely exciting, hyped, and high energy.

The mood on the way back was usually tired, exhausted, and less energy. Where smell and stickiness started to cause problems.

The choice of festival was moderately and under influenced by the weather. but the weatherended up having a moderately and above impact on interviewees festival experiences. For good or bad the weather had an impact on the festival- goers experience but it wasn’t something they were too concerned about when planning and booking their festival tickets.

Interviewees were split in their assessment of how eco-friendly music festivals were most with~45% saying slightly to none and ~45% saying absolutely.

The most important feature in the car was the entertainment system, followed by the safety (hygiene) and eco-friendly features. “It’s a long drive, entertainment”, “Gotta blast music on the way to more blasting music”. And this comment that stood out to us “I tend to shy away from larger crowds so feeling safe and comfortable is important to me”. We felt other people might also think of their car as an escape when they are done with the festival.

In-car functions interviewees wanted were based mostly around comfort and ease “A deodorizer. The smells of cigarettes and weed really turned me off”, “Phone charger to keep my form of communication working”, “Lots of chargers for electronics and comfort”. “Bumpin’ sound system, nice seats with AC. A lot of people are on Molly or acid, and they sweat a ton in the car.”, “A/C. Didn’t have it one year. Almost passed out”, “large garage where you can relax and window ceiling”, “An easier way to find my car in the parking lot”.

From all this feedback it has been decided to focus on pollution and safety as our core concepts. These will center around air pollution warnings and alerts, noise blocking for better sound within the car as well as an escape from the crowds if needed at the festivals. Adding in scents and filtering air around the car to help with the smells after the festivals, and reminders to clean up rubbish leftover after the festivals to continue Tesla's identity for being an ecofriendly brand.

Reference:

Watch it from 6:30 - 7:15

Extended Plan

Although interviewees said that traffic wasn’t that big of a deal to them, we thought it still would be good to partner with the events to get the users the best and easiest routes into and out of the festivals with the least amount of traffic possible. This could be an app that the festival puts out or for example Glastonbury music festival has a radio station that is accessable 10 miles out for updated traffic news and parking information. The car could be tuned into thatand their website and twitter pages to get the information and calculate the new route without the user having to do anything.

Also while most of our interviewees didn’t stay overnight at the festivals and there was one who in their comment talked about having their tent; the comment about shying away from crowds got us thinking about those who would use the car to escape the crowds. The TESLA cars could be equipped with the ability to tint windows if you are sleeping in the car or if you need a break from the crowd. When the car is in motion the windows can be tinted to a point that is legally allowable but when the car is parked the windows can be tinted out completely.

With the entertainment system being important to the interviewees, most of them commented on the sound and bass. While driving environmental noise can dilute the sound within the car with wind and speed related white noise. But with a noise reducer and sound proofing in the car it would increase the sound without the users having to increase the volume and potentially cause hearing loss. Again while driving this would have to be at a point where you could still hear car horns or sirens of emergency vehicles but could help with the unnecessary noises from the environment. When the car is parked for the festival and escaping the crowd or sleeping in the car is the idea, the noise blocking can be turned up to a maximum like noise cancelling headphones to block out almost all sounds outside the car.

Air filtration system, bio-weapon defense mode, can be used to clean the air from outside to inside the car. But once inside the air can start to smell from items or people within. If the air is rotated within the car, vents can take the air out of the cabin and cycle it back through the filtration system to keep the interior smelling fresh. There can also be an internal scentfreshener which amount can be adjusted aswell as what scent is coming through. We have found three scents that could be benefitial tofestival-goers but the owner of the car would be able to switch them out and customize their own scents up to four scents. These can be bought at TESLA stores or made online through partnered providers. The next page will tell more about the scents we have chosen for the festival-goers.

Scent

Scents are connected with memories and aroma theraphy has been used for many years as a way to help people feel better just by using ones nose. For our project we looked into different scents and how the body can react tothe different smells.

For example, citruses such as oranges, lemons, and grapefruits have anenergizing property to them that wakes up the mind and makes you happy. Scents like Lavender, lily of the valley, and jasmine can calm and relax a person when they are feeling stressed out or overdone.

Scents like eucalyptus, rosemary, peppermint can also wake you up but also have pain relieving properties to refresh the body and mind. Using these types of scents we could create scents to help hype up festival-goers, calm them down after a weekend of partying, and refresh them when needed during the festival.

Outcome

Conclusion

Thanks to interviews and usability testings some useful insights came up about the given festival scenario. The interviews also helped the concept narrow down which showed me what to focus on as the main portion of our project, while also supplying some new ideas into the mix. The challenge of making it look high-tech like Tesla’s interface was an engaging test.

The typography and colour palette are similar to what Tesla already uses but they have more personality for the exciting event of a music festival. The green and blue color of FESTIVAL MODE help identify it as related to both health and nature while the feel is upbeat and entertaining. The minimal color palette, sparing use of visual elements, and orderly layout help the app feel more sophisticated and high-class. The reminder list for the festival encourages users to bring back all their items and trash instead of leaving it at the festival site.

Tesla is known as an eco-friendly brand so encouraging users to pick up trash is in line with their green reputation. Air filtration is already a technology Tesla has and uses, but we can see it working in a different way to help out festival-goers. Using scent combined with air filtration can help improve the mood of the passengers on the way to and from the festival. The car will also be the perfect place to take a break from the crowds, lights, and sounds of a festival. We can see the solutions made for this situation helping users in other circumstances and throughout their daily lives. FESTIVAL MODE helps both the user and the planet stay happy and healthy.