Ford Motor Company - D-Ford Human Centered Design Labs

Interaction Designer 2022-2023

 
 

At D-Ford, I led interaction design on the future of electric vehicle experiences. Because my work involved unreleased vehicles, details related to any final work are very secret. 🤫 To view detailed project case studies, reach out for the password and click the button below. Just want to get a sense of the type of work I did? Keep reading for a breakdown of some key areas in which I contributed.

Want to check out my work but don’t have the password? Reach out and say hi. :)

 

Interaction Design - Project T3 - Digital Experiences

I can now announce that I helped build the early interaction design models for Ford’s new panoramic display. Check out this Car & Driver article on the reveal from Ford.

Described by Ford Motor Company CEO Jim Farley as “the Millennium Falcon — with a back porch attached,” Project T3 is a second generation all-electric pickup truck releasing in 2025, announced across the media in March 2023. My role in project T3 was to lead interaction design on digital experiences, both exterior and interior. Because not much has been announced to the press, I can’t give specifics about the work, but I can say that I led a team of two other interaction designers to define experience principles, craft key storytelling moments, build prototypes, test, and ultimately deliver reference designs of our best opportunities to our partners and keystakeholders.

Product Strategy

  • Ran cross functional iteration workshops to ensure alignment of purpose across different stakeholder groups in disparate areas of the business.

  • Developed customer journey maps and user stories, mapped experience value propositions back to key learnings, and laid out for the business what matters most to the user. 

  • Represented the interaction design craft’s interests in project planning and scoping to ensure adequate time is projected and protected for work to be done.

 

Research

  • Traveled across the country for immersion work, gaining valuable customer insights by going where the customer goes and doing the things that are important to them.

  • Advocated for and participated in agile guerrilla style research to gain valuable, actionable insight on tight timelines.

  • Worked side-by-side with research colleagues on industry vehicle benchmarking, driving and analyzing a wide range of competitor vehicles to learn what’s out there, what works, and areas of opportunity.

  • Facilitated and attended multiple week long on-site in-person customer research events, including building prototype experiences, setting up and managing on-site equipment, and working with third party research and facility vendors.

  • Regularly collaborated with different research groups - internal, corporate high level ethnography groups, and external facilitation groups.

 

Interaction Design

  • Led interaction design on multiple unreleased vehicles, from early ethno work, make-to-learn iterative collaboration, into full fidelity prototypes, including articulating the customer and business value of design decisions to key executive stakeholders. 

  • Developed pipelines and frameworks for immersive user facing prototype experiences involving 5+ displays, software and hardware solutions, including AR projections, VR, and custom built hydraulics.

  • Led development of interaction models on industry leading cutting-edge screen technology new to the business. Drove validation of experiences backed by user insights gathered during in person immersive testing scenarios. 

  • Mentored interns by giving guidance and feedback on projects.