Late to the party - here’s my last-minute take on the RIVE / contra HMI challenge.

The concept originated from a few key considerations:

- Could Vehicle HMI be more playful, stylish, and stand out uniquely?

- Is a touchscreen the most suitable approach?

- How many and which buttons are necessary, taken into account that voice-controlled AI will offer intuitive and natural accessibility?

As a huge fan of hardware synths, I just love knobs, sliders, and buttons. As a designer, I admire exceptional design. Teenage Engineering is a distinctive and instantly recognizable brand that stands on its own. How could a vehicle HMI designed by Teenage Engineering be envisioned?

I wanted to apply the mental model and design language of the legendary OP-1 synth to a vehicle HMI to give it a unique appearance and feel. While the general UX of the synth already provides a strong foundation, several additional considerations were necessary before moving into RIVE.

I focused on a central display unit that offers quick access to the most relevant functions. Fast access to a few main applications was crucial: media, navigation, climate, and car settings needed to be easily accessible with dedicated buttons. Four additional buttons could be freely configured to the user’s preference, with widgets like weather, gaming, stocks, or travel guides.

The interaction should be quick and distraction-free. Clicking one of the eight app buttons would allow for immediate interaction through color-coded rotational knobs. The first knob selects a parameter, while the other one changes it. The knobs can also be clicked to add another level of input.

To the left, there’s a vertically aligned set of buttons, including one knob that functions as the volume and power knob. All other buttons provide access to dedicated general tasks. Some tasks, like play/pause, don’t require a separate screen. Temporary modes and functions are available, such as focus mode or lock mode, the latter can be configured to be used as pet mode. Secondary functions, like skipping a song, can be accessed through a long press.

Since AI will play a significant role in future vehicles, I included a dedicated button to enable it. Although wake words would make it obsolete, I thought it was convenient to have. All interactions with AI would be voice-based.

The bottom row is reserved for quickly confirming or declining a function or notification.

Given the limited time allocated to join the competition, at least 50% of the time was spent designing the user experience (UX) and user interface (UI). To gain a better understanding of the device, I decided to build it in 3D using Plasticity and Blender. This approach allowed me to bring the design to life quickly.

The biggest challenge in RIVE was data binding with nested artboards. While the pure and direct design approach ruled out screen transitions and overboarding animations, micro interactions required some attention. Although it may seem straightforward and easy, it took some time to make it work the way I envisioned.

And while instrument clusters offer more options for animating, I believed it would be more fulfilling to focus on the infotainment system of a modern car from a holistic perspective. Current and future cars offer so much more, especially in the realm of autonomous driving, when the classic dashboard clusters transition from primary to secondary information displays.

There are many more ideas I wanted to implement, but the time constraints can only give a glimpse of what can be done with RIVE in the field of HMI design.

Screen Recording up next!