BMW + SCAD
Fall 2017
Summary
BMW asked a group of design students to explore the idea of social “breadcrumbs”, the digital footprints we all leave behind when engaging with or creating information online. The goal was to capture content and data produced during a user’s day-to-day journies and redeliver that data back to the user as a meaningful in-car feature that facilitates meaningful experiences and connections.
The final product was a presentation to stakeholders at BMW of four distinct concepts developed over the course of 10 weeks.
Role
This was a large group project. My roles on this project included:
contextual and ethnographic research - data synthesis - sketching and concept development - system mapping - visualization and presentation creation - team management.
Solutions
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Daily Brief breaks down top-priority content for the user by delivering a bite-size easily consumable summary of the whos, whats, and whens that would be most beneficial to know before tackling their day.
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This concept aims to enhance the connectivity between drivers and their tribes through the packaging and presenting that tribe’s social breadcrumbs.
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The car learns locations relevant to the driver in order to serve up notifications at more useful and meaningful times.
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This aims to take advantage of users’ social media breadcrumbs to simplify the creation and consumption of memories while facilitating and strengthening the connection between the user, their journey, and their network.
Daily Brief
Daily Brief breaks down top-priority content for the user by delivering a bite-size easily consumable summary of the whos, whats, and whens that would be most beneficial to know before tackling their day.
Insights
People try to maximize and take advantage of their time spent in the car, either for social connections or work-related tasks.
People will follow a clear pattern of what they're interested in the morning and who it's coming from.
People have built social media into their morning routines and are keen to look for updates before they leave their homes for either work or school.
Value
During our research, we found that people have worked social media updates into their daily routines. Most of our research showed that people wake up and instantly check their phones to see what their friends have been doing since they last checked in.
By providing users with updates about their social connections as well as business connections as they enter the car, they are maximizing the time they spend in the car.
Visual Outline
The car uses the driver’s social media and selected news sources to develop information to give the user.
The user is prompted with their brief every morning but can choose to receive more information throughout the day when they enter the car.
BMW Brief aims to help strengthen social connections by creating seamless conversation starters.
Features
Machine learning to determine who matters to the user.
Quick updates on what the user’s connections have posted about on social media.
Users can receive updates on what the people they are meeting with have posted online about recently.
Users can receive tailored news to their interests that they demonstrate online.
They can use gesture control to easily skip past a brief.
New briefs are always available to users to keep them up to date throughout the day.
Social Drive
This concept aims to enhance the connectivity between drivers and their tribes through the packaging and presentation of that tribe's social breadcrumbs.
Insights
Although social media allows us to connect with a vast network, we are most comfortable within our own tribe of people.
Social media networks have become very large and impersonal. Users make smaller, more intimate, groups in messaging platforms to stay connected.
Drivers are more likely to take spontaneous trips when accompanied by a friend.
Value
Tribes share so much of their experiences on social media, either actively with one another, or passively leaving a post for anyone to see. Users want to be connected with their tribe and share entertainment and communication.
This platform allows our BMW drivers to connect with their closest friends and with next to no input from either side.
Their BMW now becomes a space for them to explore more of what their tribe is engaging with, transforming their vehicles into a new shared space.
Features
Social Drive Organizes social media data into the three categories below, each offering a chance to explore more of what their tribe has been consuming
Explore Media
Music
Podcasts
Audio Books
Destinations
Food
Travel
Entertainment
News
Pop Culture
International
National
Visual Outline
The visuals below show a rough idea of how a driver might access and utilize Social Drive. While in the vehicle they can scroll through their friends’ profiles and the content those friends have recently engaged with.
BMW Context
The car learns relevant locations to the driver in order to serve up notifications at more useful and meaningful times.
Insights
People feel their time is well spent when they can effectively multitask.
The car is viewed by an overwhelming majority as an object for utility.
Humans are able to think clearly when their brain is not loaded down by small thoughts.
Value
Users know they won't forget a message from someone important to them, relieving anxieties in their vehicle.
The user's time spent in the car is significantly more efficient since they only receive notifications that they can react to immediately.
Decreases the amount of notification clutter that might distract the user while driving.
Users feel more connected to their networks because every individual action is made meaningful by time and place.
Features
Car waits to push notifications to the driver based on time and location.
The car reads text-based messages as well as subject and image summaries so the driver can focus on the road.
Filters out low priority messages to reduce avoidable distractions
Visual Outline
As the driver enters the city, his music turn to a low volume and his friends message is read aloud
— “Hey Sam, welcome to the city! We are so excited to have you with us. Park wherever today, they don’t ticket on the weekends.”
The driver is headed to visit some friends in a new city. The friend sends a message to the driver to receive when he arrives.
My Town
This idea aims to take advantage of users' social media breadcrumbs to simplify the creation and consumption of memories while facilitating and strengthening the connection between the user, their journey, and their network.
Insights
My journeys take a new value when I get a chance to share them with the world.
Other people push me to do interesting things.
My technology needs to be intuitive/simple to me, it should adapt to me and what I already do.
Value
The beauty of My Town lies in the fact that it is based on preexisting social media behaviors and therefore doesn't require any additional effort from the user. This generates an ongoing cycle in which social media breadcrumbs provide journey opportunities that can lead to new breadcrumbs.
Creates mutual links among a user's network that can strengthen personal connections.
It creates a more direct connection to memories since the user is at the same location where those took place.
It provides the users new opportunities they wouldn't have considered otherwise.
Features
Trip Mode
Through the car's navigation, users can turn "trip mode" on the side toolbar. once trip mode is on, a small icon appears in the corner of the screen.
Points of Interest
The navigation system shows points of interest and photos linked to these relevant places. This information is drawn from the user's social media breadcrumbs as well as those in her close network.
Journey Mode
Drivers can select and import geotagged photos from their cloud library. These photos can be pinned to locations to create Journey memories.
Private Mode
Users are able to select the social media platforms BMW can access, and users can decide whether they share journeys or keep them private.
Visual Outline
This is an outline of the "trip mode" feature. If on, it initiates the capturing and sharing of the current journey.
The display is split between the navigation and the associated social media posts and photos of this destination.
After a journey is created, the user can choose to post it to social media, allowing their network to share in the experience.
Recorded journeys show pinned locations and pictures from the destinations.