Immersion Corporation is the leading innovator of touch feedback technology, also known as haptics. The company provides technology solutions for creating immersive and realistic experiences that enhance digital interactions by engaging users’ sense of touch. Immersion's technology has been adopted in more than 3 billion digital devices, and provides haptics in mobile, automotive, consumer electronics products as well as gaming, including the latest PlayStation 5 DualSense haptic controller.
MY ROLE
As Principle Designer my role on this project was to help create a demonstrator unit which would present key values of HD haptics in automotive touchscreens and how haptics alongside clever interaction design can improve driver safety by reducing gaze behaviour during in-car interactions with touch screens.
This demo was built and designed with Immersion's Active Sensing Technology and TDK's PowerHap Piezo Actuator, and the UI was build using Unity. Haptic Technology made by Immersion creates high definition touch feedback on touchscreens and other touch surfaces.
Throughout this project I was responsible for design research, interaction use cases, journeys maps, user flow diagrams, interaction architecture, low & high-fidelity prototypes, art direction, visual design, final UI assets and last but lot least haptic design and integration.
I was collaborating closely with a UX Researcher, hardware and software engineering teams. Various design processes, including problem framing, proto-persona, UX Business Canvas and lab usability testing sessions were done by the UX Researcher on the team.
This demonstrator has been presented at multiple shows around the world, including CES, Tokyo Automotive Show, and private viewing to automotive OEMs and Tier's. It has received high praises for its innovative engineering and haptic design and brought Immersion business opportunities in Automotive industry.
Haptics Design
Why haptics?
Haptics can perfectly complement the audio-visual components of traditional touch surfaces interactions as to simulate the sensations related to the physical counterpart of a digital UI element. That would help the user achieve the intended tasks easier and faster (i.e. less confusion and frustration), and thus increase joy and positive attitude towards the product.
Haptics and Cognitive load
Haptics can be used to efficiently convey information to the user as the sole sensory channel or in addition to the other channels (i.e. Audio Visual). However, haptics has the advantage of reducing the visual attention load of a driver, and of overcoming the audible noise problem in a car where audio cues can be misinterpreted.
To achieve this, I have grouped the haptic effects into 3 cathegories which I would use across interaction in this demonstrator.
Ideation Workshop
As part of this project in collaboration with UX Researcher Felipe Almeida we facilitated a small group ideation workshop to collect data on commonly used interactions by drivers in todays vehicles as well as what people envisioned future interactions would be for L3/L4 autonomous vehicles.
Below are some of the activities we utilized with 3 groups of 4 people which helped narrow down which interactions I should invest in for haptic language as primary vs secondary actions. Which interactions users commonly make with voice vs touch or button controls.
As part of this workshop we invited Immersion's key stakeholders with driving experience. Group included members from immersions engineering teams, sales and IT. We tried to get balanced group with people who were not in any way connected to this project.
Information Architecture + User Flow
For IA I focused on our core findings from the workshops and data complied by researcher. We collection a lot of valuable information but due to project time and resource constrains we focused on key interactions while putting other ideas on backlog for future internal R&D projects.
Interactions Breakdown
Map Interations
Final Visual Design
FINAL PRODUCT + DEMONSTRATION
SPECIAL THANKS!
This project was a team effort, only possible with the collaboration between very talented and passionate group of individuals at Immersion Corporation.
