UX/UI - QUON TRUCK MODEL

Overview

In parallel to Volvo Trucks exterior & interior facelift (redesign) for models Volvo FH, Volvo FH16, Volvo FM and Volvo FMX Volvo, the business additionally decided to update their Japanese truck model Quon for their subsidiary company UD trucks. This updated truck model was released in the market 2017, providing a driver interface with a user-centred focus.


Stating The Problem

As Volvo Trucks decided to create a facelift for their truck models due to the important demands of supporting the truck driver's journey, it was inevitable that a business alignment was needed for its subsidiary company. Therefore, a main driver interface was developed that support the truck driver with a user-friendly and easy-to-understand instrument cluster display. Although not as high-end as the parental companie's truck displays, this 5-inch color LCD display focuses on easy access to various types of information arranged in zones, displaying the most important information at the top.

The Users

Since it is a heavy duty truck, the focus was on mainly on long distance drivers. Typically, these type of users and their employers (haulage contractors) values drivability, fuel efficiency, safety, productivity & uptime.


My Role & The Work Process

As the lead UX/UI designer went for parental-leave, I took over the responsibilities for the product. My role was to take part of existing driver feedback data and analyze it before designing, design UX wireframe flows for new menu systems, creating graphics for these, handling strategies as well as graphics for notification systems, administrate the icons library and making sure that every icon followed the Volvo design standards and ISO standards. I used the Adobe Master Collection (Illustrator & photoshop mainly) to achieve this. The work was conducted in a multi-national Scrum-team at the department of Volvo Group Design.

Results

It was a privilege to be part of the team developing the all new Quon for UD trucks. Moreoever, it was a succesful launch in japan with users stressing on how happy they were with the instrument panel. This was an educational journey for me to work with this international team. I learned how different drivers from various cultures (in this case the Japanese drivers) percieves their daily challenges at work as opposed to other European drivers I had been in touch with before. Although worth mentioning is that some of the business interests stay the same (afterall, haulage contractors are haulage contractors no matter where you are in this world). As a UX Designer, it has always been an interest of mine to explore and investigate users globaly. For example, this product taught me how much impact culture & diversity has on the user exprience of systems (in this case a 5" display), i.e. the expectations would be different i terms of interactions, color schemes, layouts as well as iconography. More info on the truck model can be found here on the website: https://www.udtrucks.com/southafrica/trucks/new-quon/drivability