Tesla Gets Waze Navigation Features and HVAC Enhancements
This case study is a passion project to further my design and research knowledge. I am not affiliated with Tesla — other than being a proud owner.
I wanted to challenge myself by working on a product that I believe is at the top of the industry in design and innovation. Tesla is constantly improving and pushing the boundaries, especially in the world of user experience. I wanted to explore how I could iterate upon Tesla’s design to make something already great into something even better.
As a UX designer, I find myself appreciating the experience of driving a Tesla, even more so after driving other cars. However, I also find myself analyzing every interaction and experience with the car’s infotainment system, and sometimes see issues or missing features.
Was I the only one?
After surveying thirty-six Tesla owners, I found that my assumptions were correct. There is always room for improvement, and Tesla, while already incredible, is not exempt.
First, I asked Tesla drivers how they feel when they get into their car.
The responses showed why Tesla is at the top of the industry. Drivers feel safe, happy, great, awesome and many other positive adjectives. However, there are a few words that aren’t positive.
I started to dive deeper into those negative experiences to find ways to turn them into positive ones.
AREAS OF OPPORTUNITY
The problem areas were categorized into three main sections:
“I don’t like how many of the commonly used buttons are hard to tap because they are so small”
“I wish I could use Waze for navigation instead of the Tesla standard.”
“I would like to be able to input multiple stops along my destination route.”
“I don’t like air blasting on me so I use the HVAC in manual, which means way too many clicks to make the adjustments I want.”
FROM RESEARCH TO DESIGN
I compared Tesla’s infotainment systems with five other major car companies to see where they were doing things better than Tesla.
Tesla was in a league of its own. It had the largest screen of all the infotainment systems. It is the most modern in terms of overall design, and it comes standard in all trims, not as an extra.
However, other infotainment systems had several features that Tesla lacked:
• Bigger buttons with haptic feedback
• Waze integration
• More personalization and customization
I compiled my research findings and brainstormed solutions by paper prototyping design ideas.
DESIGN SOLUTIONS
READABILITY ISSUES
One common pain point was that many of the icons were too small and hard to read, especially when pressing while driving.
SOLUTIONS
• Increased the size of the icons in the pop-up menu.
• Added a layer underneath the top row of icons on the map to increase contrast.
MISSING FEATURES
Users reported the desire to have the ability to view a list of available voice commands and display the current date on the top bar.
SOLUTIONS
• Added the list of voice commands to the main menu. This list can be viewed with two taps. It can be quickly scanned to find the commands relevant to each category.
• Added date display to the top bar that can be enabled by a toggle in the display settings.
New Settings in Action
NO MULTI-DESITINATION ROUTING
Multiple users expressed a need for waypoints, a common feature in several other navigation systems. Many rely on smartphone apps for this feature.
SOLUTIONS
• Added a plus symbol to the existing navigation UI, which enables drivers to easily add additional destinations to their route.
• Once a destination is added, users can quickly rearrange the order of stops and see the estimated time to reach each destination.
• Drivers can change the order of destinations at any time using the reorder button.
• X buttons next to each destination allow the user to remove the individual destinations without canceling navigation.
LACK OF WAZE INTEGRATION
Tesla navigation lacks real-time incident reporting, so users must rely on the Waze smartphone app for this functionality.
SOLUTIONS
• New traffic notifications appear in the same place as other notifications when a reported accident, pothole, or traffic jam is ahead.
• Drivers can confirm the problem or report that the problem has been cleared using the green check mark or the red no symbol, respectively.
• Drivers can report a new traffic condition by clicking on the exclamation button on the bottom-left of the map.
• Along the route, tear-drop icons appear for each reported traffic condition.
New Navigation Features in Action
UNINTUITIVE HEATING & COOLING
Users expressed frustrations with the HVAC system, both in manual and automatic modes. In automatic mode, the system often chose an undesirable mode of operation due to the lack of flexibility in the settings. Manual mode, on the other hand, requires users to frequently adjust the settings to achieve the optimal comfort level. There is also no intuitive way to prevent heat from turning on while leaving fan enabled.
SOLUTIONS
• Split the heating and cooling levels into separate sections, allowing the ability to set a comfortable temperature range instead of a single temperature. This alleviates the issue of the heating or cooling turning on unnecessarily, which forced the users to make manual adjustments.
• Allow a fan only, cool only, and heat only options.
• Show the inside temperature and color-code the temperature setting number to let the user know what mode is currently active (Heat, AC, or Fan only).
New HVAC Controls in Action
REFLECTION
I began this passion project as a challenge. It was a way for me to dig deep and come up with creative ways to make a great product even more usable and functional.
Exploring the user research was key to unlocking design solutions. I believe that these changes will enable a better user experience.
I enjoyed the challenge of making over 40 icons in Adobe XD. Having only a few screenshots of the infotainment interface, I used them as stencils to create a clickable prototype. In addition, I designed the traffic icons and the interface for multiple destination routing. Most satisfying was creating the components with animated transitions.
Every time I take a drive, I envision my improvements. I search for the traffic report icon and the plus button to add another destination. I can’t seem to unsee them — now that you have seen them, can you?
Perhaps Tesla will be integrating these features soon! I hope you enjoyed reading. I would love to hear all your thoughts and comments and learn from you as well!
Visit ux.rachelsdesign.com/tesla-case-study for the in-depth case study
I’m Rachel Zolotov,
A UX Designer in St. Louis, MO
You can reach me through LinkedIn!
