According to AAA, last year 34.7 million Americans traveled 50 miles or more from home during the Labor Day holiday weekend, the highest volume for the holiday since 2008.

It’s road trip season again and if you’re in a modern car, technology has moved in to make it easier and more enjoyable. Google is rolling out Android Auto, Apple has CarPlay, Microsoft has Windows Embedded Automotive, and Tesla has perhaps the loveliest display of them all. However, the dynamics of traveling with family haven’t changed.

These are 5 things I’ve learned from road trips that I think can apply to UX.

1. Needs vs wants

Set user priorities.
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What is more important; starting the next episode of Dora the Explorer or taking the correct exit on the interstate? In a car there are needs and there are wants that masquerade as needs.

The car should respond in a way that takes in account the need for safety and navigation before personal wants, then rank those wants in order of overall importance, beginning with the driver and ending with the passengers.

Sometimes user wants become needs that jump to the top of the hierarchy.

Another way of thinking of it is like this:

2. Safe at any speed

Keep eyes on the road.
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A few terrifying statistics from ATT’s Smartphone Survey

62% of drivers keep their smartphones within easy reach while driving.
7 in 10 people engage in smartphone activities while driving.
30% of people who post to Twitter while driving do it “all the time.”
22% who access social networks while driving cite addiction as a reason.

If a digital dashboard is more complicated to use than a phone then people will default to their phone, and that includes the drivers. Automakers are tacitly acknowledging this by working with Silicon Valley’s top mobile operating systems. Apple’s CarPlay and Android Auto use the driver’s phone to drive the car’s UX, forcing the user to look at the dashboard rather than down at their phones. But drivers are still not looking at the road. This needs to change.

Options

Disable certain heavy cognitive functions while in motion.

Only trigger actions by voice or steering wheel inputs.

Use cameras to determine if a driver is looking at content and instruct a driver assistant program to become more aware of the car’s surroundings and give the driver feedback if there is danger.

Use HUDs (heads-up displays) in addition to dashboard screens.

Self-driving cars.

3. Are we there yet?

Create recognizable, clear, consistent, simple to use navigation. —

The primary purpose of a car is to get us from one place to another. The primary function of a car’s UI should support this by being recognizable, clear, consistent and simple to use.

Often times this manifests as a map or turn-by turn directions — which works great unless you’re moving too quickly to catch a sign, or it’s really dark out, or you’re traveling the backroads. In these cases a satellite view or a photo of each major turn would be very helpful.

Whatever the UI is, it should not disappear when someone plays music, makes a call, or adjusts the temperature. Those moments always seem to come right when you need to take an exit.

4. Fighting over the radio

Avoid bottlenecking UI elements. —

Joe and Caroline are driving in a car. Joe turns on the radio and tunes to “Garrison Keillor’s Prairie Home Companion.” Caroline immediately wrenches the dial away from tales of bachelor farmers to a pop station playing Drake. Joe immediately changes the station. This goes back-and-forth until:

1. They agree on a station.
2. The driver declares that they get to choose the station because they’re driving.
3. They turn off the radio and sit out their trip in hostile silence.

Does this sound familiar? It’s essentially a fight over a UI bottleneck which is frustrating because we are used to controlling our entertainment environments with a variety of devices. A car should be the same way. Any approved user and device should be able to cast music or other content to the car’s entertainment system and the driver (and safety system) get veto rights.

5. Reinvent the car space

The car is a shared environment.
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A car is like a very small room that you can’t easily escape from, at least it can feel like that sometimes. The easiest thing to do is pull out a device, pop in earbuds and retreat into your personal space. There should be better alternatives to this than playing “I spy with my little eye…” for hours on end. But I haven’t experienced any.

There is a great opportunity for someone to re-imagine how we spend time together. I’m hoping for a new generation of games, but at this point a great karaoke app would help.

This space is only going to get more interesting as automated cars rollout and the form of automobiles morphs away from a driver-centric design. Group dynamics can change completely when people face each other. I’m looking forward to more social time.

Happy trails!

Matt Sundstrom is in love with the future, drawing and user experience. Find him at Instrument; an independent digital creative agency that launches brands, products, campaigns and interactive experiences for every screen — located in verdant Portland, Oregon.
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Words & Pictures © Matt Sundstrom 2015

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Additional Reading & Interesting Links

ATT Smart Phone Survey
In U.S., New Data Show Longer, More Sedentary Commutes
Wired: The Next Big OS War is in Your Dashboard
Jalopnik: Ridiculous Distracted Drivers
Travels With Charley: In Search of America by John Steinbeck
Roadtrip USA

If you found this interesting please recommend and share it around — better yet, write a response below to let me know your thoughts about road tripping and UX.