OVERVIEW—

This project was sponsored by The Design Lab and their partnership with Ford.

The Design Lab is a research and education center directed by Don Norman at UC San Diego. I was part of the interdisciplinary research team that conducted research for Automation Playground project with Ford, a major Original Equipment Manufacturer.

This project is under NDA, but I can talk about my experience and takeaways.

 

Role: UX Researcher

Timeline: Oct 2020 - Present

Senior Project Personnel:

 
 

PROJECT DETAILS—

Research Goal

Explore how the configuration of a vehicle cockpit can allow a driver to understand, negotiate and manage the shared autonomy in vehicles with SAE Level 2+/3 automated driving systems.

My Role

As part of the Driving-In-The-Wild team, I explored the relationship vehicles and the passenger have with the outside world. I conducted:

  • 2 literature reviews, which informed our research questions common themes

  • 3 speculative design research, evaluating existing concepts of assisted driving system and human interaction with technology

  • 1 ethnographic drive-along, contributing to team’s analysis on how trip type, length, passenger makeup, etc. impact the nature of interaction with an automated driving system

In the second phase of the research project, I created interaction scripts which explores the relationship development between AI and driver. The scripts were then used in remote wizard-of-oz testing on users.

 

REFLECTION—

What I Learned

  • Think outside the norm. When conducting research, take time to think about unexpected situations and unique use cases.

  • Cross-team communication is important. Because the research was divided into 7 subteams, it was important to communicate ideas and finding with other teams.

This was my first experience on a university research team where I was able to work on a project with a combination of human-centered design, speculative design, and design research.

Through this project, I gained a deeper understanding of autonomous vehicles and its future impacts. Throughout this experience, I constantly asked myself the question: How will AI and ML technology revolutionize society in the future and what are the cognitive consequences? As I advance in my career, I hope to further explore this relationship.

 

ACKNOWLEGEMENTS—

Thank you to Colleen and Stephanie for leading the research project. I am extremely grateful to contribute and grow under leading researchers in human-center design.

Special shoutout to the Driving-In-The-Wild team: Amy An, Hayden Kim, Erika Dinh, Deepika Vuppala, Mylinh Lac, Chiadika Vincent, Haley Hammock! I was a pleasure working closely which such a diverse and talented team of students.

 
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