ustwo studio:

Over the last year we’ve seen a lot of new thought about in-car HMI. We’ve seen considered critique about the elements and design considerations (especially in the centre console), with safety rightly at the forefront. There were 10 automakers at CES this year, with 50 products designed to reduce accidents.

In the course of our research and partnership with CDR (Car Design Research), we identified one fundamental and ubiquitous element in cars which has lacked an effective redesign over the last few decades.

This element is the humble instrument cluster, with its speedometer and fuel gauge and so on. We’ve looked into how we can and why we should enrich this space. We want to present the results of this, not as a complete solution, but as a viewpoint and approach to be tested, debated and improved with your feedback.

I love this kind of thinking aloud. Here we have an in-depth exploration of a specialized UI, which relies on adaptive hierarchy to display the most important information in the appropriate context. The results are thoughtful, and aesthetically pleasing as well.