anroid for cars app library
building a scalable and efficient library to develop car apps
for Android Auto & android automotive OS (Google)
The Android for Cars App Library is an SDK that allows developers to bring their apps into the car screens. It does so by providing a set of templates designed to meet driver distraction standards, and taking care of details such as the variety of car screen factors and input modalities.
my role as the UX lead
I tightly collaborated with cross-functional leads to set a successful multi-year product strategy, as well as an executable roadmap.
During this two year journey I was the lead product designer, provided oversight to a small team of product & motion designers, researchers and writers.
I was also the design point of contact for global partners (app developers and car OEMs), working alongside them to validate strategy, user/product needs and iterate on designs continuously.
GOOGLE I/O 2021 announcement. My section “INTRO TO DESIGNING WITH THE LIBRARY” starts at 7:45 mark.
Here are some interesting challenges and how I helped the team overcome them:
making sense of the chaos (setting the initial strategy)
We had the big picture, but we also had a huge gap of knowledge. What do developers need from an SDK? What do end-users (drivers) need from the experience in the car vs. on other touch points? And a million other questions you have, when you start from nothing.
We battled this ambiguity together. I helped the team use design to visualize our initial strategy. Early on I created sample apps that explored the shortcomings and strengths of our ideas. This made decision making much easier at this initial stage.
Instead of waiting for a finalized requirement document, I generated as many designs (templates, components, features) as possible. Together with cross-functional leads, we rigorously prioritized the MVP experience and feature set. We then ran these by early developer partners, having hard conversations on what is in or out.
it just got real (building the mvp)
App samples from developers around the world.
supporting global Developer needs
We observed how different global driving conditions and user behaviors affected product needs. We strived to enable flexibility for developers, so they could answer their own unique user and product needs. I led the design team to create a design framework which supported unique app architecture and user flows.
Biggest challenge was ensuring driver safety while giving developers this flexibility. I collaborated with safety and product researchers to generate a driver-distraction framework. This MVP version, though quite limited, was successful. We iterated it beyond the MVP, attracting an increasing set of app categories & developers.
build/test/iterate with confidence
a million deciisons, a million unknowns as it is not the end interface. team at times struggled to make decisions or be confident….
, continuos developement approach. prototypes, working alongside app developers and internal developers daily. test in fast but informed decision making. it was tough but I always planned for and added as much user and developer research into the process as possible, so that our deicisons were informed as well as rapid.
onwards and upwards (beyond the mvp)
Different OEM design systems rendering the same charging apps’ filter view
Expanding to the OS platform
Library enables developers to build a single app and deploy it on multiple car platforms - Android Auto Projected and Android Automotive OS.
User context and needs did not change even if the underlying technology changed from phone projection to embedded car OS. I firmly advocated for enabling single app design across platforms as our next big goal (alongside planned feature development).
This enabled end-users to have familiar interfaces in the car.
Provided efficiency to developers who have limited resources.
Our new user base - car OEMs - got the benefit of fast-growing app ecosystems with minimal effort.
One challenge was the different needs OEMs had, at times these contradicted with other users’ needs. Example, OEMs wanted to customize app UI for consistency of the whole infotainment. I led the team to develop and get bought-in for our customization strategy (from internal leadership and from OEM teams).
impact 🥳
Increased Android Auto usage, and app ecosystem growth:
Within the first few months of the public release, we got 400+ apps published with 4.5 m MAU.
Increased Android Auto projection usage in several countries where we previously had little to no market share in (Korea, Brazil, North Europe etc.).
SDK ease of use and clear developer design guidance: Extremely positive developer feedback, apps built in a matter of days.
Showing that the design strategy paid off in creating a solid foundation that can expand:
Launched on Automotive OS platform with minimal design/engineering effort.
Quick turn around on category stragey. Opened up to all POI apps (fueling, restaurant finding etc.). Ride share category coming soon.
parting thoughts 🤔
What was challenging ——>maybe positive and negative ones
Even though we were working inside a larger team, on multiple areas we were the first team to ever attend at. No path driven for us on multiple avenues, so we had to invent:
This was a product with ambiguous scope but a firm big picture, market timing was unknown. design stragey,, distraction on our hands…
It involved close coordination with external partners (developers, car OEMs). We were designing for multiple users (end-user, app developer, car OEMs) sometimes with clashing needs. Needed to coordinate/collaborate with internal Auto/Google teams.
We were the first horizontal feature team working this way… between had to align our design/product strategy to two different products’ was quite hard.
what i learned…
I LOVE A HUGE CHALLENGE… STARTING A TEAM, A PRODUCT OR PRODUCT AREA, HAVING NO DEFINED PATH…
AND, that you can build anything when you have a tight, open-minded, diverse, respectful and dedicated team. Even as the whole world is falling apart around you (majority of the work was done during the global pandemic).