Car Design Fix
1)For frequent travelers
2)Who find car travel uncomfortable, inefficient, and frustrating.
3)Our solution is a completely revamped car interior
4)that increases comfort, ease, and aesthetic qualities
5)unlike the cramped and chaotic car interiors of today.
6)Our new design involves simplification of the dashboard, introduction of innovative fabric and material, and space efficiency through better storage and organization.
The target consumers for our project are drivers and passengers of cars. We spent some time interviewing a variety of randomly-chosen students across campus to see what frustrated them when they drove or rode in cars. We specifically looked for answers regarding the space within the car, as well as what interior designs could be added or remodeled. Here were their answers:
Spatial Problems
Center console- needs more room
Leg room in front and back seats
Back seat needs better ventilation
Visors don’t work for short people/ blind-spot problem
Place to organize cell phone iPod
General Cosmetic problems
Back seat- more drink holders
Bad ac direction
Cloth on roof durability
Cup holder size/ height/ grip/ amount
Inserting trashcan that doesn’t mess with foot room
Handle grips shouldn’t be attached to ceiling fabric
Door handle durability
Sleeker material on sides
Ashtray isn’t useful
Dashboard Problems
Night time lighting
Can’t read clock
Rattling on dashboard- loose pieces
Gas gauge precision
Steering wheel isn’t comfortable
Steering wheel blocks dashboard
Lighter/ charger placement
Confusing organization of dashboard
Radio/ music problems- changing stations, formatting, music jacks hard to get to
Too many buttons on dashboard
Inconsistency from car to car
Safety/ Comfort problems
Arm rests, loose, wobbly, too far back for short people
Seatbelts comfort
Sunroof- glare/ lighting issues
Defrosting the windshield is hard
Sleeping comfort for passengers
Seat should have back structure/ memory foam
Light warning
Windshield wiper visibility
What People Like:
Gear change and window control in center is good for right handed people.
It helps to have the GPS in the middle for visibility.
We further analyzed the interiors of certain car models for their good and bad aspects. Because so many of the interviewee’s frustrations related to dashboard problems, we focused in on this area.
Although we cannot cater to all 35 of the car design-fix suggestions that we received, we can group problems together and focus on the bigger picture.
We noticed that many of the safety and comfort issues could correlate with spatial issues in the car. Therefore, if we combined these genres, our group plans to redesign the interior of a car to create a more comfortable, safe space. We would also like to study the design of a dashboard; many people complained that it was so complicated that they couldn’t use it properly. We would like to clear out unnecessary products within the dashboard for a cleaner, more user-friendly design.
The best thing about this solution is the “standard template” that we can create for cars. We will craft a new space and dashboard area that can be reapplied to almost any car in market, so as to avoid confusion from manufacturer to manufacturer. This design solves many common frustrations in the consumer half of automotive transport, and can be used again and again!
Our team members include Catherine Quigley, Isabella Norcini, Greg Klighshirn, Wesley Herr, and Briana Rinderknecht. We will focus on the efficiency of space in transportation. We are particularly interested in studying the space within a car and the space within an airplane.