“We’re going to rebuild our system from scratch using Android Automotive… we don’t really know what that means.”
I joined the in-vehicle experience team just as Ford was moving away from sending Photoshop files to engineers. Each vehicle got its own design language, and the systems were built by stacking PNGs.
9to5GoogleFord adopting Android Automotive and Google Cloud in wide-ranging partnershipAbner Li · Feb 1, 2021↗learning the platformDigging in and sharing what we learned
Only one car had launched on Android Automotive at the time: the Polestar 2. We had no idea how much control we’d have over theming or layouts, so two other newly hired designers and I dug through Google’s documentation and every Polestar video we could find to see what the platform would let us do.
Android Open Source ProjectAndroid AutomotiveA full-stack, open source, highly customizable platform running directly on in-vehicle hardware.read the docs ↗working togetherGetting design and engineering in the same room
Design and engineering had been working in vacuums. Engineers got InVision links and Photoshop files, and designers didn’t talk to them again until features were built months later.
So while we learned the platform, we formed a cross-functional design system team with engineers. We met weekly for the next year to stay aligned, break things together and share where we wanted to go.
The first themeable, platform-agnostic system at Ford
Jack and I got it started together over that first year. He took it to the finish line while I moved on to lead product design for the new system.
