Representation of intended user experiences of a vehicle in early design stages

This research explores cross-functional design information exchange during the early phases of vehicle development projects and discusses the underlying notion of 'functional walls' hindering interactions between design team members with different backgrounds. This paper details an experimental phase composed of three stages. The first research stage collected and clustered descriptions of real-life user experiences. These clusters were then used for the selection of intentions related to a future vehicle and for the creation of early representations. Different versions of these representations were then assessed by automotive professionals in order to understand the influence of the layout on the understanding of design information and subjective perception criteria. The results obtained show that multi-sensory layouts tend to be better understood and more appreciated. Finally, their contribution to the opening of 'functional walls' is discussed together with the nature of design information that can be conveyed by preliminary representations.