Ford Performance
Designing and running usability tests for a mobile and infotainment experience built for racing enthusiasts.
Most of what we recommended shipped in the production release, now available to Ford GT and Shelby GT owners on iOS and Android.
Ford Performance built an app for racing enthusiasts to log laps and overlay video with track data, but nobody had tested it with a real driver in a real car.
I designed and ran usability tests to see how the app held up outside a conference room. Ahead of formal testing, my research partner Tim and I test-drove a Shelby Mustang GT350 with the app to learn the experience firsthand. Eight Ford employees, split between moderate car enthusiasts and pro or semi-pro racers, worked through 10 tasks, 6 behind the wheel and 4 in the lab, from mounting a phone to record a drive to reviewing and sharing a finished lap.
Testing surfaced problems a screen review never would have. Drivers didn't realize their phone doubled as the camera. Most got lost trying to reach Track mode. Drag mode gave no signal when a run actually started or crossed the quarter mile.
Onboarding explains upfront that your phone is the camera, so drivers stop hunting for a separate one before their first recorded lap.
Every screen got a title and an obvious way home, instead of leaving drivers to guess where they were.
A direct shortcut into Track mode replaced the multi-tap path that lost most drivers during testing.
Drag mode calls out the quarter-mile point out loud and on screen, so a run isn't ambiguous mid-launch.
"I loved the flexibility of using my phone as a recording device."
