Aston Martin

To replace Aston Martin's previous generation Mercedes-sourced infotainment with a new, connected HMI and digital experience of its own, designed from scratch across a full model-line refresh: DB12, then the new Vantage, DBX707 and Valhalla.

A bespoke HMI has no UX rulebook. An app inherits its interaction model from iOS and Android OS guidelines; a car interface doesn't. We had to define core interaction principles and how it would behave before designing a single feature. The steering wheel controls and much of the switchgear came from Mercedes, and the HMI itself was still underpinned by Mercedes technology, so we were still somewhat technically constrained. However, the Mercedes technology was only one part of the picture. Defining a vehicle architecture that met our own requirements meant integrating other components, and building a connected car infrastructure outside the Mercedes stack that still worked seamlessly with the in-car HMI to create a holistic Aston Martin digital experience.

Switchgear

We digitally mapped where every control would live, working within the supplier's constraints and the flexibility the hardware team could give us. We expected to inherit Mercedes' logic for the steering wheel, but had more freedom than anticipated, for example in how cruise control activates and where to place the resume and cancel buttons.

Eye Tracking Perception & Completion Tests

With the interior design team, we built a physical buck of the car to recreate real driving. Participants completed tasks like changing the navigation or the music while we tracked their eyes: where they looked, and how long each glance away from the road took. The findings shaped the interface and the hardware together, from screen tilt and ergonomics to how visible the cluster was through the steering wheel and other layout and UI elements within the infotainment.

Designing for the Time a Car Takes to Respond

One finding went beyond the interface. In testing, we simulated the real time a car takes to respond to a remote command: 10 to 20 seconds to unlock. Participants found it far too slow. That gave us the evidence to push engineering on vehicle response time, a reminder that UX is the whole experience, not just the screen.

One Experience, Everywhere

The in-car HMI, the phone app and the watch app were all built from Aston Martin's first digital design system, so the UI is aligned and consistent across all three. The same typography, iconography, components and interaction patterns carry from screen to screen, resulting in a cohesive luxury digital experience.

Parked for Months, Ready to Drive

In one of our focus groups, an owner described their Aston Martin as a special occasion car, not an everyday one. It spends long spells parked outside their home, and they wanted it to sit there like a chandelier, without coming back to a flat battery when they do decide to drive it and with no trickle charger cables trailing from it. That eventually reinforced a core power management requirement in the vehicle and prioritised a feature called Standby Mode, that lets an owner leave the car off charge for up to six months without draining the battery or needing a trickle charger.