Screen Time BFA Thesis

2025

Medium: Installation/Mixed Media

Fonts: Bebas Neue, Overpass

Research Question: How are car manufacturers and suppliers addressing the complexity of designing and integrating in-car software and the way it is used?

Cars impact every single person on the planet. They directly provide transportation for owners, but also indirectly affect the safety and climate of all that share the road. This thesis studies the ways in which human machine interfaces (HMI) are integrated and function in current vehicles, how those differ from past implementations, and how hardware and software engineers are working towards better implementing functionality and matching consumer taste and trends in the future. This project aims to find the best solution balancing safety, user satisfaction, and cost effectiveness for the best car HMI system.

For more information, head to screentimethesis.my.canva.site/ 

Process Work

I conducted extensive field research to better understand the balance between digital and physical controls in vehicle HMI systems. This included visiting a range of car dealerships to interact with various in-vehicle systems firsthand, attending the Cleveland Auto Show to observe current industry trends and emerging technologies, and touring the Airstream manufacturing facility in Jackson Center, Ohio to gain insight into how user experience is considered in the design and production of vehicles. These experiences provided valuable, real-world perspectives that enriched and augmented my secondary research, which included books, news articles, video documentaries, images, interviews, and academic sources, by providing tangible, contextual understanding of how users and designers interact with HMI systems in practice. This helped to shape my recommended balanced design approach and reinforced the importance of intuitive, user-centered HMI solutions. It is not so black and white when it comes to integrating vehicle functions.