TATA EV Mobile App | 2019-2020

Designers: Prasadd Bartakke and Samir Chabukswar, YUJ Designs Pvt Ltd., Pune, Maharashtra, India
Manufacturer: TATA Motors Pvt Ltd., Thane, India

In 2019, a leading automobile company in India invested millions in new-generation electric and connected vehicle solutions for the ASEAN market. As their design partners, we were entrusted to ensure that the connected app platform becomes successful through a seamless digital experience. This platform catered to individual car owners and fleet owners. End-to-end User Centered Design

Our design team informed design decisions by converting user insights into design concepts. User research was conducted in mature markets such as US and Europe, and in India with EV and non-EV users. Design concepts were evaluated through several rounds of user testing. In the end, it was an app that was going to enable users to control key car functions remotely, safely, securely in the most convenient way.

Impact by Design
1. 80% of the most frequent and important functions driving convenience are ONE-touchavailable directly from the landing screen. Users don’t have to go looking for any feature/ function.
2. The visual language of the app caters to a wide range of users with different levels of literacy. Most of the app uses icons, illustrations with minimal text which is understood well by cab drivers having low literacy levels.
3. The typical usage of a car in an Indian household is through sharing. In such a case safety and security of loved ones and the car becomes paramount. The design lets users control speed, distance of travel through geo-fence and valet mode. The app provides critical safety features such as immobilize, geofence breach, valet mode limiting speed and distance, and SOS.
4. Users care about their car health, and are concerned about mileage and maintainability. One of the major reasons for low mileage and condition of car was driver behavior. By providing users with driving behavior data (acceleration, braking, cornering), the design persuaded users to critically look at their driving patters and change behavior.
5. The platform automatically detects threats, accidents and other incidents to alert owners to take action, also sends automatic messages to emergency contacts in case of crash, theft or SOS.
6. The app is just released in the market and is already scoring 4.5 on the app store. It’s in the news, advertisements and has become one of the key contributors to help our client’s green initiative.
7. With the right design interventions and engineering, we brought the initial car-to-app response time from 60 seconds down to a mere 6 seconds.
8. The satisfaction ratings (9.5/10) and qualitative comments we are receiving are similar to the likes of world-renowned apps - Tesla and BMW.