Tim Davidson

Dash

Everyday there are over 600 reported vehicle accidents, yet only 27% of drivers in the UK use dashcams. Research indicates 72% of people believe a dashcam would be beneficial. My product – Dash, a smartphone-based dashcam and black box recorder – gives customers the benefits of a dashcam without the need for new hardware, making it more accessible to wider audiences and saving them money. Dash aims to encourage better driving as studies show people drive in a safer manner when they know their journeys are being recorded. It pays for itself by lowering insurance premiums for young drivers who struggle to find reasonably priced insurance particularly after being involved in an accident. Dash has allowed me to bring together all of the skills learned on my placement and put them into action on my own product. It’s been exciting bringing my idea to life.

The Process

Without valuable research, both in terms of the context and users, Dash could be trying to solve a problem that doesn’t currently exist, or worse create a new one. At different stages of the project I completed research, adding insight and value to Dash. In order to effectively collect data at each stage I used a variety of methods. Each of these methods allows me to collect a specific type of data. The main pieces of research I undertook were preliminary market research, early-stage target audience research, and in-depth user research. Each of these provided me with helpful insights that in turn contributed towards decisions made for Dash. I carried out market research at the beginning of the process to ground the project and provide me with a solid understanding of the industry. This allowed me to gain valuable insights that furthered my case for creating Dash. The use of dash-cam footage in car accident claims has risen by 285% in the past two years, according to research by Accident Exchange. 72% of drivers believe that all drivers should use a dash cam however, only 27% of drivers are now using dash cams in the UK. This leaves a significant gap in the market along with a number of questions as to why more people don’t use dashcams if they believe they are beneficial.

User Centred

All of this research culminated into a set of deliverables; user personas, empathy maps, and journey maps. Each was developed using insights from the research carried out. Personas were produced using information gathered in user surveys. The information from these personas impacted the creation of empathy maps. These helped understand underlying thoughts and emotions users could be experiencing in relation to driving. This allowed me to spot possible opportunities for Dash

The two user groups focused on are young drivers aged between 17-24, and everyday drivers who travel regularly, commuting to and from work. I have feedback from both groups through initial surveys, posted across relevant channels, giving me further understanding around dashcams and insurance. From these surveys, a number of users expressed interest in further interviews and testing to gain more insight in the specifics of Dash. On top of these direct user groups, another opportunity exists to collect data regarding road surface quality across cities, with this information being sold back to local councils.

User Journeys

To help shape the features and wireframes of Dash, I created a journey map using Dash’s two personas. The journey maps give an ideal journey through Dash by each user. This helps to give more context for wireframes and a prototype.

My journeys follow the 5E’s: entice, enter, engage, exit, extend. These help to stimulate the narrative across each stage. In each section, the map looks at both the actions and thoughts of each user. From these I could recognise pain points that the user may encounter. These, along with the actions and thoughts, shape the opportunities for Dash. Using ‘How might we…’ statements reframes the problems that occur and help produce valuable solutions that can be implemented to the app.

Design System

As the project progressed, there was an increased effort required to ensure that the style and design on various components was kept consistent. To help this, I created an initial design system for the most common components. These were the menubar, form fields, and buttons. Starting with sketches, these developed into digital creations. These were then easily and quickly used throughout high fidelity prototypes whilst keeping visual consistency.

While working through the buttons and form fields it led me to evaluate and refine my colour scheme. I had begun to use a large variation of colours throughout the designs so went back through and reduced to the fewest colours possible to stop any future confusion. As well as this I re-visited my brand colour scheme to update some of the colours very slightly in order to make the accessible when used. All it took was some slight tweaking to make them all at least AA complaint with many being AAA complaint.

The Outcome

Dash has allowed me to bring together all the skills and experience gained whilst working full-time on placement. It has encouraged me to improve on areas that were lacking. The project has been great to work on, giving me an opportunity to bring an idea to life.

Dash is now a high-fidelity prototype that could be used for funding applications to develop it into a working MVP for consumers.

Find out more at dash-app.io