Designing native mobile experiences for drivers in the field
My role
Visual / UX Designer
Year
2019
Project details
Client
Scania
Sector
Automotive
Project team
Cross-functional team including a Project Manager, Creative Director, Experience Strategist, Solution Architect, iOS Developer, Android Developer and QA Tester.
Timeline
12 weeks
Overview
I led UX and visual design for Scania’s Driver’s Guide, working on Android 2.0 and the first iOS release.
The existing app was primarily a portable vehicle manual. It gave drivers access to important information, but the experience was structured around documentation rather than the real tasks and questions drivers had during their working day.
The opportunity was to make the app more useful in context: helping drivers find relevant vehicle information faster, understand guidance more easily, and feel more confident when dealing with common scenarios.
My role was to reframe the experience from a document-first manual into a more task-oriented mobile product, while creating a shared design direction that could work across iOS and Android.
The problem
The existing app helped drivers access vehicle information, but the structure made users work too hard to find the answer they needed.
Drivers were often looking for quick, practical guidance in the flow of work. They were less likely to think in terms of manual chapters and more likely to think in terms of the task or situation in front of them.
This created several design challenges:
navigation was too closely tied to document structure
common driver scenarios were not always easy to reach
important guidance needed stronger hierarchy
the experience had to work across iOS and Android
the product still needed to remain compatible with existing content and data sources
The goal was to shorten the path from question to answer while creating a clearer, more useful mobile experience.
My role
I worked as the lead UX and visual designer on the app experience.
My work included:
facilitating a three-day ideation workshop with the client
auditing the existing app structure and content patterns
identifying key driver tasks, contexts and pain points
reframing the information architecture around tasks and common scenarios
designing high-fidelity prototypes for Android 2.0 and iOS 1.0
defining a shared visual direction across platforms
creating component patterns and interaction guidance
producing developer-ready specifications for engineering
The work required balancing cross-platform consistency with native platform expectations.
Design approach
The main shift was from document-first navigation to task-first access.
Rather than asking drivers to browse through a manual-like structure, the redesigned experience aimed to help them get to useful guidance more directly.
The design approach focused on three priorities:
speed; so helping drivers reach common answers faster
clarity; so making instructions, warnings and tips easier to scan
platform fit; so maintaining a shared product logic while respecting native iOS and Android conventions
Key design decisions
Reframe the app around driver tasks
A key insight from the early workshop and content review was that drivers think in terms of what they are trying to do, not the structure of a manual. I reorganised the experience around driver tasks and common scenarios, with clearer entry points into the content. This helped reduce reliance on document-style navigation and made the app feel more useful in everyday driving contexts.
Make common scenarios easier to reach
The app needed to support moments when drivers wanted quick guidance. I elevated common tasks, search and recent or relevant content patterns so users had faster routes into the information they were most likely to need. The goal was to reduce hunting through deep content structures and make the experience feel more responsive to real-world use.
Use progressive disclosure for guidance
Some vehicle information can be detailed, but drivers do not always need that detail upfront. I designed patterns that led with concise guidance and key steps, with deeper reference information available when needed. This helped keep the first view focused while still preserving access to more complete information.
Balance shared logic with native platform patterns
The product needed consistency across iOS and Android, but it also needed to feel natural on each platform. I created a shared design language and reusable patterns while respecting platform-specific navigation, gestures and controls. This helped maintain parity without forcing one platform’s behaviour onto the other.
Improve at-a-glance comprehension
Because the app supported drivers in practical, sometimes time-pressured contexts, visual hierarchy mattered. I used typography, spacing and component structure to make headings, steps, warnings and tips easier to scan. The intention was to help users understand what mattered quickly without reading dense blocks of content.
Reduce ambiguity in implementation
To support engineering, I produced specifications covering key behaviours, states and content patterns across both platforms. This included guidance for navigation, search, reusable components and edge cases, helping the team maintain consistency between Android 2.0 and the first iOS release.
Testing and iteration
The design direction was shaped through the initial ideation workshop, review of the existing app, prototype walkthroughs and stakeholder feedback.
The work moved quickly, so iteration focused on de-risking key decisions before implementation:
whether the new task-first structure made sense
how common driver scenarios should be surfaced
how much guidance should be shown upfront
how platform-specific behaviours should differ between iOS and Android
how content patterns could remain compatible with existing data sources
Feedback helped refine the IA, navigation patterns, visual hierarchy and handoff documentation.
Outcome
The project delivered a clearer, task-oriented experience for Scania’s Driver’s Guide across Android and iOS.
Android 2.0 shipped with a redesigned structure and visual direction, while iOS launched with a first release aligned to the same product logic and adapted for native platform conventions.
The work created a more consistent cross-platform experience, clearer routes into common driver guidance, and production-ready specifications that helped reduce ambiguity for implementation.
I do not have post-launch usage metrics for this work, so I avoid overstating the impact. The clearest outcome I can point to is that the app moved from a manual-like structure toward a more useful mobile guide designed around driver tasks and everyday scenarios.
What I learned
This project reinforced the importance of designing around a user’s real context, not just the structure of available content.
The content already existed, but the product became more useful when it was reorganised around how drivers think, search and act in the field.
It also strengthened my understanding of cross-platform design. Consistency does not mean making iOS and Android identical. The stronger approach is to create a shared product logic, then express it through patterns that feel natural on each platform.
Reflection
I chose this project because it shows my experience designing native mobile products where information architecture, interaction design and visual clarity all need to work together.
It required reframing a content-heavy product around user tasks, balancing iOS and Android conventions, and producing detailed design work that could move quickly into implementation.
