Car Radio App

Context

SiriusXM is bringing the future of radio into cars with their 360L program.

360L, which stands for 360 degrees of listening, is designed to give users an unprecedented amount of content to discover and listen to from SiriusXM’s expansive lineup of live broadcast channels and on demand shows.

Whereas previous incarnations of SiriusXM in the vehicle was limited to unsophisticated center console car radios, newer cars have Android-based operating systems running on what are essentially feature-rich tablets. This new setup not only allows cars to connect to SiriusXM satellites, but also connect to the internet much in the same way smartphones do.

My role as the lead product designer was to design a solution to bring SiriusXM’s 360L features into various in-car entertainment systems in an exceptional, intuitive, and highly user-safe way.

For the purposes of this case study, I'll only be covering the solution we delivered for GM's line of cars.

For SiriusXM, there are 4 primary features to ensure we provide the best user experience while also achieving business goals:

1. Provide a way for users to see what's currently playing and provide navigation for users to discover more of SiriusXM's content
2. Provide a way for users to swipe through and scan SiriusXM's channel lineup and to preview the audio for those channels
3. Provide a way for users to browse all of SiriusXM's available content including live broadcast and channels and pre-recorded on demand shows
4. Provide a way for users to access SiriusXM settings to view their current subscription status, and manage their SiriusXM favorites

Ideation

Working with the design direction for the automotive branch of SiriusXM and all of the various external automotive teams, I had sketched out some ideas keeping in mind existing SiriusXM implementation and design, while also thinking of future ideas.

User Flow Mapping

Based on how SiriusXM works as an existing product in cars and also taking into consideration how to expand the offerings of SiriusXM based on business goals, we can map out a user flow for users to find currently playing content, accessing the ability to scan SiriusXM channels using a paradigm called the linear tuner, as well as allowing users to browse channels and on demand content, accessing settings, and more.

Wireframing

After we nailed down the overall user flow and the mapping of the interactions and touch points, we can then create the wireframes in a sketch form to start rounding out the experience and experimenting with how layouts could potentially look.

High Fidelity Designs & Interactions

Using our user flow mapping, wireframes, and overall SiriusXM and GM (or other automotive specific branding) we can then begin to craft the high fidelity designs and interaction design using Sketch and a prototyping tool called Pixate.

Reflection

After more than a year of design and development, this iteration of the SiriusXM 360L application has now shipped to over 1 million 2020 GM vehicles.

Press