Drive embedded UX for solar electric vehicle

The Crank Professional Services team, along with its Storyboard software, was important in bringing user experience (UX) designers and developers together to satisfy demanding timelines and design targets for the new sEV, which became available for preorder December 4th.

“The Aptera ethos is born from efficiency and every aspect of our design, from lightweight structures to streamlined user interfaces, follows this approach,” said Chris Anthony, Aptera Co-founder. “Crank helped us create an intuitive vehicle experience while also offering extra benefits that clearly communicate the efficiency of Aptera to the driver.”

For this new take on electric vehicles, the Aptera Human Machine Interface (HMI) team needed to convey concepts to drivers in an intuitive way, including focusing on efficiency and range versus autonomous driving. Ensuring these needs were met, while keeping all project stakeholders aligned, was critical in meeting launch deadlines. Aptera and Andromeda Interfaces chose to partner with Crank to meet the demands of tight prototyping and development schedules, and support the skills required for building feature-rich automotive HMIs.

“The user interface helps navigate all the controls of the vehicle so it must be easy to use, free from distractions, and meet rigorous automotive safety requirements,” said Brian Gallagher, head developer and co-founder, Andromeda Interfaces. “Crank’s Storyboard helped us focus on getting the design and performance optimisation of the HMI right so we could make changes and test quickly. Crank’s Professional Services team supported us throughout development, enabling us to progress much faster than we could have with anyone else.”

Brian Edmond, President and Co-founder of Crank Software, said: “Aptera is carving out a unique and valuable position in the automotive marketplace, and we’re proud to support their vision. We are aligned in our efforts to transform industries by bringing together experts from design, UX, and development to work better together to accelerate exceptional embedded GUI experiences.”