Challenge

Inconsistent telematics services were creating friction across fleet operations, making it harder for commercial customers to manage vehicle health, driver safety, and day-to-day workflows. Customers were relying on multiple disconnected tools, which reduced efficiency, increased redundancy, and limited the overall value of the platform.

The opportunity was to create a more unified experience that simplified operations, improved discoverability, and supported growth across GM’s commercial fleet ecosystem.

My role

As Lead UX Designer for a new commercial platform at OnStar Business Solutions, my role as a designer I was responsible for helping shape a more unified experience across account management, insights, and fleet operations.

I approached the work as a systems challenge, focusing on how to reduce workflow fragmentation, eliminate redundancy, and make critical information easier to find and act on.

The work aligned 95% of teams and is expected to drive a 10% increase in user penetration, an 80% reduction in redundant workflows, a 50% boost in efficiency, and $2M in annual savings.

UX PROCESS…

DISCOVERY

In collaboration with Lextant, Escalent, and the OnStar business strategy, I conducted research to de-risk our assumptions and uncovered two key insights:

a) Customers using multiple tools—saw a 35% drop in efficiency.

b) 95% of users requested a simple yet intelligent tool to streamline operations, vehicle health, and driver safety.

 

UX STRATEGY

The core design decision was to consolidate key capabilities into a unified solution rather than continue extending disconnected workflows across multiple applications.

This meant focusing on:

• reducing workflow switching
• improving visibility of high-value information
• simplifying access to essential tasks
• creating a structure that could scale across different user needs and future capabilities

By framing the work around customer workflows instead of product boundaries, I helped define a clearer experience strategy and stronger success measures for the business.

Information architecture

A major part of the work focused on stress-testing the information architecture and interaction model to ensure the solution could support real-world complexity without becoming harder to use.

Stress testing

After running 5 to 7 stress-testing scenarios with 5 designers, we identified opportunities to simplify the interface by reducing the need for constant view switching and removing unnecessary workflow complexity.

This led to a more streamlined structure supported by:

• improved navigation clarity
• reduced cognitive load across key tasks
• better discoverability through filtering and faceted search
• more personalized and efficient workflows through features like auto-complete and customization

These choices were important because the goal was not just consolidation, but consolidation without overwhelming users.

EXECUTION

Detailed design guidance, interaction patterns, and responsive behavior recommendations helped support a high-quality handoff and more consistent execution. This collaboration helped move the work from concept to delivery with greater alignment and less ambiguity across teams.

 

 

The result was a more unified commercial fleet experience that reduced fragmentation across account management, insights, and operations.

By simplifying workflows, improving discoverability, and aligning teams around a shared direction, the work created a stronger foundation for customer adoption, operational efficiency, and future platform growth.