Challenge

Privacy concerns slowed the adoption of safety cameras, limiting driver safety and cost-saving opportunities with OnStar safety services and OnStar DualCam service solutions.

The challenge was not simply introducing camera technology. It was designing a safety-first experience that could build trust, clarify how data was used, and help both drivers and fleet managers feel confident adopting a more intelligent monitoring system.

My role

As the Lead UX Designer for OnStar DualCam solutions, I was challenged to shape a state-of-the-art safety experience for our commercial platform that leverages Lytx technology and AI monitoring, incorporating advanced visual recognition and sensor detection to enhance delivery operations and promote positive driver behavior.

I approached the work as a trust and systems design challenge. The experience had to balance privacy, usability, safety insights, and operational value without making drivers feel overly monitored or managers feel overwhelmed by complexity. My focus was on simplifying sensitive interactions, creating clearer control points, and designing a model that supported both driver confidence and business adoption.

I worked closely with AI/ML partners, industrial designers, and cross-functional stakeholders to align the experience around privacy, safety, and actionable insight. The proposed direction aimed to increase DualCam installations by 20%, reduce unsafe driving by 30%, and lower fleet costs by 10%.

UX PROCESS…

Discovery

I partnered with the UXR team to gather early insights and de-risk assumptions around driver concerns, manager needs, and adoption barriers.

This phase helped confirm that privacy was not a secondary issue. It was central to product acceptance. To move adoption forward, the experience needed to clearly communicate what was being monitored, when recording would occur, how data would be used, and what level of control users would have.

 

 

Feeling confident about the project, I started by diving deep into our core services and safety offerings for standard content experience customers, laying the groundwork to showcase value and create compelling upsell opportunities for adding cameras.

Defining UX STRATEGY…

The core design decision was to frame cameras as safety tools, not surveillance tools.

That required the experience to do three things well:

• make privacy controls visible and understandable
• help drivers see the system as fair, supportive, and behavior-based
• give fleet managers actionable insights without creating unnecessary fear or confusion

I focused on identifying the touchpoints where trust could be built or lost, especially in moments involving alerts, recordings, scoring, and settings. Because drivers already operate in high-distraction environments, the interaction model needed to reduce cognitive strain rather than add to it.

 

USER PAIN POINTS

Recognizing that drivers juggle multiple distractions—from the instrument cluster to mobile devices—I aimed to craft thoughtful designs that alleviate these challenges and enhance safety.

 

Validating & testing…

Testing showed strong interest in safety widgets and the overall direction, but also surfaced clarity issues that needed to be addressed before the experience could feel trustworthy and easy to use.

Key findings included:

• users responded positively to safety insights and dashboard concepts
• some users were confused by terms such as “alerts per 10 miles”
• users needed clearer distinction between vehicle-level data and driver-level data
• 57% of users felt confident enabling safety features when they understood the data was being used for safety improvement and better driving behavior

These findings reinforced that trust depended not only on policy, but also on language, labeling, and framing.

Shipping…

I focused on streamlining the design-to-development handoff, ensuring pixel-perfect alignment across the board. By creating a unified design language, refining content, tone, and language, and providing detailed design specifications, I enhanced visual consistency while making the process seamless for stakeholders.

The result was a more thoughtful and adoption-ready safety experience that treated privacy as a core part of the design, not a secondary constraint.

By simplifying controls, clarifying data use, and creating more supportive driver feedback loops, the work helped build a stronger foundation for camera adoption, safer driving behavior, and long-term fleet value.