Kuwo Music in Arcfox ⍺S

Enhancing Safety, Accessibility, and the In-Vehicle Experience

Kuwo Music brings a seamless and intelligent entertainment experience to Arcfox αS. By redesigning the multi-screen interface and optimizing driver–passenger interactions, the project improves usability, ensures safety, and aligns with Arcfox’s premium brand identity.

Client

BAIC Group

My Role

UX Research
UX Design
Prototyping

Tools

Figma

Timeline

10 Weeks
January - March 2022

Team

Team Project

Background

Context & Partnership

Display Environment

Current Kuwo Flow on Arcfox αS

The current Kuwo Music IVI app adopts four display modes — 1:1, 1:3, 1:4, and 1:6, each corresponding to different levels of interface expansion.
However, the 1:4 mode has been officially deprecated in the latest client direction due to redundancy and inconsistent behavior.

This flow demonstrates the system’s flexibility but also exposes inconsistencies in navigation, scaling logic, and information density.

The Problem

The current Arcfox αS infotainment system received negative feedback from users due to poor UI/UX design and fragmented interaction patterns.Drivers and passengers struggle with navigation, accessibility, and consistency within the Kuwo Music app. The lack of an intuitive hierarchy and unified UI elements disrupts the overall in-car music experience.

Goals

Redesign Kuwo Music for the Arcfox αS IVI system to:

・Improve accessibility for both driver and passenger.

・Enhance music discovery and recommendations for effortless engagement.

・Optimize interaction patterns to support safe, distraction-free driving.
・Align the visual language with Arcfox’s premium design identity.

Empathize

Desktop Research

Screen Touch Zone

Reachability analysis reveals
・Rear touchscreen area not reachable from driver/passenger seats.

・Only ~60% of the screen is comfortably usable.

Screen Usage Frequency

Drivers mainly use 1 : 1 and 1 : 3 modes; 1 : 6 is visually immersive but impractical for real-time control.

Modalities: Physical vs. Touch vs. Voice

Key Findings

User Needs & Pain Points

Drivers — Need fast, simple access to music with minimal distraction, but the current interface requires too many steps and forces reliance on unreachable or voice-only controls.

Passengers — Want to help control music, yet their available features are limited and hard to access.

Both — Expect smarter music recommendations, but playlist popups are restrictive and personalization is weak.

Define

Ideate

Information Architecture

Original: Nested and Action-Driven

The original Kuwo Music IA relied heavily on interaction types and unclear UI states. Frequently used items like My Favorite, My Playlists, and Listening History were buried three layers deep, while rarely used features like Voice Search were given prime placement on the main nav bar. Meanwhile, some content such as Lyrics required tapping on the album cover—an interaction that wasn’t visually discoverable and demanded memorization. For drivers, this structure added unnecessary friction and cognitive load during use.

Original: Nested and Action-Driven

The original Kuwo Music IA relied heavily on interaction types and unclear UI states. Frequently used items like My Favorite, My Playlists, and Listening History were buried three layers deep, while rarely used features like Voice Search were given prime placement on the main nav bar. Meanwhile, some content such as Lyrics required tapping on the album cover—an interaction that wasn’t visually discoverable and demanded memorization. For drivers, this structure added unnecessary friction and cognitive load during use.

Original: Nested and Action-Driven

The original Kuwo Music IA relied heavily on interaction types and unclear UI states. Frequently used items like My Favorite, My Playlists, and Listening History were buried three layers deep, while rarely used features like Voice Search were given prime placement on the main nav bar. Meanwhile, some content such as Lyrics required tapping on the album cover—an interaction that wasn’t visually discoverable and demanded memorization. For drivers, this structure added unnecessary friction and cognitive load during use.

Original: Nested and Action-Driven

In the redesigned architecture, we shifted toward a flatter, content-first structure. Core entry points (Home, Library, Recent, Search) now clearly reflect user intent, and features like Playback are treated as persistent layers accessible across top-level views. Each content type—Playlists, Artists, Albums, Podcasts, Audiobooks—is now grouped by discovery mode rather than interaction type, reducing friction and cognitive load. A new “All” entry point allows users to explore across types without switching tabs, making quick browsing more effortless—especially while driving. This not only simplifies user flow, but also aligns better with the glanceability and reachability constraints of in-vehicle UI environments.

Playback Interaction Simplification

Screen Space Optimization

Design

By My Side, Nonstop

Structuring Content for Glanceable Browsing

Designing the Library for Safe Interaction

Split View Is a State, Not a Shortcut

Reflect

This project explored the music playback experience within an in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) system under real-world constraints such as driving safety, limited interaction bandwidth, and multi-screen ratios (1:1 / 1:3 / 1:6).

While the final design establishes a clear progressive disclosure model, state continuity, and driver–passenger role separation, the lack of formal user testing means that several assumptions remain unvalidated.
In particular, the design decisions were primarily driven by secondary research, competitive analysis, and system-level reasoning, rather than behavioral evidence from real drivers.

Despite this limitation, the project successfully translated abstract safety principles into concrete interaction rules, and articulated why certain actions are intentionally restricted rather than simply omitted.

<- Journey

Wisary ->