The problem
Validating a new in-car interface depended on physical hardware and long integration cycles: up to two years for a single design direction.
What I did
- Built from scratch a desktop platform (React, Electron) to prototype in-vehicle interfaces before the hardware existed.
- Connected prototypes to real vehicle signals (VSS) through WebSockets, Node.js and Python, so they reacted to speed and warnings instead of fake buttons.
- Set the frontend architecture for a team of five, bridging UX designers, hardware engineers and testers.
What I learned
When the user is driving, the body and attention come first. And sometimes the most valuable thing an engineer can build is a shorter loop between an idea and learning if it works.