Volkswagen LOOP
Experience, Interactive, Interface, & Mobile
Interactive, Motion, & User Experience
After Effects, Figma, Illustrator, Keynote, & Premiere Pro
Luke Ehrle & Ramya Manoharan
Volkswagen Loop was a sponsored project done in collaboration with transportation design students Luke Ehrle (exterior) and Ramya Manoharan (interior). We were tasked with designing a car for a persona who was a low-income college-aged student who uses a fleet car for their travel needs.
We decided to base our project in Ann Arbor, Michigan, which had challenges of severe traffic, limited parking availability, social isolation, and a lack of communal spaces. LOOP would be partially autonomous, being hailed through the app to come to you, and leaving after dropping you off, so as not to need to find parking. To try solving these issues, I came up with three ideas: the Shared Interest Quiz (SIQ), a safety feature that uses lighting, and the Digital Community Whiteboard (DCW).
The DCW is where one can leave doodles and messages for others, being accessible from the app and within LOOP itself. The SIQ, which would be in the app, after completion, would match users with similar interests when ride-sharing. As a team, we came up with the idea of using the charging locations as a community space, turning them into themed hubs: The Dome (fitness), The Garden (relaxation), and The Lab (tech and the repair zone). In the end, Volkswagen liked our project so much that at one point, they considered making a life-sized prototype of our final design.