Designing the Human Experience: Lessons from Carlota Serrano’s Internship with Lucid Motors
By: Carlota Serrano
How can automotive design inform broader engineering practices and inspire the development of advanced technologies centered around human experience? This question guided my internship at Lucid Motors, where I contributed to the Occupant Package and Ergonomics team during the summer of 2024. As a member of the Burleson Global Design Group at CU Boulder, I am passionate about advancing engineering design methods that account for environmental and societal needs. At my internship with Lucid Motors, I was able to apply the skills I’d begun developing at CU, such as engaging in human-centered design research, while also learning from the best ergonomists to create meaningful and user-friendly products.
Role and responsibilities
At Lucid Motors, my role involved evaluating and optimizing vehicle interiors to improve user comfort, safety, and performance. I collaborated closely with design and engineering teams to understand the impact of vehicle packaging on occupant experience. Some of my key responsibilities were conducting both quantitative and qualitative user clinics to assess interior spaciousness, driver visibility, and the usability of controls. I also worked on defining seat comfort targets, optimizing seat and steering wheel position, designing ergonomic tools using CATIA, and employing RAMSIS, a 3D CAD manikin simulation, to test the ergonomic tool with human bodies of different dimensions.
Key learning areas
User clinics: Conducting user clinics to gather direct feedback from potential users and identify areas for improvement was one of my favorite responsibilities. Preparing a user clinic is not an easy task, as it involves recruiting the right participants, preparing the vehicle for evaluation, effectively communicating with people of different backgrounds, and being able to actively listen and observe. These studies are crucial for assessing new vehicle features and designs, leading to key financial and design decisions that ensure the final product meets user needs and expectations. I evaluated seat and steering wheel position based on different drivers’ comforts and visibilities, ensuring inclusivity for users with varying physical statures and dimensions.
Anthropometric measuring chair: This project was incredibly rewarding because I was able to apply my knowledge from Advanced Product Design (MCEN 5055) and Design for Manufacturability (MCEN 5045). I designed and built an anthropometric chair to measure participants, which helped build RAMSIS database. This database was used to digitally model participants' dimensions with manikins and predict their postures in the vehicle ahead of time. I went from ideation and brainstorming of chair designs with my Ergonomics team, followed by defining main requirements and specifications with design engineers. I then created prototypes in CATIA and tested them using RAMSIS high-end manikins. During the manufacturing phase, I worked in the wood shop to keep track of the assembly process and collaborated with the hard modelers to address upcoming challenges. The final step involved reiterating the design to resolve any remaining issues to ultimately achieve the final anthropometric chair design.
Relation to my research at Burleson Global Design Group
All successful products must function in a particular context with a particular set of contextual factors. Whether they are the cultural, economic, technological, or industrial setting, defining and developing strategies to incorporate these contextual factors into the design process is essential to ensure a product aligns with the user needs and their environment. Learning how to build connections with the people you design for, such as through user clinics, and interpreting their feedback to inform design changes goes beyond technical skills and engineering. It involves creating a bond and understanding with your users and their environment, which elevates a product to a deeper level of user needs comprehension. This empathetic approach is what allows a design to truly resonate with its users and enhance their experience, which is a key lesson I learned from both my internship and my research.
Concluding thoughts & key takeaways
My internship at Lucid Motors truly enriched my understanding of how automotive design can influence broader engineering practices focused on the human experience. Through projects like user clinics and the anthropometric measuring chair, I learned the importance of integrating user feedback into the design process.
These experiences taught me that successful design requires more than technical expertise. It demands empathy and a deep understanding of users and their environments, and by applying these lessons, I am committed to creating innovative designs that resonate with users and tackle the pressing challenges of today’s world.
In summary, the main takeaways from my internship related to my research are:
Human-centered design: Products are created by people, FOR people. It is essential to actively listen to the people you are designing for, understand their needs, and design solutions that are tailored to their specific context.
Engagement by curiosity and observation: Cultivate a habit of observing users closely. Allow them to interact with your product freely, and pay attention not just to their words, but also to their body language, the atmosphere, and the external factors that may be affecting the interaction.
The value of “soft” skills: While technical skills develop over time with experience, soft skills like empathy, effective communication in cross-functional teams, attention to detail, and a sympathetic approach are integral to your identity. It is important to intentionally develop these skills to understand the users and create innovative products through teamwork and collaboration.
Beyond the numbers: Not everything boils down to metrics. Qualitative research and user feedback provide invaluable insights that can guide critical financial and design decisions, proving that numbers are not the only measure of success.
