Soundbites: MyFord Touch
Ford customers said My Ford Touch technology could be faster, simpler, and easier-to-use. Jennifer Brace, user interface design engineer at Ford Motor Company says, the technology team took these customer driven suggestions and went to work to improve the new My Ford Touch system.
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| Cut #1: |
“So what we did was, we kept the things that they liked, so the things that include the four corner design and the color coded corners and the information that we’re giving them, and what we did was we tried to fix the areas where there were some concerns. So we made it faster, simpler and easier to use with this new design.” :16 sec. |
| According to Brace, the team as made the My Ford touch screen more like a dashboard telling you what’s important, by simplifying the message. For example; |
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| Cut #2: |
“We’ve made fonts bolder and we’ve made icons larger when they’re the most important thing. So your phone that’s connected we’re showing the battery strength, we’re showing the signal strength, so the information that you need and really just presenting what’s most important on that home screen.” :14 sec. |
| Brace says it came down to one thing…focus on a few key areas most important to the customer. |
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| Cut #3: |
“It really has resulted in a cleaner design, it’s going to be easier for customers to find what they need to find, and the best part is that we’ve been able to increase the speed of the response as well.” 10 sec. |
| Research teams at Ford interviewed owners and asked them what they liked and did not like about My Ford Touch and proceeded to improve the system by listening to the consumer as to what they liked and did not like. |
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| Cut #4: |
"They don’t need to know every little bit of information that we were giving them before, and let’s just focus on just whatever is the most important information… so what’s the name of the phone that’s connected, we need to know that, what’s the name of the song that’s playing, that’s what they want to know in entertainment, what’s the temperature set at, for the driver and the passenger, so we really tried to be concise with the information that we’re giving them.” :21 sec. |
| The new and improved My Ford touch technology will be available early next year on the Flex and the Ford Escape, but also offered at no charge, to existing My Ford Touch owners….of the Edge, the Explorer, the MKS and the Focus. |
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| Cut #5: |
“We’re going to mail a USB drive to every existing My Ford Touch customer that has the upgrade on it… all they have to do is take this USB drive pop it into the media hub and they let the vehicle do the work. So the upgrade will happen automatically, they just have to let the vehicle do its thing, and then the system will let you know when it’s done and the upgrade is there, so now they’ve got new faster, simpler, easier to use system. They’ve got the new feature set come with it and everything is upgraded, easy… they don’t have to go to the dealership, but if for whatever reason they’re not comfortable doing it themselves they absolutely can go to the dealership, and it’s all free of charge.” :34 sec. |
| More than 1,000 screens in total have been updated with the improved look and Brace says the improved system has new fonts that are as much as 40 percent larger and have added new features to help keep pace with the fast-moving consumer electronics market, making My Ford Touch much improved. |
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| Cut #6: |
“I would say at least more than 50 percent improvement. We’ve got two-times faster at least in our speed in response, our fonts are up to 40 percent larger because they’re larger, they’re bolder, so it’s easier to find your information, and then it’s just the overall perception of the system, because there is less information and its more focused on what matters, it’s got a much cleaner, simpler look so it’s going to be easier to use.” :25 sec. |
| The new and improved My Ford Touch technology will be available in the 2013 Ford Flex and Escape in showrooms come spring of next year. | |