3D Touch —
Climate Display

Brand
Mercedes-Benz

Year
2016

Launch
Internal Exploration Project

––> based on Concept IAA (launched 2015 at
International Motor Show, Framkfurt a.M., Germany)

Role
UX Manager

Contribution
–> Creative Direction
–> Interaction Design

Patent
Haptic feedback in a user interface

How can 3D touch provide an additional layer of interaction and information architecture?

Design Process
—
Discover and Define

Identifying Global Patterns for 3D Touch

Squeeze out Information

Pressing hard on an element on the screen 'squeezes' out information that would otherwise be hidden in order to reduce visual complexity.

Expert-Mode Shortcut

Pressing hard on an element on the screen takes the user to contextual settings of that particular element and eliminates a variety of extra interactions steps.

Fast-Scroll

Applying more pressure while swiping on the screen in order to scroll, can increase the spead of scrolling and can navigate the user faster through a long list — vice versa, applying less pressure can provide more granular control.

Affordance and Feedback

A major challenge with 3D touch patterns is discoverability. So we defined a few micro-interaction in order to help the user discover and lern 3D touch interactions.

Nevertheless, because the nature of being a hidden layer of interactions, we consider it to only be a secondary mode of interaction for expert users.

Visual Tap Feedback

A regular tap provides different visual feedback than a tap with pressure applied. This guides the user and helps to distinguish the different states.

3D Touch Glimpse

As the user applies more pressure during a tap, the touched element starts to visually transform, hinting at more to discover through 3D touch interaction.

3D Touch Expand

As the user applies even more pressure during a tap and a certain threshold is reached, the touched element eventually completely transforms, completing the interaction.