04Portfolio
WireDrive — a launcher for an Android head unit
My concept for a Golf IV car launcher: the visual design of 22 screens, from navigation and media to CAN bus readings and parking sensors, plus an app skeleton in Jetpack Compose.
By the numbers
- Screens designed
- 22
- Minimum touch target
- 76 dp
- Taps to any car function
- ≤ 2
Problem
Android head units ship with launchers designed for tablets, not for driving: small touch targets, deep menus and no idea about the car itself. In a Golf IV there is also a comfort module, an LED strip and parking sensors — each with its own app, or none at all.
Approach
I started from rules, not screens: touch targets of at least 76 × 76 dp, body text of at least 21 sp, a dark theme with a single accent, and green, amber and red reserved for state only. Cards use outlines instead of shadows so they stay readable in sunlight and on matte screens. Every car function is at most two taps from the Start screen, and the side rail never moves. From there I designed all 22 screens — Start, Media, Trip, a Car section with Comfort, Readings, Faults, Ambient and Parking tabs, settings, plus reversing and parked overlays — and a Kotlin + Jetpack Compose skeleton that keeps the whole UI state in a single object, which is where the data sources plug in later.
Outcome
This is a concept: the visual design is complete, and the skeleton already has a working look and navigation; vehicle data is sample data for now, and its sources — an ESP32 comfort module, a listen-only CAN bus tap and parking sensors — are laid out in the plan for the next stages. The WireDrive style became the visual base for WireAmbi’s car screens: the colour presets, brightness and modes of the Ambient screen come straight from this design.