Powering the Future: Bridging Gaps in EV Public Charging

Honda Japan sought to expand its presence in the EV market, particularly in North America, where public charging infrastructure plays a crucial role in adoption. Partnering with Dialexa and IBM, Honda aimed to validate hypotheses and refine the public charging experience based on real user behaviors and pain points. This initiative addressed the growing demand for seamless EV charging by exploring user needs, analyzing infrastructure gaps, and integrating innovative design solutions to improve the overall experience for North American EV drivers.

My Role & Contributions: Crafting the EV Charging Vision

As a product designer specializing in visual design, I helped accelerate project execution by creating a structured design system, brand guide, and templates for readouts. Collaborating with the design lead, I provided a scalable structure for the future-state journey map, which became a reference for the public charging team. My work focused on turning research into actionable design solutions, understanding user pain points, collaborating with cross-functional teams, and translating insights into visually engaging, user-centered designs that aligned with business objectives.

• Designed the Future-State Journey Map, adopted by the home charging team for its clarity and impact, reducing the time needed for them to create a journey map from scratch during their time-limited deliverable
• Created hand-illustrated concept visuals tested with users for iterative design improvements, allowing the team to show concepts to interviewees who could visualize the ideas clearly, leading to more authentic feedback and valuable design iterations.
• Co-developed the readout deck for Honda leadership, securing critical buy-in while establishing branding guidelines and reusable templates that streamlined future presentations.

Throughout the project, I collaborated with cross-functional teams including researchers, product managers, and design leads to ensure that visual assets aligned seamlessly with user research findings and business goals. My iterative design process was driven by constant feedback from team members and stakeholders, ensuring that the final deliverables met both user needs and Honda’s expectations.

Overcoming Project Challenges: Navigating Cultural Nuances and Design Constraints

Working with the Japanese Honda team introduced unique challenges that required adaptability, clear communication, and rapid problem-solving:

• Cross-Cultural Collaboration: Collaborated closely with a language translator to ensure clear client presentations, respecting time zones and cultural nuances.
• Adaptability in Scope Transition: Shifted from home to public charging, onboarding a new designer while rapidly learning new research.
• Resourceful Design Execution: Created 11+ hand-illustrated concept visuals using secondary research and limited client inputs.
• Team Collaboration and Support: Helped to onboard the new designer, sharing research and processes to maintain project quality and momentum.

The Approach: Crafting the Public Charging EV Journey

Our first step was to conduct extensive user research by interviewing over 12 stakeholders and EV drivers, thoroughly testing Honda’s hypothesis and uncovering critical insights that guided our design decisions. This research highlighted the need for predictive charging systems, seamless route planning, and integrated public charging networks.

Some of the top pain points uncovered included:

• Manual Route Planning: Users had to manually plan charging stops, leading to stress and inefficiencies.
• Disrupted Routines: Charging schedules disrupted users’ daily routines.
• Unpredictable Wait Times: Long, inconsistent wait times caused frustration.
• Lack of Predictive Systems: Users needed intelligent systems to optimize charging schedules based on preferences.

Collaboration with the research team was essential throughout this phase. By working closely with researchers during interviews and synthesis, I ensured that our visual solutions accurately reflected user needs and pain points, resulting in well-informed design decisions.

Mapping the User Journey and Key Features

We mapped user journeys throughout our interviews, gaining deeper insights that allowed us to explore and refine key areas of the journey. This comprehensive mapping approach ensured that our design solutions addressed critical pain points and were informed by continuous user feedback. Collaborating closely with Honda stakeholders, we aligned on design objectives to ensure a cohesive and user-centered strategy.

Key features implemented included:

• AI-driven charging station recommendations based on real-time battery levels, driver preferences, and Honda branding guidelines.
• Flexible route planning with dynamic adjustments and reusable templates to maintain consistency.
• Personalized in-vehicle profiles for tailored charging and route suggestions, enhancing the brand experience.
• Partnerships with ancillary services offering drivers incentives during charging wait times, all within a visually consistent framework.

Impact & Outcomes

This project strengthened my ability to adapt quickly, collaborate under tight deadlines, and deliver impactful designs that resonate with both users and stakeholders. My visual design contributions, such as the future-state journey map and concept illustrations, played a crucial role in helping the team present complex research findings visually. These assets improved stakeholder understanding, facilitated smoother collaboration, and ensured that user needs were at the forefront of design decisions, ultimately contributing to a scalable and impactful EV strategy for Honda.

• Future-State Journey Map – My journey map became a model for the concurrent home charging Honda EV workstream.
• Stakeholder Engagement – My visual design solutions fostered increased alignment among stakeholders.
• User-Centered Design – Our design recommendations addressed the most pressing user needs.
• Effective cross-functional collaboration contributed to meeting tight deadlines, maintaining high design quality, and ensuring that all deliverables were aligned with Honda’s strategic vision.

“Vanessa’s storyboards and journey map deliverables beautifully communicated our research.”“Her visual design skills turned abstract ideas into tangible solutions.”– Researcher

Next Steps

Our research findings provided a clear understanding of user needs, technical capabilities, and business goals. Moving forward, the next steps include aligning these insights with Honda’s broader business objectives to create a potential feature roadmap. This roadmap will ensure that all proposed features are user-centered and feasible within Honda’s technical landscape, setting the stage for future development and continuous improvement.