Guardian
OnStar services wherever you are
The Problem
Life happens outside of your vehicle.
OnStar services previously were centered around your vehicle. What happens if you need assistance while you’re away from your vehicle? OnStar Guardian was created to give you safety and peace of mind wherever you are.
My Role
Researcher & Designer
Tools
Figma, Sketch, Azure, Miro
Design Strategy
Create a functional, reliable experience that allows users to access safety services quickly
Enhance features for users outside of their vehicle
Using motion, content and visual design, we wanted to create a delightful experience for our users
Aaron Walter’s Hierarchy of User Needs
Competitors
What else is out there?
To gain industry wide context for best practices and opportunities to fill the gap in the market for personal safety apps, we conducted a competitive analysis of 12 competitors.
Top competitors (Noonlight, Life360, and Citizen)
In our analysis we examined 10 essential elements such as Navigation, Emergency Services, Location Sharing, Cost, User Satisfaction, and App Reviews.
Many applications currently in the market are either too broad in the amount of services they offer (Life360, Bond) or do not include a roadside component (Citizen, Noonlight). OnStar Guardian has the opportunity to provide in-vehicle essentials along with personal safety features that can bring our users peace of mind.
OnStar Guardian Competitive Analysis
Exploration
OnStar has the unique opportunity to leverage brand loyalty and trust to give Guardian users a mobile application that provides essential OnStar services and more while outside of the vehicle.
Utilizing user interview data from 50 moderated user interviews and hundreds of survey responses, we created 4 OnStar Guardian user personas (one example shown below) to help shape an empathy map and initial user flow.
We narrowed down the top features our users needed in order to feel safe at all times. The user journey map helped shape our site map for the application and structure the information architecture. It was most important to us to not overwhelm the user with options while in the app.
OnStar User Persona
Measuring Success
1. User Engagement & App Downloads
How many new app downloads and accounts were created each week? What features are users interacting with? Are there any issues or where are they getting stuck in the process?
2. Family Sharing & New Users
How many new users are creating accounts each day/week/month? Are family members sharing information and creating new accounts?
3. Successful App Encounters
Are users struggling to interact with the app? Is onboarding clear and easy to complete? What issues are users running into, if any? What are they enjoying?
Testing and Feedback
The Guardian app was initially designed with a simple information architecture to emphasize a few main actions- Call OnStar, SOS, and Roadside Services. Users can view the location of their family members and receive Mobile Crash Response alerts and aid.
We chose to only include these few actions to minimize cognitive load for the user and allow them to access help quickly, without confusion.
Feedback from Product, Developers & Users
To optimize development effort, we set a limit to the number of family members allowed on one account to 7.
Using this information, we included a new Mobile Crash Response feature and began exploring additional features we could include in the app after launch (smart home integration with Alexa devices, and Roadside Assistance for motorcycle riders).
The first iteration of OnStar Guardian emphasized our 4 main features: SOS, Advisor Services, Roadside Assistance, and Location Sharing. We focused on a specific visual design in order to create a connection between previous OnStar users and new customers. OnStar’s brand loyalty was an important piece to our overall design and customer experience.
Preliminary Sketched Site Map
Flow
Add a Location
Saved Location
Emergency Services
Roadside Assistance
Limit # of Members
Upgrade Plan
Leadership and Product wanted users to have the ability to learn about and upgrade their plan easily within the application.
Additional Services
Users were interested in having additional features added to the app immediately for them to continue using the product. Suggestions included smart home integration and location monitoring and alerts.
Launch & Iterations
OnStar Guardian launched in June 2021 in the United States and Canada and now has over 100,000 users.
After the initial launch of OnStar Guardian, we began exploring additional features to add to the application based on user feedback we received in Beta and post-launch testing. We have since included features like Motorcycle Roadside Assistance and Alexa integration to allow users to access emergency services via their Alexa devices. While there is still more to explore when it comes to safety inside and outside of the vehicle, OnStar Guardian provides peace of mind to its users by harnessing the trust and loyalty of the OnStar brand along with the convenience of a mobile app.
4.5/5
Avg rating on Apple Store & Google Play
Revenue
Increase in OnStar revenue and OnStar user engagement overall
Guardian Motorcycle
We surveyed 50 motorcycle riders and asked their opinion on 7 motorcycle-related features, such as Safe Routing, Road Alerts, Weather Alerts, Downloading Maps Offline, Creating and Saving Trips, and Navigation. After analyzing the survey results, it was concluded that any features aside from roadside assistance were not necessary to most (60%) motorcycle riders at this time. Additionally, many riders indicated that they use other applications for these features and did not feel as though they needed them in OnStar Guardian.
The UX research and design team suggested to our partners that we only include roadside assistance in the application at his time. We suggested exploring additional motorcycle features for our South American users, as they expressed more interest in these features.
After collaborating with our partners, we agreed to focus on roadside assistance, crash alerts, and emergency services for motorcycle riders. Post-launch, we would continue to research how we can provide more value to our customers.
Designs
Our goal was to keep the user flow as similar to the current experience. By seamlessly adding motorcycle services, the user can quickly onboard and access assistance within 2 minutes.
OnStar motorcycle services launched in July 2022 to riders in the United States and Canada on both Apple and Android devices. OnStar’s 22 million users can now access emergency services, roadside assistance, and crash response services while driving any vehicle.
Increase User Engagement
We were able to increase overall user engagement in the OnStar Guardian app by providing additional services.
Add New Types of Drivers
By adding motorcycle services, OnStar changed their available services from only 4-wheel vehicles to 2 and 3 wheel vehicles.
Increase Overall Revenue
Catering to motorcycle riders allowed OnStar to increase revenue along with app engagement.
Guardian Design System
Creating a cohesive design library was crucial to designing and building the OnStar Guardian app. The OnStar brand acted as an anchor for our design library and helped guide us in our decision making. Staying true to our brand for consistency was most important to us as we built out the system in tandem with our development and accessibility teams to ensure we were meeting their standards to make for easy hand off in the future.
Visual Exploration
I explored updates to the visual design, including AI integration with voice commands, Smart Watch integration and an OnStar Guardian widget for quick actions.
