Project Statement

Since childhood, I have been infatuated by cars, oftentimes sketching potential logos and car concepts for my own imaginary company. This passion for the automotive industry has grown significantly in recent years as electric vehicles begin to see an increase in popularity and mainstream adoption within the United States. Considering the importance of personal transportation in the lives of many Americans and current industry trends to incorporate more advanced technology, designing a discoverable and understandable in-vehicle user experience is essential to the future of cars. My dream is to follow the trend of increased electrification in the transportation industry and to pursue a career in user experience design for an electric vehicle company.

​​Since 1948, Ford has produced a model range of full-sized pickup trucks known as the F-Series. The brand’s success and identity is inseparably linked to these vehicles, as is the American spirit as the Ford F-Series has been the best selling line of pickup trucks since 1977, and has boasted the highest selling vehicle since 1981. This website will focus on Ford’s light duty entry-level pickup truck throughout the history of the F-Series, beginning with the F1 (1948-1952), then F-100 (1953-1974), & finally the F-150 (1975-Present).

When following a new idea, it is essential to look to the past to better understand its history and the original creator's intention and design decisions. This website was created to provide viewers with an archive of how vehicle dashboards have changed throughout history. Specifically, this project focuses on the iterative design of dashboards in America’s best selling vehicle, Ford Motor Company’s F-Series of light duty pickup trucks, a.k.a. the F-150.

The focus of this project is to review previous designs, digitally recreate dashboards, and better understand the differences between the 14 generations of F-Series pickups. Through utilizing reference imagery and archival websites, each of these dashboards were accurately recreated in Adobe Illustrator. This time intensive process has been extremely rewarding as it has allowed for me to further explore my interest in user experience design and grow my abilities in the Adobe Creative Suite.

Why should you care about the design of dashboards? In his book, The Design of Everyday Things, Don Norman, the godfather of user experience design, states “I don’t think home appliances—stoves, washing machines, audio and television sets—should look like Hollywood’s idea of a spaceship control room”. This same belief holds true for me with the design of personal vehicle interiors and most importantly, their dashboards. 

In order to design safe, enjoyable, and seemingly “invisible” experiences, I believe that physical controls should be a feature of all vehicles. While touchscreens are exceptional for iterating designs, there is no question that they are more difficult to use. With an increasing amount of new vehicles incorporating touchscreens into the driving experience, I believe that there is also an increase in distracted driving and greater safety risk to everyone on the road.