Designing the Car Tour Experience in Zoo Safari Parks

Cross-platform design for self-driving safari vehicles, prioritizing accessibility and enjoyment

Role

Lead Product Designer

With

2 Product Designers

Platforms

Car Display & Mobile App

Timeframe

4 months (2024)

Overview

Research & Scoping

Ideation, Design, Iteration

Reflections

1. Overview

Introducing SafariRoam Guide

In 2024, I led a concept project exploring self-driving car technology through a cross-platform safari park experience. As strategic product designer, I owned product strategy, information architecture, wireframes for 80+ screens, and the design system for car displays and mobile apps. I also proactively upheld the quality bar across all deliverables, reviewing work holistically and refining areas that could better serve users or align with our vision.

Context

Self-Driving Technology x Zoo Safari Parks

Our team was interested in exploring meaningful applications of self-driving technology.

Our team identified zoo safari parks as an ideal application for self-driving technology due to the controlled environment, mature autonomous systems, and strong commercial demand from the thousands of daily visitors at major zoological facilities.

Problem Statement

Bridging the Gap Between Visitor Expectations and Zoo Tour Realities

Zoo and safari park visitors—especially families and first-time guests—often arrive unprepared and struggle with navigation.

Existing transportation and tour options lack customization, language accessibility, and interactive features that support a smooth, enriching, and family-friendly experience.

How might we leverage the self-driving technology to bridge this gap?

Solution

A Car Tour Service in zoo safari parks

Our concept streamlines the safari park journey from planning through post-visit, leveraging the self-driving technology to create a more seamless and enjoyable adventure for families and friends.

It consists of two interconnected platforms:

Car HMI System (Car Display): Real-time wildlife information and guided tour navigation for an immersive safari experience
Companion Phone App: From booking and route planning to capturing memories and sharing experiences

Impact

Measuring the Effectiveness of the Design

Our concept project has received recognition at multiple international design competitions, including:

MUSE Design Awards 2025: 🏆 x 1 (Silver Winner in Product Design)
Indigo Design Award 2025: 🏆 x 2 (Silver Winner in UX, Interface & Navigation; Silver Winner in Interactive Design)

2. Research

An Opportunity to Create a Better Car Tour Experience for Families in Zoo Safari Parks

User Interviews

Understanding Visitor Needs in Zoo and Safari Tour Experiences

To understand how visitors experience zoo and safari tours, we conducted interviews with 10 participants who had visited zoo safari parks within the past 2 years. Our focus was on transportation and guided ride experiences, aiming to identify opportunities for improving visitor engagement, accessibility, and overall satisfaction.

Key findings include:

Visitors want low-effort, well-guided experiences. Most arrive with little preparation and rely on clear routes, signage, and in-ride support to navigate the park.
Families seek engaging, educational content. Parents prioritize relaxing outings that also offer meaningful learning experiences for their children.
People value interactive and memorable rides. Guests look for in-ride features like animal info, scenic stops, and the ability to capture and share moments.

Competitive Analysis

Designing the Displays on Rider-Focused Minibus

After analyzing industry leaders (Zoox, Waymo) and benchmarked facilities (San Diego Zoo, Zoo Atlanta), we decided to adopt the following specs and protocols to create a passenger-centric design with enhanced visitor experience and optimized animal interaction safety.

3. Ideation, Design, Iteration

How might we create a trustworthy, engaging, and equity-based self-driving car tour experience in zoo safari parks for families?

Aligning on the Scope and Platforms

The Full Journey in Zoo Safari Parks

Based on brainstorming, competitive analysis, and user insights, we determined the scope to be the customer experience before, during, and after the tour.

I proposed having a cross-platform design that incorporates both a mobile app and a car display:

Pre-visit planning can be done via the mobile app
During-visit guidance and controls are primarily handled through the car display
Post-visit review and memories are accessible through the mobile app

Below is a high-level user flow that shows the full journey in zoo safari parks.

Information Architecture

Key Features & Flows

We determined the key features to include route recommendation, virtual tour guidance, interactive navigation map. In line with the user flow, I created information architecture for both the Car Display system and the mobile app. I also facilitated the discussion to align on the full user flow. I made sure that we considered the edge cases to ensure a smooth experience.

Moving forward, I took full ownership of the in-car experience design: designing the home page, car controls, car info & help page in the Car Display, as well as the car tour page in the App.

Iteration Rounds

Low-Fi -> Mid-FI -> High-Fi

We conducted three main rounds of iterations, informed by internal design critiques and user testing. Below I'm highlight 3 key iterations that I facilitated.

Key Iteration 1

Designing Clear Navigation within the System

To design the navigation bar for our rider-focused auto HMI system, we analyzed competitor layouts and information architecture. However, we weren't able to find a good reference due to limited car HMI design guidelines.

During critiques, we had conflicting ideas despite each being well-reasoned. To resolve this, I recruited 20+ participants in one day and conducted rapid card sorting to understand user mental models. This quick testing played a key role in helping ensure a clean and intuitive design for the navigation bar as well as the logic behind the platforms.

Key Iteration 2

Virtual Tour Guidance & Interactive Navigation Map

Through iterations, I created a navigation system that lets families focus on enjoying animals rather than figuring out where to go next. The final design features:

Comprehensive map showing routes, stops, and timing
Simple toggle between tour guide and navigation views
Clear park overview with highlighted next stop information

Key Iteration 3

Car Controls and Help Center

The final car control page featured clear visual status indicators and animated feedback, whereras the Help Center page prioritized emergency buttons, prominent SOS function, and location-aware map for staff assistance. These simplified interfaces align with user expectations and enhance safety in our autonomous zoo vehicles.

UI Style Exploration

Creating Playful and Consistent Designs

We created multiple versions for our system, exploring various UI styles. We ultimately set on a final design that is clean, trustworthy, fun, and rider-centered.

As we finalized our visual style, I created design guidelines for color, text, and layout, and I created a sheet of components. This helped ensure consistency across our designs.

User Testing

Evaluating our Designs and Collecting Data for Iterations

I facilitated two rounds of testing: one for low-fi design, and one for high fi-design. We collected qualitative feedbacks from users, which informed our design iterations.

I also conducted SUS surveys to evaluate and compare the usability of our low- and high-fidelity prototypes:

Low-fidelity prototype: SUS score of 71 (7 participants), indicating above-average usability even in early stages.
High-fidelity prototype: SUS score of 78 (5 participants), showing a solid improvement and strong usability.

Note: System Usability Scale (SUS) is designed to provide reliable insights even with as few as 5 participants, making it a practical method in early-stage or resource-constrained usability testing.

Design Outcomes

Autonomous Vehicle Integration for Enhanced Wildlife Experience

Catering to our user needs and goals collected through the interviews and usability testings, we successfully based our designs on the following design goals:

Inclusive Experience Design: Create a flexible system that accommodates diverse family needs, including wheelchair accessibility, varied learning styles, and multi-generational engagement in the zoo safari experience.
Trust-Building Technology: Develop transparent safety features with clear visual indicators and intuitive controls that build confidence in self-driving technology throughout the safari journey.
Immersive Guidance: Design streamlined interfaces that minimize distractions, allowing visitors to focus on wildlife encounters while providing just-in-time information through intuitive navigation.
Cross-Platform Integration: Ensure seamless connection between mobile app planning tools and in-car HMI systems to create a cohesive experience from pre-visit planning through post-visit memories.

4. Reflection

Learnings & Next Steps

Conclusion

Bringing Joy to Families and Beyond

Our prototype evaluation received enthusiastic responses from a wide range of users, including young adults, parents, and the elderly. Many expressed how the system made zoo visits feel more engaging, convenient, and meaningful.

Final Thoughts

Key Takeaways

Learning from Each Other

My teammates came from architecture and landscape background, and they taught me a lot about the salience of maps. While I had more UX experience, and I mentored them on conducting research and creating scalable and aesthetic UIs.

Rapid Prototyping and Lean Research

During the frequent design critiques within the team, I had many discussions with the team around design decisions. To make sure that our designs could achieve the desired outcomes, I took the chance to conducted rapid prototyping and lean research for insights when misalignments arose.

Always Aligning for the Huge Scope

This is a project with a huge scope. We made sure to have clear and detailed documentation of our user flows and regular discussions to keep us aligned. I also led the effort of creating the design system so that our designs are consistent.

Next Steps