Future Roads Safety View
The Challenge
As connected vehicle data becomes more accessible, there is a growing opportunity to improve road safety through better insights. The goal of Future Roads Safety View was to transform raw data from OnStar and other sources into a visual tool that helps users understand patterns of risk across the road network. The challenge was to design an interface that could display real-time and historical data, including road conditions, accidents, and incidents, in a way that is easy to navigate and act on. Users needed the ability to explore data by individual road segment or view larger trends through a dynamic heatmap, all within a system designed for clarity, speed, and scalability.
The Process
We started by collaborating with GM’s data and analytics teams to understand the available datasets from OnStar and other external sources. This included accident reports, environmental conditions, vehicle sensor data, and historical driving patterns. With that foundation, we identified key user groups such as city planners, infrastructure partners, and public safety analysts, and created personas to guide design decisions.
We outlined the most important use cases, including viewing risk by individual road segments, exploring heatmaps across wider regions, and filtering data by time or incident type. Early wireframes focused on balancing spatial exploration with clear access to key metrics, so users could move smoothly between street-level views and broader patterns.
Prototypes were built to test interaction flows for filtering, zooming, and analyzing specific points of interest. These were tested internally and with select stakeholders to validate the experience and refine usability. Feedback helped improve clarity, navigation, and how data was layered and presented over time.
We worked closely with engineers throughout the project to address performance considerations and ensure the system could handle large datasets without compromising speed or clarity.
The Results
The final product delivered a powerful and easy-to-use tool for exploring road safety data. Users could quickly identify high-risk areas, monitor trends over time, and examine detailed insights by individual road segment or through an interactive heatmap. The design helped turn complex datasets into clear, actionable information that supported smarter infrastructure decisions and safety planning.
By focusing on clarity, performance, and scalability, the system met its goals for both technical execution and user experience. The modular design also positioned the platform for future expansion, allowing additional data sources or features to be added without redesigning the core interface.