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Volvo & Mack

Truck App

CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE

Specific findings, feature designs, and deliverables are protected by confidentiality agreements. A significant portion of this work is currently in active development and approaching market launch. All descriptions reflect my genuine contributions. Happy to walk through the work in depth - get in touch.

Research, strategy, and the product decisions in between

The Volvo and Mack Truck driver apps are the part of the truck experience that travels with the driver everywhere the cab doesn't. My work was primarily leading research and user clinics, defining what the app should become, and building the UX foundation for next gen of electric truck connectivity.

The project was balanced between research, strategy, and execution. I ran the testing and user clinic programme. I translated findings into roadmap recommendations. I wrote UX requirements and app copy. And I worked directly with engineers and UI designers in Sweden to define the information architecture and alert strategy for the new electric platform which is now approaching launch.
ROLEUsability Lead UX Research UX Strategy
TEAMUI Designers Usability Engineering Management
CLIENTVolvo Trucks Mack Trucks
TIMELINE2023-2025

The core strategic question was what actual value can this app bring to a driver's working day? That question shaped the research agenda, the roadmap conversations, and every feature decision.

Where the app fits

The app lives in a different moment than the in-cab HMI. Figuring out when a driver would reach for it meant tracing the driver's day and asking where a phone adds genuine value. The answer wasn't about shrinking the cab experience onto a smaller screen but about extending the driver's awareness and control to the moments outside the cab.
The app doesn't exist in isolation. Volvo has a connected ecosystem of other driver-facing tools (charging app, a digital manual, etc). Part of the scope was making sure these products felt like they belonged together, mapping the integration touchpoints and building toward something coherent rather than a collection of separate tools that happen to share a logo.
EVENING BEFORE
PRE-DEPARTURE
ACTIVE DRIVE
FUEL STOP / REST BREAK
POST-TRIP / YARD
Check vehicle status remotely, set parking climate timers
Range, fuel, DEF, oil, pre-trip checks outside the cab
In-cab HMI takes over. App is not the primary surface
Check alerts, plan next segment, monitor alerts
Review vehicle status, flag issues for service before next run

Defining what the app should become

I defined the research agenda and led prioritisation across markets. The programme combined user clinics, moderated usability studies, and competitive benchmarking each chosen to answer a different set of strategic questions. The outputs were the direct inputs to roadmap decisions.

FEATURE VALIDATION & GENERATIVE RESEARCH

Moderated sessions with drivers across markets to evaluate existing features and explore what they wanted from a connected app. Sessions were designed to surface unmet needs and features drivers would value, not just friction in what already existed. Findings from these clinics directly fed feature prioritisation conversations with the product team.

COMPETITIVE BENCHMARKING — FLEET & CONNECTED VEHICLE LANDSCAPE

Mapped commercial, passenger, and adjacent mobility products to identify differentiation opportunities and well-established patterns across multiple vehicle segments, and emerging connected vehicle services. Benchmarking grounded feature direction in what drivers already knew and expected, and clarified where innovation was worth the learning curve.

NOTIFICATION STRATEGY RESEARCH

Alerts are one of the most consequential UX decisions: too many and they get ignored, too few and the app loses its value proposition. A dedicated study evaluated which notifications drivers actually needed, when they needed them, how they should be framed, and what urgency hierarchy made sense for a driver's working day. This also shaped the copy standard for all notification content.

CROSS-TOUCHPOINT CONSISTENCY EVALUATION

Ensured that patterns, terminology, and iconography in the app stayed coherent with the in-cab HMI so drivers weren't encountering two different mental models for the same vehicle systems.

What the work produced
Findings from the research were translated into things developers could build, designers could implement, and drivers could use. The electric platform was the most strategically significant body of work a new product category with no existing driver mental model to reference, built in close collaboration with the Sweden-based engineering and UI design team.
01
Information architecture
Structured how vehicle data should be organised, prioritised, and surfaced across the app accounting for the fact that electric truck drivers would be checking different things at different moments (charge status before departure, range during a break, charging session progress at a stop).
02
Alerts & hierarchy
Defined which alerts matter, when they should fire, and at what urgency level, distinguishing safety-critical notifications. For electric trucks, the alert hierarchy includes new categories: charge-level warnings, charging session updates, pre-conditioning reminders, and range planning.
03
UX copy (ICE and electric variants)
Wrote & reviewed in-app language separately for diesel and electric contexts because the same concept required fundamentally different language. Copy was reviewed against driver comprehension standards.
04
Requirements documentation
Translated strategy and research findings into written UX requirements to bridge the gap between research insight and what engineers and UI designers could build. Requirements covered interaction behaviour, notification logic, copy standards, and cross-platform consistency constraints.
05
Cross-team alignment
Worked in close collaboration with the engineering, UI design and product teams globally to align on feature logic, UX requirements, and ensuring that the app matched driver experience the vehicle teams were designing toward. The electric platform required sustained coordination across time zones, disciplines, and development stages.
06
Brand-specific terminology
Volvo and Mack speak to different driver audiences with different brand relationships. Their products share the same underlying system but the language, tone, and feature naming were adapted to each brand's identity.
07
Cross-app integration
Volvo's driver-facing product suite extends beyond the app. I worked to align integration touchpoints ensuring that handoffs between apps were clear, terminology was consistent across products, and drivers weren't required to hold separate mental models for each tool in the ecosystem.
The electric truck app UX work I contributed was developed in parallel with the VNL electric vehicle programme and is approaching market launch. Latest information can be found here.
Electric
trucks
create
entirely
different
driver
anxieties
and
information
needs.
The
question
isn't
"how
full
is
the
tank?"
It's
"do
I
have
enough
range
for
this
route,
and
where
am
I
charging?"
Where the work connected to product direction
App strategy & roadmap
Research programme defined feature priorities and development direction translating driver insight into product decisions. Shaped the roadmap across both diesel and electric platforms.
Electric platform UX foundation
Defined the information architecture, alert taxonomy, and interaction principles for the electric truck app features working with global teams cross-functionally.
Notification strategy
Built and documented the alert hierarchy across both platforms. Established the copy standard for all text, with separate guidelines for diesel and electric contexts.

CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE

Specific findings, feature specifications, and deliverables are covered under NDA. A significant portion of electric platform work is awaiting launch. Details are available in conversation.

Both apps can be found on the app store and play store. Click on the icon to go to the link!

Reflection

The most useful discipline this project built was learning to ask "what is the driver actually deciding?" before asking "what should the screen show?" That shift from information design to decision support changed how I framed everything.

The electric platform work sharpened a different kind of thinking: how to design for a behaviour that doesn't exist yet. Diesel drivers have decades of muscle memory for fuel management. Electric truck drivers are building new mental models in real time and the app is part of how those models get formed. Getting the information architecture and alert strategy right was a question about what confidence in a new technology feels like, and how you design to build it.

Working across engineering, UI design, and product teams spanning Gothenburg and North America also developed my ability to hold a strategic point of view while staying close enough to implementation to know when a decision was drifting away from the driver's actual need. The value of UX strategy isn't in the document. It's in being in the room when the tradeoffs are being made.

Available for full-time roles.

Maybe it's with you :)

Get in touch

vartakgrishma19@gmail.com