A hand holding the Acura EV app in front of a blue ZDX at a charger

Connected car app

Building a luxury automaker's first EV app from zero

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Connected car app

Acura's first
EV app

Two legacy apps' worth of features, plus everything new an EV needs, designed from scratch against a fixed launch date.

01 — The brief

Fold every feature from two legacy apps into one, add EV features nobody had designed yet, and hit a launch date that couldn't move.

02 — My role

Sole design lead. I set the experience vision and IA, built a 400+ component design system, and led 5 designers and 3 researchers.

03 — The outcome

Shipped alongside the ZDX and well received by drivers and critics

See the impact ↓

Team: 5 designers3 researchers
Partners: Honda UX3 Accenture teams
Design: Feb–Oct 2023
Launch: Apr 2024

The challenge

One seamless app. Two legacy apps' worth of features. A brand-new EV experience. A fixed launch date.

Acura's first all-electric vehicle, the ZDX, was announced in August 2023. The app had to merge every feature from the existing Acura and Honda apps with new EV capabilities like remote charging control and live charger availability, into one experience. It had to work for long-time Acura owners and first-time EV drivers alike.

What drivers told us

We ran 4 rounds of research with over 50 current and prospective EV drivers. Two needs shaped every decision that followed.

EV drivers live in the app

Every EV owner we spoke with used a companion app. Gas-car owners were far less likely to download one.

→ This led to:

The app had to be central to ownership, not an add-on, so charging and remote commands sit front and center.

New EV drivers need reassurance

Drivers coming from gas cars were unsure what owning an EV involves: home charging, finding a public charger that actually works, what happens if the battery runs low. That unfamiliarity turned charging and range into real anxiety.

→ This led to:

Charging status, nearby chargers, and roadside help are always one tap away, with plain-language guidance on what to expect.

Key decisions

Navigation in drivers' language

Merging Acura and Honda app features meant every label and tab was up for debate.

The problem

The two legacy apps used competing labels for overlapping things ("Car" for commands and charging, "Vehicle" for maintenance and monitoring), and internal jargon kept creeping into names. After years with the legacy apps, the old structure was everyone's default.

We considered

Merging monitoring into the command dashboard, and giving brand and EV content their own tabs.

What we chose

Keep the dashboard focused on commands and charging, and move monitoring into "Manage vehicle." Fold brand and EV content into one "Acura hub" with room to grow into shopping. Use plain names drivers would recognize, including for the app itself. We won agreement with option surveys, several usability rounds, and best-in-class examples.

Result

Five tabs, each named for what drivers are trying to do.

A dashboard built for both hands

The most-used screen in the app was also the most contested.

Sending a remote command: progress, confirmation, and status update

The problem

Stakeholders wanted an oversized car image, commands stacked on the right, and a dense status grid. The image wasn't interactive, and right-side controls favor right-handed users.

We considered

The requested layout, or a smaller car with commands centered in one row.

What we chose

The focused layout. We scaled down the car image, centered the commands for either hand, and reserved the space below for promo cards. Because commands can lag, each one shows real progress, with timing messages shaped with engineering, then a confirmation and an updated vehicle status.

Result

Stakeholders wanted a large hero image of the car. I walked them through the driver research and showed that drivers came to the dashboard to act, not admire. We kept the car visible but smaller, and gave marketing a dedicated promo slot.

Port-level charging data on a phone screen

A regular map shows where a station is. EV drivers need to know if a charger will work for them.

Charge station map with pins colored by availability, above a list of nearby stations showing distance, network, hours, and 3/5 very fast chargers available — Port-level availability, speed, and network at a glance

The problem

Drivers need to know which connector is free, how fast it charges, what plug it uses, and what it costs, across several charging networks, all on a phone.

What we chose

Layer it so each tap answers the next question: availability-colored pins, then a station summary, then connectors grouped by station, then full pricing and steps to start charging. Missing data gets clear "No availability data" states instead of blanks.

Result

Drivers pick a specific charger with confidence before they leave.

Inside the app

A look at a few of the 25+ features that shipped at launch.

Car dashboard showing battery, range, remote controls and vehicle alerts

01 / 04

Vehicle control & status

Commands for lock/unlock, locating the car, and monitoring warning lights.

How I led the team

Five designers, three researchers, two companies, one launch date. My job was to keep everyone building the same app.

One journey, one owner

I split the work by user journey instead of by screen. Each designer owned a journey end to end, like finding a charge station or scheduling maintenance, so decisions stayed consistent from the first tap to the last state.

Built for handoff

Engineering was part of the process, not the end of it. I reviewed designs with developers several times a week, so we designed for what the vehicle could actually do, down to messaging like how long a remote command would take. A centralized design system, a detailed handoff checklist, and documented edge cases meant devs could build without guessing. We caught problems before build, avoided late rework, and hit the launch date.

Daily alignment across two companies

I ran daily reviews with Honda UX and the Accenture teams to align and iterate, plus joint workshops for the bigger decisions. Disagreements surfaced early, while they were still cheap to fix.

Growing the team as we built

I coached the designers every day, from Figma craft (building components, setting up files and pages, creating and using tokens) to design fundamentals like spacing, type, contrast, and consistency. The system only works if everyone can build with it, so teaching was part of the job.

Steph did a fantastic job leading the development of UX/UI for the Acura EV app… helping turn around quick, beautiful, and straightforward UI screens, fully embodying UX best practices and guidelines.

– Client testimonial

Impact

J.D. Power experience design: 9.2/10
2.9K App Store ratings: 4.0★
New app, built for Acura's first EV: 0 → 1
Features at launch: 25+

Metrics as of January 2026. J.D. Power OEM EV APP Report, 2025.

The overall app felt intuitive and easy to use… I feel like I understand the electric cars more and this app will help me learn about my car quickly. It makes me feel more comfortable with it versus overwhelmed.

Focus group participant, gas-car owner

App overview

Reflections

What I'd do differently

Requirements kept shifting after designs were approved, and new features arrived that existing patterns weren't built to absorb, so we redesigned work we'd already finished. Next time I'd push for a single requirements owner and agreed lock points from day one, so everyone knows when a design is final and when it's still open.

How I'd run this today with AI

Most of this work was done by hand. Today I'd have the team in a shared repo connected to Figma through MCP, so AI could help read and write design files, generate edge-case and error states, and keep the system documented. We'd explore far more options in the time it took to make one, and share clickable HTML prototypes so Honda could react to a working experience instead of static screens. When requirements changed, we could adapt much faster.