Marco Delgado Product

I began my employment at Wisk during the period when the company was privately owned and financed by Larry Page, well-known for his association with Google. During that period, the company operated under the name Kitty Hawk, and I was enlisted to oversee the product design initiative for the FAA-certified Ground Control Station. The project, designated as A2A, was developed to enable a remote operator to oversee the operations of an individual autonomous aircraft.

Cora

Prior to my arrival at Kitty Hawk, it had been determined that our company would procure an off-the-shelf certified avionics UI and overhaul the Flight Management System. The chosen product, embraced by the systems and software teams, was the Proline Fusion Plus, provided by Collins Aerospace. Additionally, we engaged Collins Aerospace to ensure the FAA certification of the system redesign. The project introduced various design constraints as Collins expressed significant apprehension towards altering their existing certified design system (ARINC 661 toolkit). Visibly, the graphical elements appeared outdated, as depicted in the accompanying images.

Given the strict design constraints, I was somehow able to update the button styles. Initially, the supplier expressed concerns, stating that the proposed changes would pose a risk to certification timeline. But, by utilizing the eyedropper tool in Photoshop, I was able to match a color from the original button gradients. Consequently, I was able to argue that the selected colors were already certified.

The architectural structure underwent essential revisions to eliminate inconsistencies, particularly the nested tabs depicted in the "Before" image. The "After" image was delivered to the supplier to illustrate the proposed changes.

I had the rare opportunity to define the information architecture for two avionics programs. For the A2A program I had an existing high level architecture to leverage however the flight management system had been wiped clean and needed to be re-defined. For the certified avioncis UI I was able to completely define the entire information architecture as there was no legacy product to leverage.

Working within an engineering organization can quickly leave designers feeling like they are on an island, and often leaves engineers making assumptions about design. To bridge this gap, I always engage engineers in the design process. For me, it is always essential to get pulled out of my comfort zone and learn about my co-workers' approaches. I also really enjoy the challenge of helping engineers see their creative potential. Post-its and sketching over a print-out may seem oddly old-school, but in my experience, sitting next to an engineer and inviting them to sketch with me works wonders for building bonds and trust. It is also an excellent way for both parties to stay aligned and informed.

I worked closely with a team of test pilots who were my end users. Many were military test pilots and were by far the most educated and brightest users I have ever worked with. Unfortunately, it was rare that I could work with them all at once as we had teams in Silicon Valley and New Zealand. I often used Principle to record interactions with quick-turn prototypes and upload them to our shared server with a scoring sheet. This was a great way to gain insights into several concepts before creating a more formal test UI. I did dozens of iterations to inform the direction. The HMI was multimodal in design, so I often utilized a graphic of the physical hardware interactions in the prototypes. In this image, I explored the interactions associated with the hardware-based layout presets.

One requirement for the Ground Control Station was that it be designed to be easily broken down and reassembled to support our team in New Zealand. Therefore, I enlisted the help of a mechanical engineering intern to ensure that the structural integrity of display frames would withstand the stress of the heavy displays during shipping. I also designed the configuration of the workstation itself with the pilots. In the right-hand image, I placed graph paper on a table and asked each pilot to set up the desk to their liking. I then charted the position of each element. I came to a set of average positions for each piece of hardware, which was then compared and adjusted to the guidelines defined in "The Measure of Man and Woman" to mitigate potential repetitive stress.

Though I cannot display the final designs, the images above represent iterative concepts for the Preflight tab (left) and Aircraft State Window (right). In the world of avionics, there are often requirements for designing for several redundancies. This is underscored by the preflight tab, where one's first instinct would be to use a toggle button instead of two momentary switches with a text label indicator. But this is how you often need to address quality assurance levels to gain an airworthiness certification. Combined with a multimodal approach, the complexity of each feature can increase exponentially.

I always embrace the opportunity to dust off my Industrial Design chops and have a go at a concept sketch. Prior to the unveiling of the Gen 6 aircraft's design, it began as a computer-aided design (CAD) packaging study. The initial image represented the preliminary fuselage concept, which the design director modeled in NX (Before). To aid him in determining the proportions and stance of the fuselage, I produced a Photoshop overlay rendering (After).

On several occasions I had the opportunity to coordinate and lead design workshops with cross-functional teams. The images here are representative of a Human Factors planning workshop I lead in October of 2023. The Human Factors management had very little experience in leading and HMI effort and one of the major pain points historically, was an absense of a proper scope of work and design brief for the HMI design and software teams. I requested the opportunity to lead this week long workshop in order to align the cross-functional team by having them participate in the creation of a proper design brief and test plan. Upon completion of this workshop the Human Factors managers then had a working template to leverage for subsequent user evaluations.

I cannot share any images from the current program I am working on. However, I am designing a UI that enables a single pilot to manage 3 to 5 aircraft simultaneously. Communicating 3 to 5 avionics suites at once comes with extraordinary complexity. My philosophy for this program is to deliver all of the data sets a pilot needs to make a decision when they need it, as they need it. To accomplish this, I have to choreograph the data sets of the UI contextually to the phase of flight and lat/long position of each aircraft. To further this aim, I have designed a task management tool that delivers predictive prompts to inform the pilot of key tasks to perform in known intervals of each flight route. Imagine a dashboard giving the pilot an at-a-glance overview of all of the aircraft while dynamically narrowing the point of focus based on the task at hand.

The video presented above serves as a marketing tool showcasing the use of a software test bench. This demonstration provides a cursory overview of the current Human-Machine Interfaces (HMIs) I am currently designing for.

In my role as the Digital Product Manager for Advanced Driver-Assisted Systems (ADAS), I collaborated closely with the Solutions Architects and internal ADAS engineering teams to effectively translate feasibility, functional requirements, homologation requirements, and ISO standards into actionable design directives. Here, I was responsible for managing the user flows related to Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS). These systems included Adaptive Cruise Control, Lane Departure Warning, Auto Parking, Blind Spot Detection, Auto Braking, Brake Assist, and 360 Camera as well as aural and graphical alerting.

In collaboration with the Human Factors manager, I supervised the development of the physical and digital Human-Machine Interface (HMI) plan of record switch maps for the vehicle interior. This encompassed the PRNDL (gear shifter), steering wheel stalks, and the steering wheel hard buttons. I teamed up with the functional safety and homologation teams to design touch screen and hardware-based interfaces for ADAS and Steering Wheel controls.

I worked with our in-house EE and Function Safety teams to create signal flows/maps for user inputs and vehicle outputs across 5 interior screens connecting the hard and soft switches to the vehicle functions they actuate. The package encompasses ten hard switches for the steering wheel assembly, comprising functions for infotainment, voice control, and intelligent adaptive cruise control, along with controls for PRNDL, defrost, and steering wheel stalks.

Upon joining Byton, I quickly identified that the ambiguity in the design was blocking the UX team. In response, the User Interface (UI) manager and I organized a series of design thinking workshops to pinpoint potential opportunities and establish a hierarchy based on usage and safety considerations. During these workshops, we delved into the breakdown of vehicle behaviors arising from various sources, including the vehicle itself, the driver, the passengers, and other factors.

We engaged the creativity of the UX, UI and representatives from our Engineering stakeholders during the Design Thinking workshops, by having them rapidly iterate fast hand-sketched wireframe concepts to pinpoint pivotal moments in the product's use and map out every single touchpoint along the user journey.

The image depicted above showcases the initial wireframe concept iteration of the 360° camera controls utilized during an autonomous parking event. I created the wireframe layouts in close collaboration with the UI Manager to establish a uniform standard for deliverables intended for the UX team. This served two purposes: first it aligned the UX Design team with the expectations of their deliverables. And second, I used these preliminary concepts to initiate discussions with the Software and ADAS engineering teams regarding feasibility.

I collaborated with the systems solution architect to develop a series of sequence diagrams for each ADAS feature. The diagram provided depicts user interactions with the Auto Park feature and the 360° visualization of the parking environment utilizing data from the vehicle's five external cameras.

In anticipation of an upcoming formal user testing round, I engaged the services of a mechanical engineering intern to plan and fabricate a modular seating buck. This structure was designed to be disassembled for convenient transport between our company's offices in Santa Clara, Munich, and Nanjing. The seating buck was designed to adhere to the exact specifications of the vehicle's interior, ensuring ergonomic correctness. I also had the privilege of being part of a 7-person team that conducted user tests in Nanjing, China for 12 days. This marked a significant milestone as I conducted user tests with the use of interpreters for the very first time in my career!

In my role as the product owner for the Corvette HUD (Heads Up Display), I was responsible for developing wireframe layouts, screen flows, and assets in accordance with the General Motors Form and Behavior Specification documents. This process involved ensuring the accurate capture of content, behaviors and data values for each feature set.

For the HUD, I aligned with the Corvette engineering product owners to develop wireframe concepts and production assets for the HUD, encompassing various drive modes, infotainment, navigation, ASR voice, phone, and alerting features.

For the instrument cluster I collaborated with our in-house implementation team to oversee the management and expansion of the asset library for the instrument cluster. This involved the creation of integration templates, managing style guides, graphical samples, and asset updates for the upcoming model year.

During my tenure at Bosch I was in charge of all user testing for the Car Multimedia business unit.  Here, I conducted and oversaw two stages of user testing in Novi, Michigan, Las Vegas, Nevada, and Stuttgart, Germany as part of the usability initiative. The initial stage involved conducting an A/B HTML wireframe user test on desktop devices. During the second phase of testing, the updated visual brand language was evaluated in conjunction with production graphics, target hardware (screen), and a surrogate steering wheel. The primary objective was to assess user acceptance and compare the updated visual brand language with that of high-end supercars.

As product owner of the Heads Up Display I designed the wireframes and production assets while ensuring a strict adherence to the Form and Behavior specifications required by GM.  There were approximately 5 specifications to manage, each of which had 200 + pages.  The Heads up display offered a high level of customization and can present detailed turn-by-turn navigation instructions accompanied by lane guidance, as well as hands-free ASR voice control and music/infotainment HMI.

Both the Instrument Cluster and HUD offer several distinct drive modes, each presenting a unique visual design and set of default features. While these settings are customizable by the user, our team has structured the default configurations of each drive mode to align with the most frequently utilized feature sets for contextual support.   During integration efforts I created asset/container maps, managed asset deliveries and provided implementation verifications to the SW team and Corvette design studio.

This video gives a nice 3 minute overview of the instrument cluster and HUD HMI .

For the 2018 CES Show, Bosch Car Multimedia NA planned to retrofit the latest Bosch hardware and software offerings into a stock Cadillac Escalade.

This image above depicts the standard vehicle model.

The image below depicts my conceptual sketch/rendering, representing the final vision for the CES Showcar. Bosch Car Multimedia NA aimed to present an innovative Centerstack display, featuring an extended screen with the Neosense haptic display integrated into the center console. Additionally, an extra 15” screen was proposed to be installed in front of the 1st row passenger seat.

The center stack display in the Cadillac Escalade was notably intriguing as it consisted of a 12.3-inch Digital Instrument Cluster that had been rotated 90 degrees to fit into the vehicle, resulting in a unique configuration.

The marketing team desired a vision that is both atmospheric and abstract. I created a concept which envisioned flowing ribbons to exhibit a kinetic quality which moved slowly behind the interface iconography.

The depicted image represents an early version of the secondary Integrated Center Stack Screen. It was designed for use with the Bosch NeoSense haptic control screen, which allows users to perceive the edges of each button through a system of vibrating motors.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuRr1cST74Q

A nice overview of the Internet of Things concept at CES.

Also check out the write up in Autoblog!

https://www.autoblog.com/2018/01/30/bosch-digital-cockpit-infotainment/

In collaboration with a dimensional engineer specializing in the Instrument Panel, I drafted a comprehensive exploded view that portrays all trim levels of the Plan of Record (POR). We utilized the exploded views to achieve consensus on various aspects including costing, part-to-part interface, and formulating a build sequence for the manufacturing line.

Exploded views were meticulously generated for all interior components of the vehicle, mirroring the detailed approach employed for the instrument panel. Seats, side panels, head liners and in this case, the Center Console. In the development of the Pacifica, various trim levels were available for customer configuration, each necessitating its own set of exploded views. During the initial phase, existing data from the Town and Country was leveraged alongside Photoshop sketching and renderings to facilitate the development of the Bill of Materials (BOM) and costing.

The initial validation study was run in an immersive 3D environment where potential tolerance movement was captured from the driver eye ellipse. Here we studied approximately 5 - 8 different Ramsis dummies. The second round of validation was done in an H-Pointed CNC routed seating buck.

Restar is a single use Negative Pressure Wound Therapy (NPWT) gasket.

Preparing a wound for NPWT is a multi-step process that must be completed with a high level of accuracy. If any of the steps involved are not executed correctly, the wound must be re-dressed causing providers to incur excess costs in time and supply loss, not to mention patient comfort. 

As I embarked upon this project, I conducted in-depth research studies to build a solid design and business case.  Market indications and predictions were used to find current and emerging markets.  As well, I researched and documented the financial impact of wound therapy on patients, care givers, insurance agencies and hospitals. Finally, competitive benchmarks were drawn to uncover the breadth of competitive companies, their niche within the market and their pricing schedules. 

The Restar is designed to have a clear vacuum reservoir which allows care providers to view the progress of treatment in real time.  With current NPWT methodologies, care providers must remove the dressing in order to view the wound.  This results in higher health care costs incurred from supplies and man hours. 

The Restar has a clear all-in-one design with a self-adhesive base.  This cuts down on care time and mistakes.  The dual port design allows care providers to utilize either port for incoming and outgoing pressure based upon the location of the wound in relation to the vacuum pump. 

Preparing the patient for NPWT treatment with Restar is surprisingly fast and easy. The provider simply peels back the protective sheet exposing the adhesive base. Positions Restar over the wound and then connects incoming and outgoing ports to the vacuum device. 

Fluid enters Restar from the incoming port and fills the reservoir with saline solution until completely full and flowing through the outgoing port. At this point, the incoming port is shut off and vacuum pressure is applied through the outgoing port.  The saline solution replaces the job of the sponge in traditional treatments, equalizing negative pressure across the face of the wound, drawing granular tissue out to the surface of the wound. 

One issue with traditional treatments is that the sponge catches waste materials and holds it against the wound.  This minimizes the length and success of the procedure.  By using saline solution, the wound is constantly flushed of waste material. As well, the dual port design allows care providers to push cleansing fluid through Restar, disinfecting the wound environment.  

In order to reach the target of a 2% market presence, several sizes would need to be machined and manufactured.  A large version for decubitus ulcers (bed sores) and a smaller more flexible version would be needed to serve the market of diabetic foot patients.  Because Restar can be cleansed several times during treatment, it became a promissing option for the treatment of diabetic foot since some treatments indicate the application of a full foot cast in order immobilize the foot and wound tissue. 

The inspiration for this project came from my time living in Chicago. A city which, at the time, had no recycling program in place.  Therefore residents had to haul their recycling to one of three drop off locations placed around the city.  It was quite common to see a pile of recycling bags in the kitchens and back porches of the city. 

There were several levels of sketch ideations, form studies and foam models for this project.  For the design to be successful, the storage capacity needed to be greater than the unit itself in it's out-of-the-box state. 

To get the most utility out of the packaging space, I incorporated a secondary slide out container which would allow users to cut down on the clutter of recycling bags and boxes. 

The Flatstaxx uses two sets of rollers to flatten aluminum and plastic recyclables.  The larger rollers take the majority of bulk out of the recyclables, while the smaller, lower-geared rollers apply the finishing "squeeze".

The Flatstaxx is based upon the paradigm of the paper shredder.  The head of the unit can be removed the main receptacle and placed over the secondary slide-out container.  As well, the hinge of the flip-up door was designed to have a kill switch, requiring that the product be closed in order to function. 

This graphic illustrates the packaging space and construction of the compactor. The CAD data was built in Rhino, while the rendering was performed in Keyshot. The image was then imported into photoshop to illustrate the interior view and mechanisms. 

The exterior of the Flatstaxx was intended to be constructed of high impact ABS plastic while the interior structure sports a stainless steel hydrographic appliqué. 

This image represents the scale and possible in-home look of the Flatstaxx. 

To create a low-cost leg splint that can be utilized in a variety of applications, from Doctors Without Borders to domestic low-income populations.

I completed a set of medical illustrations to better understand the underlying structures of the lower legs.  The natural levers and fulcrums of the human mechanism was of utmost importance as I experimented with immobilizing ones foot comfortably. 

The initial direction utilized a disposable rip chord mechanism that, when torqued to a specified level of pressure would lock into place.  This direction was abandoned as the ratcheting mechanism would have been to costly to produce. 

Instead, I began to investigate the ability of the Anchor to create a structure by overlapping the straps atop of one and other. 

In this phase of the project I utilized foam core and sheet plastic to test methods of applying tension to the splint without placing any pressure on the foot or ankle. During these experiments I came to understand how using cross tensioning might create structure to a highly malleable medium. 

The final design of the leg splint utilized medical grade low density polyethylene for the main components.  This is the same material used in manufacturing shampoo bottles.  This also makes it possible to manufacture the splint from materials containing a percentage of post-consumer waste.  The large handles and finger loops make it easier for application in a variety of environments and climates. 

The Anchor Leg Splint is constructed of three pieces of sheet plastic.  Because the design is planar, die cutting in the Z axis creates a low cost manufacturing scenario. 

The final prototype was created with CNC milled low density polyethylene and construction grade velcro.  As depicted in this step-by-step photographs series, the Anchor can be applied over clothing and footwear. 

Because of the low cost manufacturing technologies and ease of use, the Anchor is a great solution for low-income, military, and emergency scenarios.