With the rise of EVs and software-defined vehicles, a connected mobile app has become an integral part of vehicle ownership.
The Rivian mobile app unlocks a connected vehicle experience that enhances ownership: whether it’s checking on your charge status, preconditioning your vehicle on a cold morning, planning an adventure, or filing a service ticket.
Rivian Mobile App
Our cross-functional team did a ground up redesign of Rivian’s mobile app with the goal of creating a flexible framework that would keep the most pertinent information at the forefront while still still offering full control just a couple taps away.
Role
Senior UX Designer
For those of you that prefer to watch a videos, here’s a video of me talking about our redesign.
The Rivian mobile app is comprised of three distinct sections: the vehicle tab, the adventure tab, and the profiles tab. Our team’s focus was on re-imagining the vehicle tab which users would use on a daily basis.
Zen to Ten
The underlying design philosophy behind our work. We asked ourselves how can we create a delightful experience that still had all the controls you could need or want: the experience starts at a zen and lets you quickly drill down into a ten.
In a competitive landscape where most apps are heavy on the controls we went the opposite way and focused on how visual imagery and tell-tales could be a way to quickly know what’s going on with your vehicle at a glance.
Dynamic clarity
Our framework index heavily on progressive disclosure. Tell-tales at the top of the page could help you quickly discern the various states relevant to your vehicle. Swiping down could give you a peek at that information and clicking in would give you a deep-dive with relevant controls.
From a quick peek to full control
With a single scroll users can access the most used features as shown by data usage. Our approach was to treat this cards as lilypads. We figured out what the most pertinent dynamic data was and the most used action and surfaced it at the top level. Clicking in would reveal a microapp that housed all the controls a user could want.
Quick access dashboard
Our controls panel allows users to access all the relevant closure controls they’d need to control their vehicle. Interfacing with a physical object presents a unique set of challenges as you have to consider connectivity and safety when moving something like a powered liftgate.
Full control
Building off the design language and foundation of the mobile app we were able to bring forward relevant information into widgets and live activities to keep owners even more connected to their vehicle without even opening the app.
Adventure first, app second
“The Rivian app, … looks and feels like it was designed by someone with a passion for programming. More important, it’s packed with functionality that makes the Rivian experience even better.”
— MotorTrend, 2025 Best Tech Award — Automaker App