Created for the Cadillac × AAU Corporate Sponsored Project, this 2040 concept reimagines future luxury mobility as an emotionally intelligent ecosystem. The experience transforms autonomous travel into a space of connection and reflection — where gesture, gaze, and emotion allow families to capture, relive, and share living memories.
Our goal was to design technology that supports presence — bringing calm, continuity, and meaning back to modern motion.
My Role
Product Designer — UX/UI, Interaction Design, UX Writing
Team
Product Manager, Design Lead, Engineer, Design Systems Manager
Timeline
10 Weeks
Tools
Figma, Sprinklr Design System (Hyperspace)
My Role
Systems UX, Emotional Design, Storyboarding, AI Voice & Microcopy, Motion Design
Team
6 Industrial Designers,
Product Designer (me),
1 Visual Designer
TImeline
7 weeks
Tools
Figma, After Effects, Mixamo, Gravity Sketch
Challenge
Live support felt fragmented. Agents juggled multiple tabs, copied data between tools, and lost track mid-chat — managing multi-step requests manually led to delays, inconsistency, and higher cognitive load.
Admins couldn’t update or style workflows without engineering help, slowing iterations and blocking agility.
Results & Impact
Together, these improvements bridged agent and admin workflows — enabling faster resolutions, higher satisfaction, and fewer errors.
The new self-serve Guided Workflow system empowered admins to independently build, style, and deploy flows — reducing engineering dependency while giving teams full control over customization and reporting.
Challenge
In 2040, fully autonomous luxury vehicles have become effortless—but emotionally empty. The Cadillac × AAU Corporate Sponsored Project posed an open question: What might luxury mean when every car drives itself?
Instead of focusing on speed or convenience, our team reimagined mobility as an emotional space — a vehicle that doesn’t just move people, but connects them.
Through early research, we uncovered a growing tension among high-achieving families: the price of ambition — success often meant emotional distance.
How might we help ambitious families stay emotionally connected — without slowing them down?
The Price of Ambition
I traced Cadillac’s legacy — a symbol of ambition and presence — to imagine how identity might shift when cars no longer need drivers.
How might presence evolve in a world where autonomy is the norm?
Philosophy
-
Standard of the World
Cultural Influence
–
‘The Cadillac of’
Symbolism
-
The Crest
Lifestyle
-
Modern Creators
Insights
From Legacy to Human Insight
Tomorrow’s luxury isn’t speed — it’s presence without performance. High-achieving families crave emotional connection in a world that often pulls them apart.
Ambition gave them everything — except time together.
Insights revealed that true luxury isn’t louder — it’s more human.
Design Opportunities
Turning Emotional Insight into Interaction Design
I redefined luxury not as status or speed — but as emotional intelligence.
My goal: to shape interactions that make users feel seen, remembered, and connected.
Research
A Flow That Wasn’t Flowing
Observing where flow broke for both agents and admins. I shadowed real-time chats and admin setups, mapping every pause, search, and workaround.
Agents lost focus mid-conversation; admins lost agility in maintenance. Each gap revealed where guidance—not more tools—was needed.
“Even small changes to workflows needed engineering help — it slowed us down every time.”
-Admin
“I’d lose my place mid-chat while switching tabs — it broke my rhythm with the customer.”
-Agent
Insights
Finding Where AI Could Step In- and When It Shouldn't
Through observation, it became clear that not every problem needed a new feature — some needed quiet intelligence. AI could step in where repetition and hesitation lived: auto-filling data, updating tickets, or surfacing next-best actions in real time.
For agents, it meant maintaining focus without breaking conversation flow.
For admins, automation became a way to scale consistency and reduce engineering dependency—without losing creative control.
Opportunity
Turning Insight into Flow
Designing Guidance That Felt Like Second Nature
Designing for two roles meant balancing precision with empathy. Through quick sketches and mid-fi explorations, I tested how guidance could feel intuitive for agents and flexible for admins. Each iteration brought more clarity and ease to both experiences.
Agent
Admin
Bringing Calm to Complexity
With limited time before handoff, I focused on internal design reviews and motion refinements to ensure clarity and flow.
Progress indicators, collapsible modals, and simplified copy were tested internally to help agents stay focused and help admins edit workflows with confidence.
I also outlined key usability testing goals for future iterations — including cognitive load, completion time, and overall clarity — to guide validation once live data becomes available.
Layering Emotional Intelligence Into Agent Assist
As the system became smoother and more intuitive, the next challenge was to make it more emotionally aware — helping AI understand not just what was said, but how it was said.
I designed the foundation for this sentiment and compliance system, which was later integrated into Sprinklr’s AI Care platform.
View live feature on Sprinklr here and here!
This project pushed me to think beyond just clean UI. It was about designing calm into complexity—making a product feel less overwhelming for agents who live in it every day. I learned how accessibility, microcopy, and systems thinking can quietly shift how people work and feel.
Next Steps
Run deeper usability testing to catch the invisible friction points.
Build a UX writing style guide to scale clarity across workflows.
Partner with engineering to bring advanced accessibility features like screen reader support into the product.
Key Takeaways
Accessibility reshaped the experience.
Small tweaks in contrast and sizing made workflows feel calmer and faster for agents.
Words outperformed features.
Clear, actionable microcopy unlocked more ease than heavy UI changes ever could.System thinking > screen thinking.
Designing for both admins and agents pushed me to build for scale, not just aesthetics.
Transforming Motion Into Living Memory
I transformed these principles into Cadillac Ethos — a multimodal ecosystem where travel becomes shared storytelling.
It connects vehicle, wearable, and AI through subtle emotional intelligence.
A Choreography of Connection
Designing Non-Verbal Interaction
I shifted from what the system is to how it feels—using gaze and gesture as a quiet physical language that bridges humans with the Sigil and Relic.
PIVOT - Reframing the Experience
I initially imagined a mixed-reality extension of Cadillac Ethos, but critique pushed me to focus less on spectacle and more on how the system communicates as one.
This reframed my thinking from interface to Systems UX, orchestrating how AI, wearables, and vehicle work together.
From Parts to System
I mapped how gesture, voice, AI, and memory connect through the AI Concierge—turning separate touchpoints into a cohesive emotional loop that deepens connection between human and machine.
Interaction Structure
This loop became the foundation of the system’s structure — sensing, responding, and remembering like a living interface.
Every interaction flows through a shared emotional core, connecting gesture, gaze, and memory in real time.
Language of Light
The Sigil is the emotional interface of Cadillac Ethos — expressing connection through color, rhythm, and motion. It speaks without words: a shared glow, a synchronized pulse, a quiet presence.
Each light state mirrors emotion — not commands.
Preserving Emotion
The Relic preserves what the Sigil expresses — sensing moments of connection and quietly capturing them through AI-assisted memory.
Those moments return as immersive reflections of light, scent, and sound.
Emotional Journey Timeline
The Relic preserves what the Sigil expresses — sensing connection and quietly archiving it through AI-assisted memory.
Moments of emotion become shared reflections, blending light, scent, and sound to relive what matters.
A Language of Response
I gave the AI Concierge a voice that’s calm, ambient, and reflective — guiding, not commanding. It speaks with presence, mirroring the emotional restraint and warmth of the brand.
Storyboarding
I translated each system behavior — gesture, light, tone, memory — into a cinematic storyboard to capture how it feels, not just what happens.
Through feedback and iteration by Cadillac, I refined the emotional pacing so every frame spoke human connection, not tech.
Working on Cadillac Ethos taught me to design beyond interfaces — to choreograph systems, emotion, and relationships. A simple gesture experiment evolved into a living ecosystem where hardware, AI, and human intent move as one.
Key Takeaways
Adaptability: Pivoted from speculative to system-focused design.
Systems Thinking: Designed emotional connection across AI, wearables, and vehicle.
Emotional Design: Prioritized presence, empathy, and calm.
Narrative: Translated emotion into cinematic storytelling.
Next Steps
Expand Depth: Explore cross-vehicle experiences.
Mixed Reality: Revisit AR/VR to extend emotional continuity.
Prototype: Build mid- to high-fidelity interactions.
Sensory Layering: Enhance audio, scent, and ambient cues.
I’m just an orbit away — let’s shape what’s next!
Open to full-time roles, new ideas, collaborations, and connections 🧋☺️
© 2025. Designed by Anuri Shah
I’m just an orbit away — let’s shape what’s next!
Open to full-time roles, new ideas, collaborations, and connections 🧋☺️
© 2025. Designed by Anuri Shah
I’m just an orbit away — let’s shape what’s next!
Open to full-time roles, new ideas, collaborations, and connections 🧋☺️
© 2025. Designed by Anuri Shah
I’m just an orbit away — let’s shape what’s next!
Open to full-time roles, new ideas, collaborations, and connections 🧋☺️
© 2025. Designed by Anuri Shah