MBition - Digital key handover

Year
2021-2023

Role
Expert UX/UI Designer. Responsible for requirement gathering, UX concept, flows, wireframes, and UI design.

Context and challenge

MBition is Mercedes-Benz’ in-house design and development unit for mobile and in-car digital products. The Mercedes me app allows users to interact with their vehicle remotely, including locking, unlocking, and controlling vehicle features.

The Digital Key Handover feature enables users to securely share vehicle access with others via their smartphone.

The challenge:

The challenge was to translate a deeply physical, trust-based action (handing over a car key) into a digital experience that feels safe, understandable, and reversible—while operating under strict security, legal, and hardware constraints.

UX Approach & Process

Requirement gathering across technical, legal and user-acceptance constraints

  1. Mapping the mental model of “giving someone my car key”

  2. Designing end-to-end flows for activation, sharing, revoking, and recovery

  3. Iterative wireframes and UI concepts across mobile and in-car contexts

  4. Continuous validation with stakeholders to ensure feasibility and compliance

Design focus and decisions

Clear status communication (who has access, for how long, and why)

  1. Strong emphasis on reassurance, control, and reversibility

  2. Minimal cognitive load for a security-critical feature

  3. Consistent experience across app and vehicle interface


Outcome and impact


My role

Expert UX/UI Designer working closely with:

  • Product management

  • Engineers (mobile, backend, vehicle systems)

  • Legal and security stakeholders

I was responsible for UX concept, flows, wireframes, UI design, and alignment with the Mercedes design system.

The feature was rolled out globally in 2022 as part of the Mercedes-Benz app.

This project strengthened my experience in designing trust-critical flows, balancing user needs with legal and technical realities, and translating complex systems into intuitive user experiences