Designing SnappOS: A White-Label In-Car Operating System

Over the past two years, I’ve led the design of SnappOS: a white-label infotainment system built on Android Automotive. As Chief Product Officer and lead designer, I was responsible for the product vision, system architecture, and core user experience. Our goal was to help carmakers—especially smaller OEMs—bring a modern, safe, and customizable in-car system to market without building everything from scratch.

Role	Product Designer & Chief Product Officer
Duration	2 years
Team	1 designer, 4-5 engineers, 1 QA engineer
Stakeholders	Internal teams at carmakers (Design, product, engineering), certifications and regulatory bodies, Hardware partners
Key Result	Designed and brought SnappOS to market Scalable design system and theming engine for rapid customization Formed partnerships with hardware providers and 3rd party software products Used as base for multiple carmakers to build their own infotainment systems

Overview of SnappOS with in-car and companion app UI

Project Context

Many infotainment systems are overloaded, unsafe, and frustrating to use. Smaller carmakers often lack the time or resources to build their own. With Android Automotive gaining traction, we saw an opportunity to offer a white-label solution: a modular platform focused on the essentials. SnappOS adapts to different screen sizes and vehicle types, and includes a customizable UI layer, a theming engine, core apps, and a companion mobile experience.

Design approach

We started with user needs: most drivers just want music, navigation, and quick access to controls. We simplified the system around these core tasks, then prototyped everything in Android to validate ergonomics and transitions in real cars. Testing and prototyping were real challenges due to hardware limitations. I worked closely with engineers to develop internal tools—like our own firmware updater—so we could test and iterate quickly, even remotely. Safety was central. We defined our own touch target and typography standards based on in-car testing, and designed affordances for high-stress driving situations.

SnappOS including the companion app — We created our own tools to test and iterate quickly

To make the in-car experience as simple as possible, we designed a companion app. We focused on nailing the communication between the car and the app, ensuring that we could move many features from the car to the app.

Customization and Outcome

Our main selling point is the ability to fully customize the UI and branding. To support this with as little engineering effort as possible, we built a fully tokenized theming system that connects to both the UI layer and our Figma components. This lets OEMs fully reskin the UI without changing the core experience. This theming engine is used both in the car and in the companion app.

The customization of SnappOS — The entire system can be re-arranged and rebranded without writing new code

Today, SnappOS is being integrated with several carmakers and is customized for a range of vehicle types—from hypercars to car-sharing fleets. It's used as the in-car operating system for several small car brands, and is being adopted internally by larger OEMs as the foundation for their next-generation infotainment systems.

Full Case Study

Read the full breakdown with design rationale, technical details, and visuals.