I rode overnight with long-haul truck drivers across UAE and Saudi Arabia. Through desert heat, sandstorms, and 20-hour shifts. To understand what no lab study ever could: how humans actually live inside their vehicles.
Scania needed deep, actionable insights to inform the next generation of in-cabin ergonomics and UX. The brief was clear: understand the human reality of spending 20+ hours inside a truck, in extreme conditions, under sustained physical and mental load.
Surveys couldn't do it. Lab tests couldn't do it. We needed immersion.
I used a mixed-method UX research approach: structured and unstructured interviews, direct observation, quantitative data collection — and extended ride-alongs on working hauls. I didn't just collect data. I captured human patterns in motion.
That meant sleeping in the cab. Eating with the drivers. Observing how they manage space, fatigue, digital interfaces, and physical controls across 20+ hours on the road — without the filters that formal research settings always introduce.
I didn't just collect data — I captured human patterns in motion. And I got a sandstorm thrown in for free.
A sandstorm during a long-haul ride gave me something no research brief could: the visceral understanding of what it means to be entirely dependent on a vehicle in an extreme environment. The design insights that came from those unplanned moments were the ones that challenged the most assumptions — and opened the most significant new directions.
"The desert gave me a sandstorm and deep insights. You can't improve what you haven't lived."
Mohammed Aldulaymi — field notes, Saudi ArabiaSpecific findings remain internal to Scania by agreement. What I can share: the research surfaced meaningful gaps between what drivers say they need and how they actually behave — and between what the vehicle offers and what drivers discover through necessity alone.
The insights directly informed Scania's ergonomic innovation strategy and shaped new concepts for driver-centric cabin design. For me, it crystallised an approach to research in complex industrial environments that now shapes every project I touch — including the ones far from the desert.