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.