Winners to be Honored in an All-New 100% Virtual Super Event in August

SOUTHFIELD, Mich., July 30, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- WardsAuto has unveiled the annual Wards 10 Best UX list for 2020, spotlighting vehicles with a wide range of user-friendliness technology.

In a year of extreme challenges, pandemic social distancing and office closures, some things haven’t changed at all.

When WardsAuto announced the 2020 Wards 10 Best Interiors last month, seven of the 10 honorees were SUVs or CUVs, the first time so many utility vehicles have dominated.

Over the past two weeks, WardsAuto has named the 2020 Wards 10 Best UX winners and, once again, seven of the 10 recipients are SUVs or CUVs. The results of the two competitions reinforce the soaring popularity of people haulers of all sizes, at all price points.

This is the fifth year of the competition, which focuses on the user experience, which means assessing the user-friendliness of technology such as touchscreens, smartphone pairing, voice-control navigation, head-up displays and the effectiveness of driver-assistance technologies such as adaptive cruise control and blind spot monitoring.

Eight Wards judges based in Metro Detroit selected the winners after evaluating 18 eligible vehicles with all-new or significantly upgraded UX features. Because of COVID-19, the 10 Best Interiors competition normally held in winter was pushed back to spring and consolidated to some extent with 10 Best UX.

The 2020 winners in alphabetical order (price listed as tested):

• Audi Q7 ($75,290)                                           
• BMW X7 ($113,845)               
• Chevrolet Trailblazer ($32,350)
• Ford Escape ($44,220)
• Hyundai Sonata ($34,365)                                
• Kia Seltos ($29,485)
• Mercedes-Benz CLA ($48,295)
• Subaru Legacy ($36,795)
• Toyota Highlander ($51,112)
• Volkswagen Atlas Cross Sport ($51,050)

“This is a great list of new vehicles that span a wide swath of the U.S. market, from mainstream to luxury,” says Dave Zoia, Executive Director of Content for Wards Intelligence. “The fact that so many of this year’s winners are crossovers tells you exactly where automakers are targeting their investments in the latest vehicle technologies.”

Because of a shortened timeframe for our UX testing, we asked automakers to pick their one newest vehicle with the most advanced features to evaluate, and the OEMs gladly obliged.

It resulted in a smaller nominee pool of 18 vehicles, but we were able to spend more time focused on the attributes of each one.

For Wards 10 Best Interiors, most of those evaluations in April and May were conducted with video conferencing. But as Michigan’s COVID-19 caseload was declining in June, editors became more comfortable swapping test vehicles, meaning more of them had valuable seat time in picking this year’s 10 Best UX winners.

The 2020 Wards 10 Best UX award winners will be honored in an all new, one year only, special virtual ceremony during the Informa Tech Automotive Group’s Super Event featuring the WardsAuto Interiors Conference, WardsAuto User Experience Conference, TU-Detroit and ADAS & Autonomous Vehicles August 18-20. For more information about the virtual conference, visit https://wardsauto.informa.com/ux/.

ABOUT WARDSAUTO
WardsAuto is a world-leading provider of automotive insights and analysis, having served the industry's information needs for more than 90 years. A Southfield, MI-based Informa business, WardsAuto provides a forward-looking perspective on all aspects of the automotive business, from the tech center to the plant floor to the showroom.  Its services include the premium Subscribers.WardsIntelligence.com resource and suite of customizable data reporting tools, the WardsAuto Interiors and User Experience (UX) Conferences, WardsAuto Engine & Propulsion Summit, digital newsletters and magazines, as well as the Wards Intelligence Outlook and Focus Conferences. As a part of our parent organization, Informa Tech, our mission is to bring together the entire ecosystem of those in technology and automotive to accelerate the future of our industries. Subscribe to WardsAuto and attend its events by visiting http://www.wardsauto.com.

ABOUT INFORMA TECH
Informa Tech inspires the tech community to design, build and run a better digital world by informing, educating and connecting the community through world-class research, training, events and media. Informa Tech serves 10 market pillars including: Automotive, Artificial Intelligence, Components & Devices, Cybersecurity, Enterprise IT, Game, Industry Verticals, Internet of Things, Media & Entertainment and Service Providers. Across Informa Tech, we are pleased to offer an unrivaled reach to decision-makers in the technology marketplace, leveraging our over 100 recognized brands trusted for research, information, education, and networking.

MEDIA CONTACT:  
Alexa Madden
Marketing & Events Manager
WardsAuto | Informa Tech Automotive Group
248 799 2648
Alexa.Madden@informa.com

Wards 10 Best User Experiences

Wards 10 Best User Experiences