For busy drivers who are always on the move, their car can easily become ‘mission control.’ But having enough space around the driver’s seat to place sunglasses, multiple phones, coffee cups, money, snacks and toys can often times be a challenge. For most drivers though, a poorly designed interior is just something else they have to live with. Luckily, for Ford Motor one of their senior interior designers, Zulf Ali, had a wife who was vocal about the 2014 Ford Escape’s shortcomings. The Escape is Ford’s second-best selling brand behind the F-150. After driving the 2002 Escape for a few years, Ali brought home the 2014 model. Ali’s wife, Naz Ullah, asked, ‘why is there less storage when there should be continuous improvements and everything else looks great, but this is the one thing I’m having an issue with.’ Ali, armed with the latest insights from his wife, went back to Ford’s headquarters and shares the information with his superiors who moved him to the Escape redesign team shortly thereafter. Ali says, ‘I took my wife’s notes at hand and spoke to other customers as well and what we did as well, was a few runs to Kroger and I watched her get in and out of the car and see where she naturally puts her bag and her sunglasses and all that stuff and then I took some notes and the next day, started designing straight away.’ Moving the gear shift out of the center console allowed Ali to be more creative with storage spaces within the compact SUV. With the redesigned center console, the new Ford Escape provides a 25 percent increase in storage near the driver’s seat and overall it has 15 percent more storage. Ullah says, ‘It was great that I was able to say something to him and I hoped that he could do something about it.’
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