By Sam McEachern, GM News
Earlier this year, the GMC Yukon Denali Ultimate, Buick Enclave Avenir and Cadillac OPTIQ each appeared on the 2025 Wards 10 Best Interiors list – a recognition that’s reserved for vehicles with the best interior design, build quality and technology.
General Motors’ award-winning vehicle interiors are the result of the collaborative work across our ecosystem of design studios, such as user experience (UI), display graphics, audio, illumination, physical interior, seating, and components. Our GM Design teams focus on crafting our customer interior experience to fit our customers’ lifestyles, while being seamless, intuitive, and innovative.
View of the 2025 Buick Enclave Avenir interior with available Super Cruise hands-free technology engaged.
David Allen, an interior designer that worked on the 2025 Buick Enclave’s cabin, says the design process begins by determining the brand’s design identity and by understanding the brand’s customers – like how they’ll use the vehicles and what they expect from the brand.
“You start with what the brand is, and, for Buick, it’s sculptural beauty,” he said. “Once a program is initiated, we begin ideating on design themes. We start with sketches, which can be digital or physical. Then, we iterate until we land on a final theme that is aspirational for our customers.”
“As the team is narrowing down to the final design theme, we simultaneously develop clay models to physically explore potential shapes and forms,” added Kelly Craigo, an interior designer that worked on the 2025 GMC Yukon Denali Ultimate.
“So, we’re doing sketches, creating digital models, and making clay properties all at the same. It’s not one foot in front of the other, it’s all the parts moving together.”
“Additionally, as we’re doing both the clay and digital models, we’re also working closely with our engineering partners to integrate engineering criteria,” said Allen. “There is a large range of criteria that is incorporated into planning and execution, including ergonomics, screens and user interface experiences, and safety.”
Team members from Colors, Materials and Finish (CMF) are also a key part of the design process. CMF designers, like Nina Cho, who worked on the Cadillac OPTIQ interior, along with her colleague, Mara Kapsis, help select the materials, finishes and color combinations that will be available once the vehicle hits the market.
“We are involved in the design process from the beginning,” Cho said. “When the interior form and geometry is complete, we begin adding materials, color shading and more to their virtual model. Using augmented-reality (AR) headsets, we also add surfaces to the virtual model, enabling us to work in real-time across teams to get to the final form.”
Close-up view of center console in the 2025 GMC Yukon Denali Ultimate.
As digital screens have become more prominent and important in modern vehicles, UX/UI has also become a more fundamental and significant consideration in the development of vehicle interiors. A highly integrated cross-team dynamic ensures a holistic experience between the physical aspects of the interior and the digital interfaces they interact with, explained Emily Bowman, design director, Interface Design.
“In order to develop products that our customers really love, the team puts a strong emphasis on optimizing the user’s experience – making it one that meets their needs from both an emotional and a functional standpoint,” Bowman said.
View of the 2025 Cadillac OPTIQ interior featuring the 33-inch-diagonal interface and display with 9K resolution.
GM Design teams are also on the forefront of adopting immersive technologies within the company. Virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and artificial intelligence (AI) are some of the tech tools enabling designers to move through the design development process more collaboratively and quickly.
For example, designers use VR headsets to view and iterate vehicle interiors, even collaborating in real-time with colleagues from our other global studios, like those in China, Korea, and the UK. Given the virtual nature, designers can experiment with and consider many more potential options than would have been feasible in the past. VR tools also enable design teams to share a more robust range of potential designs with company leadership during the review process.
“It really expedites the part of the process where you’re trying to get a spatial awareness of what you’re creating,” said Craigo. “Now, virtual interiors can get us significantly closer to that perspective in a shorter timeframe. We can sit in a digital model and get very close to the final look and feel of an interior.”
At GM's new Design West building, full-size physical models and digital design simulations live side-by-side.
While digital tools are becoming more commonplace, GM Design believes iterating a design in a full-size physical form enables them to better see and feel the product that they are putting into the customer’s hands. The final stage gives them a physical sense of the type of emotional connection they are generating through their designs.
This harmony between the array of design, engineering, and manufacturing teams results in the artful integration of compelling design cues, latest technologies, innovative materials, and intuitive user interfaces that have come to define GM vehicle interiors – and earn vehicles like the GMC Yukon Denali Ultimate, Cadillac OPTIQ, and the Buick Enclave Avenir industry awards year after year.
Earlier this year, the GMC Yukon Denali Ultimate, Buick Enclave Avenir, and Cadillac OPTIQ each appeared on the 2025 Wards 10 Best Interiors list – a recognition that’s reserved for vehicles with the best interior design, build quality, and technology.
General Motors’ award-winning vehicle interiors are the result of the collaborative work across our ecosystem of design studios, such as user experience (UI), display graphics, audio, illumination, physical interior, seating, and components. Our GM Design teams focus on crafting our customer interior experience to fit our customers’ lifestyles, while being seamless, intuitive, and innovative.
David Allen, an interior designer that worked on the 2025 Buick Enclave’s cabin, says the design process begins by determining the brand’s design identity and by understanding the brand’s customers – like how they’ll use the vehicles and what they expect from the brand.
“You start with what the brand is, and, for Buick, it’s sculptural beauty,” he said. “Once a program is initiated, we begin ideating on design themes. We start with sketches, which can be digital or physical. Then, we iterate until we land on a final theme that is aspirational for our customers.”
“As the team is narrowing down to the final design theme, we simultaneously develop clay models to physically explore potential shapes and forms,” added Kelly Craigo, an interior designer that worked on the 2025 GMC Yukon Denali Ultimate.
“So, we’re doing sketches, creating digital models, and making clay properties all at the same. It’s not one foot in front of the other, it’s all the parts moving together.”
“Additionally, as we’re doing both the clay and digital models, we’re also working closely with our engineering partners to integrate engineering criteria,” said Allen. “There is a large range of criteria that is incorporated into planning and execution, including ergonomics, screens and user interface experiences, and safety.”
Team members from Colors, Materials and Finish (CMF) are also a key part of the design process. CMF designers, like Nina Cho, who worked on the Cadillac OPTIQ interior, along with her colleague, Mara Kapsis, help select the materials, finishes and color combinations that will be available once the vehicle hits the market.
“We are involved in the design process from the beginning,” Cho said. “When the interior form and geometry is complete, we begin adding materials, color shading and more to their virtual model. Using augmented-reality (AR) headsets, we also add surfaces to the virtual model, enabling us to work in real-time across teams to get to the final form.”
As digital screens have become more prominent and important in modern vehicles, UX/UI has also become a more fundamental and significant consideration in the development of vehicle interiors. A highly integrated cross-team dynamic ensures a holistic experience between the physical aspects of the interior and the digital interfaces they interact with, explained Emily Bowman, design director, interface design.
“In order to develop products that our customers really love, the team puts a strong emphasis on optimizing the user’s experience – making it one that meets their needs from both an emotional and a functional standpoint,” Bowman said.
GM Design teams are also on the forefront of adopting immersive technologies within the company. Virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and artificial intelligence (AI) are some of the tech tools enabling designers to move through the design development process more collaboratively and quickly.
For example, designers use VR headsets to view and iterate vehicle interiors, even collaborating in real-time with colleagues from our other global studios, like those in China, Korea, and the UK. Given the virtual nature, designers can experiment with and consider many more potential options than would have been feasible in the past. VR tools also enable design teams to share a more robust range of potential designs with company leadership during the review process.
“It really expedites the part of the process where you’re trying to get a spatial awareness of what you’re creating,” said Craigo. “Now, virtual interiors can get us significantly closer to that perspective in a shorter timeframe. We can sit in a digital model and get very close to the final look and feel of an interior.”
While digital tools are becoming more commonplace, GM Design believes iterating a design in a full-size physical form enables them to better see and feel the product that they are putting into the customer’s hands. The final stage gives them a physical sense of the type of emotional connection they are generating through their designs.
This harmony between the array of design, engineering, and manufacturing teams results in the artful integration of compelling design cues, latest technologies, innovative materials, and intuitive user interfaces that have come to define GM vehicle interiors – and earn vehicles like the GMC Yukon Denali Ultimate, Cadillac OPTIQ, and the Buick Enclave Avenir industry awards year after year.