Title: Towards personalisation of the driver environment: investigating responses to instrument cluster design

Authors: Noam Tractinsky, Rotem Abdu, Jodi Forlizzi, Thomas Seder

Addresses: Information Systems Engineering, Ben-Gurion University, P.O. Box 653, Beer Sheva 84105, Israel. ' Industrial Engineering, Ben-Gurion University, P.O. Box 653, Beer Sheva 84105, Israel. ' Human-Computer Interaction Institute and School of Design, Carnegie Mellon University, 5000 Forbes Ave., 2504E NSH, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA. ' Human Machine Interface Research, Vehicle Development Lab, GM Global R&D, MS 480-106-256, 30500 Mount Road, Warren, MI 48090, USA

Abstract: Recent trends in the automotive and the Information Technology (IT) industries lead to growing consumer expectations for aesthetic and personalised design of products. The merging of these trends is more likely to lead to considerable changes in the driver environment. Two experiments were conducted in which we examined people|s aesthetic response to the design of Instrument Clusters (ICs): the first used images of existing clusters, and the second used a set of conceptual ICs that were designed to enable the experimental control of the ICs| form and colour. The results indicate strong correlations between preferences, symbolism and attractiveness. There was no apparent trade-off between attractiveness and readability, although attractiveness was given more weight than readability in determining people|s preferences. Typicality and novelty of the design were negatively correlated, and both contributed to explaining variance in aesthetic evaluations. Finally, diversity in design preferences suggests the benefits of personalised driving environment.

Keywords: personalisation; aesthetics; attractiveness; symbolism; instrument cluster design; user preferences; driver environment; vehicle design; aesthetic responses; form; colour; readability; vehicle instruments; personalised driving environment.

DOI: 10.1504/IJVD.2011.040584

International Journal of Vehicle Design, 2011 Vol.55 No.2/3/4, pp.208 - 236

Published online: 10 Apr 2015 *

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