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Evaluation of different interface designs for human-machine interaction in vehicles

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Abstract

In this paper we report on a user study in which we compared three different interaction designs in an in-vehicle infotainment system. Touchpad, free-hand and ordinary button interface designs were compared for usability, user experience and how they affect driving safety in different driving conditions. The study was performed in a high-fidelity driving simulator. Thirty participants were divided into two groups, one with less demanding and one with more demanding driving conditions, with the purpose of evaluating the interaction designs also in different driving environments. Each participant completed a set of tasks on each interface design and evaluated it with the User Experience Questionnaire. The conclusion from this study is that using a buttons-based input design on the steering wheel is the most efficient type of interaction compared to touchpad and free-hand input designs. On the other hand, we found that although newer input designs could be very attractive, their implementation into the vehicles infotainment system should be done wisely and carefully.

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Acknowledgments

This work has been supported by the Slovenian Research Agency within the research program ICT4QoL - Information and Communications Technologies for Quality of Life, grant number P2-0246, and the research project Neurophysiological and Cognitive Profiling of Driving Skills, grant number L2-8178. The authors thank Nervtech for providing the driving simulator software.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University of Ljubljana, Tržaška cesta 25, 1000, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Tomaž Čegovnik, Kristina Stojmenova & Jaka Sodnik

  2. Electrical Engineering Department, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia

    Igor Tartalja

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  1. Tomaž Čegovnik
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  2. Kristina Stojmenova
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  3. Igor Tartalja
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  4. Jaka Sodnik
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Correspondence to Tomaž Čegovnik.

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Čegovnik, T., Stojmenova, K., Tartalja, I. et al. Evaluation of different interface designs for human-machine interaction in vehicles. Multimed Tools Appl 79, 21361–21388 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-020-08920-8

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