Testing Road Vehicle User Interfaces Concerning the Driver’s Cognitive Load

This paper investigates the usability of touch screens used in mass production road vehicles. Our goal is to provide a detailed comparison of conventional physical buttons and capacitive touch screens taking the human factor into account. The pilot test focuses on a specific Non-driving Related Task (NDRT): the control of the on-board climate system using a touch screen panel versus rotating knobs and push buttons. Psychological parameters, functionality, usability and, the ergonomics of In-Vehicle Information Systems (IVIS) were evaluated using a specific questionnaire, a system usability scale (SUS), workload assessment (NASA-TLX), and a physiological sensor system. The measurements are based on a wearable eye-tracker that provides fixation points of the driver’s gaze in order to detect distraction. The closed road used for the naturalistic driving study was provided by the ZalaZONE Test Track, Zalaegerszeg, Hungary. Objective and subjective results of the pilot study indicate that the control of touch screen panels causes higher visual, manual, and cognitive distraction than the use of physical buttons. The statistical analysis demonstrated that conventional techniques need to be complemented in order to better represent human behavior differences.

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