Designing Displays and Controls

Designing Displays

The design of displays in motor vehicles must be geared primarily to the driver’s needs. Although technical constraints today barely limit design, they must not serve as primary design criteria.

Some principles for the design of displays can be derived from the laws of gestalt psychology:
http://projekt.kke.tu-berlin.de/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Methode_Gestaltgesetze.pdf

When gestalt laws are applied in practice, it quickly becomes clear that it is not always possible to implement all theoretical requirements. Instead, it is important to achieve a balance between the different aspects.

Displays – Implementing an Early Study in Modern Vehicles

As early as the 1980s, we explored the question of how important the criteria of “reliability” and “good gestalt” are. More specifically: Can a less reliability (certain elements in a fixed position) be compensated for by “good gestalt”? The images show the versions we examined. In the first three images, the currently relevant element is centered. In the fourth image, each element retains its position, but the design does not follow gestalt laws. (The display does not contain more information than the one seen in images 1 to 3, but some information is redundant, such as both an analog and a digital speedometer displayed at once). Although the different elements are repositioned between images 1 to 3, they do not take longer to read.

Cockpit 1 Cockpit 2

Cockpit 3 Cockpit 4

The concept was first implemented in 2011 in an Audi prototype and evaluated by the Institute of Human Engineering. It is available in almost all Audi models today.

A-Cockpit narrow A-Cockpit wide

Eine dynamische Darstellung zeigt ein Werbevideo von AUDI vom 18.08.2015:

Literature

Färber, Berthold: Cockpitgestaltung im Spannungsfeld von Design, Branding und Ergonomie.In: ATZ, Automobiltechnische Zeitschrift. 9, 2006 (c), 108. S. 754-761.

Färber, Berthold; Popp, Michael; Schmitt, Josef: Visual and kinaesthetic cues for driver’s behaviour regulation: Basic results and application to the design of non-visual displays.In: Gale, A.G. (Ed.): Vision in Vehicles – VII. Elsevier Amsterdam, 1999, S. 187-194.

Popp, Michael; Färber, Berthold: Feedback modality for nontransparent driver control actions: Why not visually?In: Gale, A.G. (Ed.): Vision in Vehicles – IV. North Holland Amsterdam, 1993, S. 263-270.

Schumann, Josef; Godthelp, Hans; Färber, Berthold; Wontorra, Heinz: Breaking up open-loop steering control actions, the steering wheel as an active control device. In: Gale, A.G. (Ed.): Vision in Vehicles – IV. North Holland Amsterdam, 1993, S. 321-332.

Färber, Berthold; Färber, Brigitte: Sicherheitsorientierte Bewertung von Anzeige- und Bedienelementen in Kraftfahrzeugen – Empirische Ergebnisse. FAT Schriftenreihe Nr. 74. Forschungsvereinigung Automobiltechnik e.V. Frankfurt / Main. 1988.

Färber, Berthold; Färber, Brigitte: Sicherheitsorientierte Bewertung von Anzeige- und Bedienelementen in Kraftfahrzeugen – Grundlagen. FAT Schriftenreihe Nr. 64. Forschungsvereinigung Automobiltechnik e.V. Frankfurt / Main. 1987.

Designing Controls

Laboraufbau eines integrierten Bedienelement

Versuchsaufbau neuartiger Bedienkonzepte (aus Wimmer 2010)

Literature

Wimmer, Martin: Entwicklung und Erprobung von Mensch-Maschine-Systemen im Kontext der automatisierten Fahrzeugführung. Dissertation UniBw, 2010.

Zeilinger, Simon: Aktive haptische Bedienelemente zur Interaktion mit Fahrerinformationssystemen. Dissertation UniBw, 2005

Färber, Berthold; Popp, Michael; Schmitt, Josef: Visual and kinaesthetic cues for driver’s behaviour regulation: Basic results and application to the design of non-visual displays.In: Gale, A.G. (Ed.): Vision in Vehicles – VII. Elsevier Amsterdam, 1999, S. 187-194.

Schumann, Josef; Godthelp, Hans; Färber, Berthold; Wontorra, Heinz: Breaking up open-loop steering control actions, the steering wheel as an active control device. In: Gale, A.G. (Ed.): Vision in Vehicles – IV. North Holland Amsterdam, 1993, S. 321-332.

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