Assessing the impact of typeface design in a text-rich automotive user interface

Text-rich driver–vehicle interfaces are increasingly common in new vehicles, yet the effects of different typeface characteristics on task performance in this brief off-road based glance context remains sparsely examined. Subjects completed menu selection tasks while in a driving simulator. Menu text was set either in a ‘humanist’ or ‘square grotesque’ typeface. Among men, use of the humanist typeface resulted in a 10.6% reduction in total glance time as compared to the square grotesque typeface. Total response time and number of glances showed similar reductions. The impact of typeface was either more modest or not apparent for women. Error rates for both males and females were 3.1% lower for the humanist typeface. This research suggests that optimised typefaces may mitigate some interface demands. Future work will need to assess whether other typeface characteristics can be optimised to further reduce demand, improve legibility, increase usability and help meet new governmental distraction guidelines

A driving simulator study to explore the effects of text size on the visual demand of in-vehicle displays

Modern vehicles increasingly utilise a large display within the centre console, often with touchscreen capability, to enable access to a wide range of driving and non-driving-related functionality. The text provided on such displays can vary considerably in size, yet little is known about the effects of different text dimensions on how drivers visually sample the interface while driving and the potential implications for driving performance and user acceptance. A study is described in which sixteen people drove motorway routes in a medium-fidelity simulator and were asked to read text of varying sizes (9 mm, 8 mm, 6.5 mm, 5 mm, or 4 mm) from a central in-vehicle display. Pseudo-text was used as a stimulus to ensure that participants scanned the text in a consistent fashion that was unaffected by comprehension. There was no evidence of an effect of text size on the total time spent glancing at the display, but significant differences arose regarding how glances were distributed. Specifically, larger text sizes were associated with a high number of relatively short glances, whereas smaller text led to a smaller number of long glances. No differences were found in driving performance measures (speed, lateral lane position). Drivers overwhelmingly preferred the ‘compromise’ text sizes (6.5 mm and 8 mm). Results are discussed in relation to the development of large touchscreens within vehicles

Investigating effects of font faces and line spacing in vehicle Infotainment system on driver performance including driving distractions

The objective of this study was to investigate the legibility of font faces and line spacings used in actual commercial in-vehicle displays by three empirical studies. A total of four fonts were selected, including three fonts from the automotive market and one font for a baseline. The three fonts called the font V, F, and T have different characteristics in their typeface style, each representing the humanist style, the geometric style, and the square grotesque style. The first experiment examined the impact of 4 types of font face on the tracking performance, distinguishing correct word among the visually similar words. The results demonstrated the font T was associated with the best tracking performance, while the font V induced poor tracking performance. Also, the results showed the secondary task arouses the cognitive workload that negatively affects performing the primary task. The second experiment asked participants to understand the messages' context and fill out the same texts' blanks. The results revealed no significant difference in the tracking performance with the font face styles and the line spacings. However, the distraction of the secondary tasks was validated with this experiment. These results demonstrated that the types of fonts or line spacings do not influence comprehending the context and tracking performance. On the other hand, the subjective preference survey demonstrated that participants preferred the font F and V, but the font C. Also, they rated the largest line spacing the best, which was 180% of the font size. Only the eye dwell time on the secondary task area was examined across the font faces and the line spacings for the last experiment. The results presented no significant differences in the eye dwell time with the font faces and the line spacings. The prior research explained these results about eye-glance behavior in driving situations, proposing that eye-glance behavior is a human's intrinsic behavior. That is, eye dwell time is not determined by the design factors, but by the humans' action of instinct. Consequently, the consideration of font faces may be utilized for the in-vehicle interface design, which required drivers to distinguish certain words among others.MSHuman-Centered Design and Engineering, College of Engineering & Computer ScienceUniversity of Michigan-Dearbornhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/167351/1/Hyunjoo Park - Final Thesis.pd

Safe browser for drivers

Thesis: M. Eng., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2013.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (pages 55-57).Drivers have information needs they want to solve while driving, but current mobile browser interfaces can bring forth safety issues when users browse the web even though their attention is required elsewhere, as it is during driving. FlightCrew Browser is a crowd-adapted web browser using speech input, touch input, speech output, and visual output in appropriate, informative, and safe ways to empower the driver of a car to investigate an evolving information need. Our system uses human workers to do browsing interactions for the user, as well as pick data from webpages that will be returned to the user. We use three workers at a time in order to provide quality control by using a voting system to pick what answers the workers believed to be best for the user. The workers can hear the driver's query and see the last page the driver received answers from in order to provide a shared context. FlightCrew Browser provides a low-risk way for users to access the web when they are commuting or traveling alone. We evaluated our system using metrics and tests similar to those used by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and found that it is safer for drivers to use than existing mobile browsers.by Andrés Humberto López-Pineda.M. Eng

Stuck in the Last Ice Age: Tracing the Role of Document Design in the Teaching Materials of Writing Courses

Teaching materials play vital roles in writing classrooms, yet they are understudied genres in English Studies. Teaching materials are inherently visual genres; the document design choices made by teachers illuminate values held about writing and writing classrooms. They are understudied genres, in part, because of the feminized position of composition. A professional writing investigation of the document design of teaching materials offers opportunities to rectify this. I developed a technofeminine genre tracing methodology focused on exploring the visual convention choices made by teachers and how these visual conventions are interpreted by students across the three levels of activity: the activity-driven macroscopic level, the action-based mesoscopic level, and the operation-embedded microscopic level. Two case studies were conducted with two composition teachers and one section of composition students each. Teachers were interviewed, observed, and their documents for this section were collected. Students were observed and surveyed twice during the semester. By considering how external practical, discourse community, and rhetorical factors influence teaching material design at the macroscopic and mesoscopic levels, I found that this resulted in a deep grip of print based, microscopic choices. One external practical factor, technology, is changing the evolutionary path of teaching materials. It is a messy evolution during which teachers are trying to blend traditional teaching material design with new exigencies and technologies. Conclusions indicate that we cab address the feminized and understudied position of teaching materials and their design by making use of the principles of deconstruction by asymmetries as articulated by Louise Wetherbee Phelps. This schema of conditions, structures, and exemplification considers what paths forward exist. Institutional critique of the materiality of teaching materials in local contexts is a means to promote the conditions for critical collaboration within writing programs. Pedagogical applications of usability and rhetorical design to teaching materials, as Susan Miller-Cochran and Rochelle Rodrigo advocate for online writing instruction, can create structures that nurture and sustain teachers and students in writing programs. Finally, ethical leadership and community initiatives are intrinsically necessary to establish and maintain the kind of relationship building necessary to promote active and evolving design work

Writing for mobile media: The influences of text, digital design and psychological characteristics on the cognitive load of the mobile user

Text elements on the mobile smartphone interface make a significant contribution to the user’s interaction experience. In combination with other visual design features, these words curate the path of the mobile user on a journey through the information to satisfy a specific task. This study analyses the elements that influence the interpretation process and optimum presentation of information on mobile media. I argue that effective digital writing contributes to reducing the cognitive load experienced by the mobile user. The central discussion focuses on the writing of text for this medium, which I suggest forges an entirely unique narrative. The optimum writing approach is based on the multi-dimensional characteristics of hypertext, which allow the writer to facilitate the journey without the user losing control of the interpretation process. This study examines the relationship between the writer, the reader and the text, with a unique perspective on the mobile media writer, who is tasked with achieving balance between the functionality and humanity of digital interaction. To explore influences on the development of the relevant writing techniques, I present insights into the distinctive characteristics of the mobile smartphone device, with specific focus on the screen and keyboard. I also discuss the unique characteristics of the mobile user and show how the visual design of the interface is integral to the writing of text for this medium. Furthermore, this study explores the role, skills, and processes of the current and future digital writer, within the backdrop of incessant technological advancement and revolutionary changes in human-computer behaviour

Learning to live in thick interface

As media platforms shift towards more dynamic interfaces, the separation between user and content grows infinitely. While advertised as thin, light, and seamless, these platforms mask a thick and complicated space in which society must navigate. This is what I call the “Thick Interface.” The Thick Interface is the portal we use to toggle back and forth and through which we communicate. It is solid and porous, physical and digital, enhancing and diminishing. It may also be a combination of these things simultaneously, or none at all. My work highlights—rather than masks—the complexity of this space through interaction, participation, and analogy. I visualize and reveal the relationship between the decisions we make in contemporary media platforms and the ramifications of those decisions. Throughout this thesis, slowness and disruption are valued over speed and invisibility. Inside the Thick Interface, I argue that the most valuable tool is not a specific software or markup language; it is the glitch. The glitch is the moment where the thickness of the interface is revealed. Defined as a temporary disruption that provides resistance, has materiality, and leaves a residue of its existence, the glitch agitates the entanglement of our digital and physical experiences. Through designing for and expanding glitches, my work enhances and uncovers the materiality of the surfaces and spaces with which we interact. Offering alternative methods for graphic design thinking, it facilitates understanding of the relationship between tactile and virtual moments, crafting experiences that migrate between environments and add layers of interference to reveal that which goes unnoticed. The graphic designer is more than just a stylist of the edges, the data, and the periphery of these systems. He is an interface in his own right, visualizing the reality of the systems themselves. In this context, the practice of graphic design expands beyond the page as a position of establishing frameworks for how we see, clarify, understand, and interact in evolving environments through narrative, tactility, and spatial metaphors

Graphic design as urban design: towards a theory for analysing graphic objects in urban environments

This thesis presents a model for analysing the graphic object as urban object, by considering atypical fields of discourse that contribute to the formation of the object domain. The question: what is graphic design as urban design? directs the research through an epistemological design study comprising: an interrogation of graphic design studio practice and the articulation of graphic design research questions; a review and subsequent development of research strategy, design and method towards the articulation of methodology that reflects the nature of the inquiry; a detailed analysis of five different ways to study and research graphic design as urban design, in geography, language, visual communication, art and design, and urban design. The outcome of the investigation is a model that enables future research in the urban environment to benefit from micro-meso-macrographic analysis. The model endeavours to provide a way to evaluate, design and enhance ‘public places and urban spaces’ (Carmona et al., 2010) by considering different scales of symbolic thought and deed. This has been achieved by acknowledging the relationship between the relatively miniscule detail of graphic symbolism, the point at which this becomes visible through increased scale, and the instances when it dominates the urban realm. Examples are considered that show differences between, for example, the size and spacing of letter shapes on a pedestrian sign, compared to the ‘visual’ impact of an iconic building in the cityscape. In between is a myriad of graphic elements that are experienced and designed by many different professional disciplines and occupations. These are evidenced and explained. Throughout the study an indiscriminating literature review is interwoven with the text, accompanied by tabular information, and visual data in the form of photographs and diagrams. This is mainly research-driven data utilising photographs from fieldwork in Brazil, Canada, Hong Kong, Italy, Portugal, South Korea, United Kingdom, and United States of America. The methodology integrates a transdisciplinary adaptive theory approach derived from sociological research, with graphic method (utilising a wider scope of visual data usually associated with graph theory). The following images provide sixteen examples of artefacts representing the graphic object as urban object phenomenon