Increasing the User Experience in Autonomous Driving through different Feedback Modalities

Within the ongoing process of defining autonomous driving solutions, experience design may represent an important interface between humans and the autonomous vehicle. This paper presents an empirical study that uses different ways of unimodal communication in autonomous driving to communicate awareness and intent of autonomous vehicles. The goal is to provide recommendations for feedback solutions within holistic autonomous driving experiences. 22 test subjects took part in four autonomous, simulated virtual reality shuttle rides and were presented with different unimodal feedback in the form of light, sound, visualisation, text and vibration. The empirical study showed that, compared to a no-feedback baseline ride, light, and visualisation were able to create a positive user experience

Don’t fail me! The Level 5 Autonomous Driving Information Dilemma regarding Transparency and User Experience

Autonomous vehicles can behave unexpectedly, as automated systems that rely on data-driven machine learning have shown to infer false predictions or misclassifications, e.g., due to stickers on traffic signs, and thus fail in some situations. In critical situations, system designs must guarantee safety and reliability. However, in non-critical situations, the possibility of failures resulting in unexpected behaviour should be considered, as they negatively impact the passenger’s user experience and acceptance. We analyse if an interactive conversational user interface can mitigate negative experiences when interacting with imperfect artificial intelligence systems. In our quantitative interactive online survey (N=113) and comparative qualitative Wizard of Oz study (N=8), users were able to interact with an autonomous SAE level 5 driving simulation. Our findings demonstrate that increased transparency improves user experience and acceptance. Furthermore, we show that additional information in failure scenarios can lead to an information dilemma and should be implemented carefully

The interpretative role of an experiencer

Media designers and interactive artists continue to expand the boundaries of experience design (XD) as they engage with increasingly diverse environments. Teaching, designing and understanding experience design and its participatory culture are likewise no longer grounded in traditional ideas such as software engineering, or visual design. Expanding on the theory of 'ambiguity as a resource for design' and 'open vs. closed text', we propose designers consider the interpretative role of an experiencer as part of an iterative design process. Working with a three-stage grounded theory process, we analyse two case studies, The Remediation of Nosferatu and The Interactive Hammock. With this research, we contribute design recommendations and evidence to support the importance of understanding and awareness of ambiguous vs. prescribed qualities

Mobile Phones, Sub-culture and Presence

This paper describes a prototype mobile phone application which is designed to make people feel present in the sub-culture of a city. It explores some of the issues with measuring sense of place and presence on mobile devices, particularly when what users are being asked to experience is culture

Schloss Birlinghoven

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