Infotainment System
Tools: Figma |Illustrator| Miro | Google Forms
UI/UX |Mobile App | Wire-framing |Usability testing | WCAG Accessibility
Designing Safe, inclusive and User Friendly design of Infotainment system in cars.
Overview
The goal of this project was to examine in-car entertainment systems with the intention of improving user experience, driver attentiveness, and overall safety without sacrificing inclusiveness. This study produced insightful results by performing user interviews and System Usability Scale (SUS) testing.
The effectiveness of voice assistants, the need for personalization choices, accessibility features, and an average SUS score of around 79.25, which denotes moderate usability, were all trends that emerged.
An in-depth review was made possible by the integration of quantitative and qualitative data. In the future, these results will be a resource for designers and automakers that want to emphasise user-centric, easily accessible, and secure infotainment systems in the field of car technology.
Aim
This research explores how user experience, driver attention, and safety are impacted by vehicle infotainment systems, aiming to minimize distractions and enhance inclusivity. By assessing regulations, gathering real-world feedback, and promoting responsible use, the goal is to design safer, more accessible, and user-friendly infotainment systems for all drivers.
What’s the Prblem?
The user experience and safety of a car entertainment system do not meet current criteria for humanization. My design and analyses were built on top of this common issue.
My research is guided by the issue description, which highlights the urgent need to address safety, diversity, and accessibility in automotive infotainment systems.
Objective
To determine the difficulties and limitations people of various abilities have while attempting to access and use infotainment systems.
- Create an infotainment system interface that is voice-guided menu compliant, safe, and user-friendly.
- Measurable metrics: include the number of positive user feedback comments and a drop in feature-related user errors.
- A clickable prototype that serves as the point-of-view for the final application is feasible.
- Relevant to gain deep insights, do user interviews and user surveys with end users.
Research Questions
• In both conventional and self-driving automobiles, how does the user experience (UX) of the infotainment systems affect the driver’s focus and general safety?
• What infotainment system design elements influence the user’s overall satisfaction and how that affects the driver’s concentration and safety?
• How can we make it more user friendly and help future designers?
Methodologies:
The data for this research project was primarily collected through a mixed-methods approach, combining both qualitative and quantitative data sources to provide a comprehensive understanding of infotainment system usability, accessibility, and safety.
This artifact’s design and implementation of an infotainment system were meticulously planned and controlled during its development. This part provides a progress report on that development process and contains suggestions made by the research supervisor.
Design Thinking
When used, the highly inventive method of design thinking produces three results: solutions that are more valuable, risks that are lower, and change that is less expensive.
Design thinking assists in clearly defining the issue and ultimately leads to the discovery of unique solutions that are all centered on end users after obtaining the essential data, sorting it, and cleaning it up.
Qualitative
User interactions with the Figma prototype were logged and analyzed quantitatively. Metrics such as task performance, error rates, and success rates were recorded and used to assess system performance.
How: I have Taken one-on-one interview where the participants were asked the same set of questions. To get proper data for further design process.
Quantitative
Participants feedback and comments during the testing sessions were transcribed and analyzed qualitatively.
Common themes and patterns related to usability, user-experience , and safety were identified.
SUS Testing
Survey Data: In addition to user testing, participants completed surveys, including the System Usability Scale (SUS) and open-ended questions about their experiences.
Survey data were analyzed to derive quantitative usability scores and gather additional insights.
Design Considerations
User Centered Design (USD)
Give user experience (UX) top priority by carrying out usability testing and user research. Include prospective users in the design process to get comments and insights.
Accessibility
Ensure that consumers of various abilities can utilize the infotainment system. Implement features for users with visual or auditory impairments, such as voice instructions, big, readable fonts, and haptic feedback.
Safety elements for driver distractions
Include safety elements that reduce driver attention. To improve safety, take into account hands-free controls, heads-up displays,
voice control apps and easily accessible interface features.
Customization
Give people the option to modify the infotainment system to suit their tastes. Themes, layouts, and shortcut choices are all adjustable.
User Centered Design (USD)
Give user experience (UX) top priority by carrying out usability testing and user research. Include prospective users in the design process to get comments and insights.
Accessibility
Ensure that consumers of various abilities can utilize the infotainment system. Implement features for users with visual or auditory impairments, such as voice instructions, big, readable fonts, and haptic feedback.
Safety elements for driver distractions
Include safety elements that reduce driver attention. To improve safety, take into account hands-free controls, heads-up displays,
voice control apps and easily accessible interface features.
Customization
Give people the option to modify the infotainment system to suit their tastes. Themes, layouts, and shortcut choices are all adjustable.
Design Considerations
Design thinking, Approach, objectives, User stories, journey map,
How might we, Point of view statements, research methods.
Miro Link : https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVMpDI790=/?share_link_id=946059090041
Testing
The testing was done by both qualitative and quantitative testing. User interviews were taken place through teams and google meets.
And qualitative testing was person through google forms and sus testing was taken.
To find the Safety of the design, The efficiency and the user experience of the infotainment system were evaluated using these methods.
User Research
With a variety of research techniques at my disposal, I settled on user surveys (SUS) and user interviews as my main research tools because the end consumers I was targeting were anybody who had ever used a car entertainment system. It was simpler to find and hire qualified candidates. I would use the survey to collect as much information as I could to support my design choice.
Customer Journey Map,POV, HMW, User stories:
I was able to separate the full trip map into three distinct stages as –
“Knowing the requirements“, “While iterating the needs“, and “After Iteration” with the aid of the interviews and testing. Each of the three phases had distinct objectives, executed activities, and frustrations.
I was able to produce more focused Point-of-view statements (POV) that pointed in the direction of developing more detailed and conclusive How Might We statements (HMW) with clear expectations and frustrations. I was able to see how the customer experiences lived up to their expectations thanks to the customer journey map.
Design System
Low Fidelity Designs
I kickstarted the prototype phase by designing the paper prototype followed by some down the hallway testing. The designs were shared with his fellow designers and the primary objective of the dirty testing was to analyse the mental model of the users. This phase was iterative where, I was created on white boards, plain sheets, and paper prototype templates. Few snippets of the paper prototype are mentioned
High-fidelity Prototype
Moving from paper prototypes to mid-fidelity versions of an infotainment system was a crucial step towards moving towards the finalisation of important elements that underwent rigorous 24 offline testing sessions for further input that affected its production. As research advanced, so did the design phase.
Key Feedbacks:
Key comments and observations were provided by several people throughout these sessions:
Navigational Difficulty: Users cited the tabular navigation system’s importance as a tool for optimizing’s the user interface for better usability but also found it intimidating owing to its numerous alternatives
Interviews and testing with participants gave vital insights into participants’ experiences, requirements, and pain spots while interacting with infotainment systems. The results of the interviews demonstrated how the design elements of these systems had a significant impact on users’ overall satisfaction levels, influencing concentration levels and road safety, as well as user preferences such as voice assistants, customization options, and accessible interfaces as factors critical for creating an enhanced infotainment experience
Voice assistants evolved as a novel solution to the problem of balancing user interactivity with driving safety. Participants frequently mentioned voice assistants as aiding in distraction reduction and maintaining attention on the road, highlighting their potential as infotainment systems that priorities speech-based interactions over potentially distracting manual inputs.
Participants reported a great interest in customization possibilities as an overarching theme of infotainment systems, particularly infotainment systems that allow users to customize their experience based on their tastes and requirements.
Results:
The user interviews that were done as part of this research provided insightful comments on the infotainment systems’ usability and user experience. The ease of voice assistants for navigation and safety while driving were two features that participants generally expressed satisfaction with. They valued elements like the movies that served as an introduction to the system’s architecture and use. Participants also thought that the interface’s font size, colour options, and general visibility were appropriate, making it reasonably user-friendly.
However, difficulties were also mentioned, particularly while performing duties while driving. For instance, dialing a number was thought to be rather difficult, showing opportunity for 25 improvement in making sure activities can be completed with the least amount of interruption. Participants also offered helpful criticism, recommending that backdrop colors and icon modification be done to further personalization. Concerns concerning the requirement for changeable font sizes were expressed, emphasizing the significance of accommodating users with various visual capacities. These observations highlight how important it is to strike the ideal balance between color selection, text size, and general design to provide more user-focused and accessible infotainment systems in the future.
System Usability Scale (SUS) testing provided an objective quantitative measure of our system’s usability, with an average SUS score of roughly 79.25 out of 100 suggesting moderate usability; however, additional qualitative evaluation methods like user interviews could further delve into user preferences and challenges because they do not provide pinpoint specific design strengths or weaknesses.
Future goals and conclusion:
Due to time restrictions and new ideas, many research initiatives build on earlier work and frequently inspire more study. Conducting thorough user research, investigating cutting-edge assistive technology, assessing long-term benefits, looking at crossplatform compatibility, addressing security, developing accessibility standards, and working with manufacturers are just a few of the recommendations. Future designers looking to develop comprehensive infotainment system design standards might use this document as a starting point. It emphasises user experience, driver attention, and safety while presenting insightful information, user input, and usability ratings to guide design choices.
These findings can serve as a guide for designers as they create infotainment systems for vehicles that are more user-friendly, accessible, and secure. This study not only offers future designers and stakeholders’ information as automobile technology quickly advances, but it also gives manufacturers direction.
The rising relevance of inclusive infotainment systems in contemporary automobiles is shown by the focus on user experience, driver attention, safety standards, and accessibility standards. User comments and usability ratings offered here may be important as players in the automobile industry work to resolve the problems raised by electrified and driverless vehicles. Future infotainment systems that follow these standards will be up to date with technical advancements while maintaining placing a high priority on user and driver comfort. This paper is a vital tool in the development of safer, more user-friendly car infotainment systems.
Conclusion:
Summary This study has clarified the intricate connections between driver focus, safety, and user experience (UX) in infotainment systems for both traditional and selfdriving automobiles. Results show the unquestionable impact that UX design components have on drivers’ overall pleasure and, therefore, on their capacity to maintain concentration and safety while driving. According to trends, features like voice assistants, personalization possibilities, and accessibility concerns are crucial to improve the infotainment experience and drivers’ well-being while behind the wheel. These results provide recommendations to future designers to produce infotainment systems that are both user-friendly and safety-focused in addition to providing answers to the study questions addressed.