Automotive HMI design and participatory user involvement: review and perspectives

Abstract

Automotive human–machine interface (HMI) design is facing new challenges due to the technological advances of the last decades. The design process has to be adapted in order to address human factors and road safety challenges. It is now widely accepted that user involvement in the HMI design process is valuable. However, the current form of user involvement in industry remains at the stages of concept assessment and usability tests. Moreover, the literature in other fields (e.g. information systems) promotes a broader user involvement with participatory design (i.e. the user is fully involved in the development process). This article reviews the established benefits of participatory design and reveals perspectives for automotive HMI quality improvement in a cognitive ergonomic framework.

Practitioner Summary: Automotive HMI quality determines, in part, drivers’ ability to perform primary driving tasks while using in-vehicle devices. User involvement in the design process is a key point to contribute to HMI quality. This article reports the potential benefits of a broad involvement from drivers to meet automotive HMI design challenges.

Keywords:

• Human–machine interface
• user involvement
• user-centred design
• participatory design

Acknowledgement

This work was performed within the framework of the LABEX CORTEX (ANR-11-LABX-0042) of University of Lyon, within the program ‘Investissements d’Avenir’ (ANR-11-IDEX-0007) operated by the French National Research Agency (ANR). This work has also been made possible through a CIFRE PhD convention from the ANRT (ANRT-2013/1405), funded by the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research. The authors wish to thank Eric Dutt for having been a source of reflexion and Ghislaine Goullioud for their useful comments on an earlier version of this paper.