Visual Enhancements for the Driver’s Information Search on Automotive Head-up Display

ABSTRACT

In the past, in-vehicle head-up displays (HUDs) were used to display simple information including driving speed and the distance between cars. However, recent HUDs now display complex information such as advanced driver assistance information. This study aims to identify the effects of visual enhancements for HUDs on the driver’s performance and workload. Twenty participants conducted the tracking tasks for information search while driving in an automotive simulator environment. The participants experienced three levels of visual enhancements (none, shaded reference bar, translucent reference bar) for each task difficulty (low, medium, high). The results showed that visual enhancements and task difficulties had a significant effect on the tracking errors and subjective workloads. These findings verify that the translucent reference bar significantly improved the tracking performance. Furthermore, the visual enhancement cues on the HUDs play an important role in visual search. This research provides practical guidelines to ensure road safety through minimizing cognitive workload on drivers. Therefore, the results will encourage interface designers to consider the visual enhancement for HUDs from a user-centered perspective.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jaekyu Park

Jaekyu Park is currently a professional of Home Appliance & Air Solution Company at LG Electronics. He received his Ph.D. degree in Industrial Management Engineering from Korea University in 2017. His research interests include affective evaluation, ergonomics appliance development, and customer experience.

Youngjae Im

Youngjae Im is currently an assistant professor of Human-System Design Engineering at Dong-eui University. He received his Ph.D. degree in Industrial Management Engineering from Korea University in 2013. His research interests include user-centered design, user experience, and ergonomic product development.