The application of ergonomics in the design of automotive displays

M.D. G A L E R Ergonomics can play an important role in the design and evaluation of novel display concepts. The rapid growth in the application of new technology has posed as many queries for the designer and engineer as it has provided design opportunities. Car dashboard displays are an example of such an ara of growth. Ergonomists have addressed the queries arising from the interface between the display and the user and can work with the designers and engineers towards solutions.

Keywords: ergonomics; display devices (computers); dashboards; design; evaluation.

A great deal of the research and development which has gone on in the automotive industry in the past and is currently under way is not directly relevant to the interface with the driver, although the industry has been quick to realize the potential for the general application of electronics in cars. The Society of Automotive Engineers has a range of special publications dealing with the application of electronics in the automotive industry: for example, SP536 deals with sensors and actuators l, SP540 deals with electronic engine and drive train control 2. The fourth international conference on automotive electronics 3 in 1983 also provided a forum for debate on a wide variety of topics including transducers, multiplexed wiring systems and displays and information systems. More relevant to the driver is the area of contrast enhancement and legibility of electronic displays. A considerable amount of work has been reported by both motor companies and instrumentation manufacturers 4'5. Considerable attention has also been paid in recent years to the application of the technological opportunities which vehicles provide. This is particularly the case when considering the range andt~pe of information which could be presented to drivers -. The display technology aspects of automotive electronics have a direct bearing on the interface with the driver and the developments in that field go hand in hand with the application of ergonomics. It is only when the qualities and characteristics of the different technologies are known 9'1 that their optimization with the user in mind can begin. How much attention in recent times has been paid to the interface between the user and the display, particularly in terms of the pesentation of information from the user's point of view? I suggest that it is substantially less than the amount of attention paid to what goes on behind the panel. Furthermore, I would argue that the main influence on the design of the display presentation is the technology, not the capabilities and requirements of the user.

This paper discusses how ergonomics can contribute to the development of acceptable display presentations and the role of ergonomics in the design process. In conclusion some examples will be provided of work where ergonomists, designers and engineers have worked successfully together. W H A T IS E R G O N O M I C S ? Ergonomics is the applied science which aims to match the demands of products and equipment, jobs and places of work, with the characteristics of the people who use them. In the context of automotive displays, ergonomics aims to ensure that the displays can be easily seen, understood and effectively used in the range of conditions and by the variety of people, drivers and passengers, who will use them. The ergonomist will take account of the man-machine interface by looking systematically at the capabilities and characteristics of: The man - - the user, asking questions such as: Who are the users? What is their age range? Will they have vision impairments such as colour blindness? How much information can he or she take in at one time? The m a c h i n e - What information is to be presented? What are the range of values? What is the discrimination ability? The i n t e r f a c e - What is the viewing distance and angle? How should the information be presented, in analogue, digital or symbolic form? Should it be visual or auditory? In addition the ergonomist will take account of the environment in which the display is to be used, as it affects the user's ability to effectively interact with the display. What, for example, are the thermal, vibration and lighting characteristics of the environment?

ERGONOMICS IN THE DESIGN PROCESS

The ergonomist will contribute to the design process by asking the following questions and providing answers in cooperation with the engineers, the designers and the product planners.

The author is at the Institute for Consumer Ergonomics, 75 Swingbridge Road, Loughborough, Leics L E l l OJB, UK.
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Concept generation

have a reduction in sensitivity to red. A general reduction in sensitivity of colour vision due to the yellowing of the lens in older drivers should be considered it. These ergonomics criteria can then be translated by the designer into one or more design solutions. Prototype development The role of the ergonomist here is to assist in the resolution of design, engineering and ergonomics conflicts. If, for example, it is very costly to engineer an ideal ergonomically acceptable design solution, then the ergonomist should be able to provide information on the cost to the user of alternative solutions. This may be in terms of the increased reading time for display or in a reduction in numbers of people able to use the display. Prototype testing The ergonomist would be concerned with the assessment of the ease of use, convenience and safety of the product 12. The ergonomist may carry out an expert appraisal based on information already known from automotive and other contexts. User trials may be undertaken where a range of potential users carry out the tasks associated with the use of the product. User trials can be conducted in a variety of ways depending on the demands of the product. Laboratory tests using microcomputer simulations could be undertaken. The prototype product could be installed in a car and tested in normal traffic conditions or on a track. During the prototype testing stage the product specification will probably need to be amended, particularly when the interaction of components can be observed in operation. The ergonomist would assist the designers and engineers in the resolution of the amendments, and advise on the likely consequences for the user. Product The outcome of the product stage is the development of a display system which is well designed and easy to use. In the area of electro-mechanical displays many years of research have provided a wealth of ergonomics data for product design applications. In the rapidly developing and changing field of electronic displays it is unlikely that all the required ergonomics information is known. Much of the role of the ergonomist is in the careful application of research knowledge from other contexts, and also applying fundamental ergonomics criteria to new situations. E X A M P L E S O F E R G O N O M I C S IN P R A C T I C E In this section a number of studies of varying complexity are described in which ergonomists have worked with designers and engineers to solve problems, to provide information for the product design, or to assess the prototype products. Driver response to different colour instnuuent p a n e l lighting Although some companies tend to use instrument panel lighting colour to project a company image, there has

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Product specification

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development

Prototype I

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Product
Fig. 1 Display design process
What information is to be presented? To whom shall the information be presented? How is that information to be presented? How effective is the display mode? The design process from the ergonomist's point of view can be divided into stages as shown in Fig. 1. At each stage the ergonomist would provide an input using various of the techniques at his or her disposal. Concept generation The ergonomist would consider the characteristics and requirements of the user population, from the literature if the information is available, or from research studies if there are areas of uncertainty, and match those with the concepts being discussed. The ergonomist could also run creativity groups with potential users not only to generate novel concepts but also to give priorities to certain features. Product specification The ergonomist will work with the designers and engineers to provide the ergonomics criteria the product should meet to ensure it is safe, convenient and easy to use. These ergonomics criteria could include the optimum position or range of positions in which the display should be located to ensure that, for example, 95 per cent of the driving population could see the display without undue head movement. It could include advice on the colours to be used to ensure that known characteristics of the colour vision of the driving population are taken into account. An example is taken from a handbook giving ergonomics advice to designers of electronic displays described later in this paper. Avoid using red and green, or yellow and blue in pairs. Protanopes [people with dichromatic vision]

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been a great deal of debate about the colour of instrument panel lighting, and personal opinion carries much weight when there is no factual information on which to base decisions. This study contributed at the product specification stage of the design process. In a study for Ford Motor Company Ltd five broad-band colours of instrument lighting were tested in a simulator under night-time conditions. In all, 75 drivers tested the instrument panels lit at equal brightness by red, green, yellow, orange and blue-green filters. It was found that there was no difference in the drivers' ability to read and use the instruments with any of the display colours (based on accuracy of reading). Based on drivers' preferences, the blue-green display was preferred for: ease of reading; ease of deciding whether the speed was within a speed limit; distraction while driving (it was least distracting); attractiveness; choice for own car; general preference. The yellow display was the next most preferred display colour, and the red display performed worst on all the preference measures except distraction while driving. The results of this experiment gave the company clear information on user response to different coloured instrument panel lighting, and enabled the company to make decisions about display lighting colour which took account of the consequences for the user 13. Driver response to three electronic instrument panel designs The feasibility of using electronic technology to display information to drivers in vehicles has increased the scope of the designer, since the contraints imposed on layout by the electromechanical instrumentation have now been removed. Novel styles of speedometer are now possible: various analogue scales or digital readouts can be employed 6. But how will drivers react to the novel styles? How well can they use them? This study contributed to the product specification, prototype development and prototype testing stages of the design process. Since the driver has much to occupy his or her attention on the road, the instrument panel design should provide information which can be read quickly, accurately and easily. The driver then minimizes the time spent glancing away from the road. A series of trials carded out by the Institute for Consumer Ergonomics for Ford Motor Company Ltd aimed to evaluate the ease and accuracy of reading of three novel instrument panel designs and to assess drivers' reactions to them. The questions borne in mind throughout the series of trials were: Do the novel electronic designs constitute an improvement over the standard electromechanical design from the drivers' point of view? Can they be read as easily and as accurately as the standard design? Do they distract attention from the road more than the standard design?

The study comprised three experimental stages, assessing ease and accuracy of use and driver responses to the three electronic instrument panel designs and comparing each to a standard electromechanical design. The three instrument panel designs comprised an analogue dial, an analogue curvilinear and digital display. In the first stage photographic representations of the instrument panel designs were tested by 100 drivers for accuracy of reading, using a projection tachistoscope presentation technique. With this technique a projection tachistoscope presented visual, slide, information for very rapid (350 ms) timed exposures. The tachistoscope is in this case an attachment to the slide projector controlled by a timer mechanism for exposure and nonexposure. This gave a broad brush indication of accuracy and ease of use as well as some user preference. However, in these tests the displays were static. In the next stage dynamic models of the displays were tested with a further 100 drivers in a computer-controlled driving simulator. The tests were conducted in nighttime lighting conditions. To justify investing in such new concepts the company has to be confident of its decision, so in order to test the user response in real life traffic and lighting conditions, road trials were conducted with a further 200 drivers using prototype liquid crystal displays. The results were generally consistent throughout the tests in terms of accuracy of reading, ease of use and driver preference. The digital display performed best in all tests on these topics. However, further important information was obtained about the designs and drivers' responses in different traffic and lighting conditions. The company obtained information not only about the particular designs being assessed, but also information which could be used to advantage in their future development programmes 14'15. R e a d a b i l i t y o f d o t m a t r i x w a r n i n g s y m b o l s in
cars

In order to take advantage of the opportunities for new modes of information presentation provided by the application of new technology Jaguar Cars wished to present warning symbols in vacuum fluorescent dot matrix format. The current regulations require that ISO symbols are used, these being in line format. In order to provide some information on which decisions could be made between the company and the government regulatory bodies an experiment was conducted which compared readability of dot matrix symbols with the ISO line format symbols. Two hundred drivers were shown photographic representations of the symbols in the two formats using a rapid exposure tachistoscopic presentation technique. There was no statistically significant difference between the readability of symbols in dot matrix format compared with standard line format. There were, however, marked differences in the readability of various symbols, regardless of format, but that is another story. The company felt confident in its discussions with the regulatory bodies that the option was available to use dot matrix format warning symbols in its next range

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of vehicles 16,17. This study was an example of the contribution of ergonomics at the product specification stage.

Development o f a n e r g o n o m i c s h a n d b o o k f o r
designers of electronic displays The development of electronic displays for automotive use has been in progress for a number of years. Early work concentrated on matters affecting engineering feasibility. However, it soon became clear that there is a need for information on the many parameters which fundamentally influence the value of electronic displays to drivers. For example, the contrast and size of electrooptical displays will determine whether they can be seen by a sufficient range of drivers. The experiments reported earlier 13-15, led to interactions between ergonomists, designers and electrical engineers. Many specific questions were asked regarding various ergonomics aspects of electronic displays. There is a substantial body of recent publications in this area, but the variation in quality is very great. Furthermore the information in the literature is not readily available to the engineers and designers who grapple with the practical problems. The Institute for Consumer Ergonomics was commissioned by Ford Motor Company Ltd to produce guidelines for its designers on ergonomics aspects of electronic instrumentation. The aim was to produce a coherent reference manual based on the available literature and research experience. The driver of the car is the centre of attention in the handbook's recommendations. However, where appropriate the reference was broadened to include the requirements and characteristics of passengers, service and maintenance engineers and others associated with vehicles. As the application of electronic technology in vehicles advances, the designer is likely to be faced with more questions regarding the interaction of drivers and others with displays, the answers to which are not immediately obvious. The handbook should enable the designer to address these new questions with good quality information. The initial version of the handbook had been in internal use within various Ford affiliates, for some time, where it seemed to have met a clear need for ergonomics information. In fact, within the first year it had been reprinted for many times the original circulation. In this instance the presentation of ergonomics information in a format which was easily usable by designers and engineers was as important as the information content itself11,TM. CONCLUSION Now that the hard work and enthusiasm of electronic engineers has produced a situation where almost any kind of information can be presented to the driver in almost any form, let us consider the driver. It is not an easy task. Many papers in the literature give no indication of experimental method or are clearly based on informal observations on a very small number of

people, not infrequently the authors themselves. Clearly there is a high risk in assuming that conclusions reached in this way will be applicable to drivers in general. In reality drivers vary greatly in their physical, intellectual and emotional make-up. This variety is even greater if the passengers and others associated with the vehicles are considered. It may well not be possible for one individual to predict the effect of a display on others. An example may be drawn from the assessment of speedometer formats referred to earlier 14. The favour with which older drivers responded to the digital speedometer had not been predicted. Hence the need for the ergonomist to interpret the evidence and conduct properly designed experimental evaluations. The designer, the representative of the man-machine interface, requires information from the engineer (the representative of the machine) and the ergonomist (the representative of the man) to ensure that the requirements of the driver are met in the most satisfactory fashion. Acknowledgements The author would like to thank the following people for their cooperation and advice in the research projects quoted: E.R.W. Simmonds (Ford Motor Company), C. Holtum (Jaguar Cars), P.A. Baines, J. Spicer, T.A.W. Geyer.

References
1 SAE SP536 (1983) 'Sensors and actuators' 2 SAE SP540 (1983) 'Electronic engine/driver train
control' 3 Proc fourth int conf on automotive electronics (IEE, 1983) 4 Jones, D., Desa, B., 'Recent advances in dichroic liquid crystal displays for automotive applications' Proc third int conf on automotive electronics (IEE, 1981) 5 Shepherd, B. Int symp on automotive technology and automation (Wolfburg, 1977) 6 Birch, B. 'Applying microcomputers to vehicle instrumentation' Microproc Microsyst 6 (1982) 7 Nalto, S. Igm'~hi, O. 'On vehicle electronic systems' Hitachi Rev 31 (1982) 67 8 Leslie, I.P. 'Microcomputer applications in automotive instrumentation' Second int conf on automotive electronics (IEE, 1979) 9 SAE P123 (1983) 'An update on automotive electronic displays and information systems' 10 Nakanishl, T., Ariga, K., Teshima, T. 'G H colour LCDs for automotive use' J Electron Eng 19 189 (1982) 35 11 Galer, M.D., Simmonds, G.R.W. 'Electronic disp l a y s - a handbook for designers SAE SP576 (1984) 12 Rennle, A.M. 'The application of ergonomics to consumer product evaluation' Appl Erg 12 (1981) 163 13 Galer, M.D. Baines, P.A. 'Driver responses to different coloured dashboard lighting' (Institute for Consumer Ergonomics, 1980)

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14 Simmonds, G.R.W., Galer, M.D., Baines, P.A. 'Ergonomics of Electronic Displays' SAE 810826
(1981)

15 Baines, P.A., Spicer, J., Galer M.D., Simmonds,

G.R.W. 'Ergonomics in automotive electronics' Proc third int conf on automotive electronics (IEE, 1981) 33

16 Galer, M.D., Spieer, J., Geyer, T.A.W., Holtum,

C. 'The design and evaluation of a trip computer

and a vehicle condition monitor' Proc fourth int conf on automotive electronics (1983) 192 17 Galer, M.D., Spieer, J., Hoitum C. 'The readability of 7 dot-matrix warning symbols in cars' in 'Contemporary ergonomics 1984' Supplement 1, edited by E.D. Megaw, of Ergonomics 27 (1984) 257 18 Simmonds, G.R.W., Galer, M.D. 'Electronic disp l a y s - the development of an ergonomics handbook' SAE SP565, 840152 (1984)

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