Effect of button location on driver's visual behaviour and safety perception

Abstract

Although buttons are a frequently used type of control in car interiors, little research has been undertaken on how the usage of buttons affects the visual behaviour of the driver. In this study, the aim was to analyse the effect of push button location and auditory feedback on drivers' visual time off road and safety perception when driving in a real traffic situation. The effect of six button locations (five on the centre stack, one near the gear stick) was tested. Drivers' visual behaviour was studied in real traffic on a motorway. An eye tracking system recorded the visual behaviour of eight drivers who, in 96 repeated trials each, were instructed to press a specific button. Data analysis focused on the drivers' visual time off road and safety perception in relation to the location of the button to be pressed. Auditory feedback did not show a significant effect on visual time off road. The time off road increased significantly as the angle increased between the normal line of sight and button location for the five buttons placed on the centre stack. Results for the button located close to the gear stick, with the highest eccentricity, produced a short time off road. This unexpected finding is discussed in terms of three potential explanations: 1) the role of perceptual discrimination; 2) risk perception; and 3) motor control.

Basic study on automotive display design by proximity compatibility principle

“…Although Dukic [12], [13] did not use an integrated switch, they predicted, on the basis of their results, that the integrated switch should be installed on the drivers' side from the viewpoint of decreasing time off road.…”

“…Dukic et al [12], [13] showed that the switch (control) location close to the gear stick and with highest eccentricity produced a shorter time off road (the time period when drivers look aside). Although Dukic [12], [13] did not use an integrated switch, they predicted, on the basis of their results, that the integrated switch should be installed on the drivers' side from the viewpoint of decreasing time off road.…”

Driver queries using wheel-constrained finger pointing and 3-D head-up display visual feedback

“…Poorly designed button placement and touchscreen buttons require the driver to glance momentarily at the display to confirm choice [7]. It is shown that the visual time off road increases significantly as the angle increases between the normal light of sight while driving and the button location [26]. This is especially disconcerting as touchscreens seem to be migrating to vehicles as the interaction display of choice, presumably because of the readily-available hardware and software technology from existing smart phones and tablets.…”

Optimizing viewing procedures of breast tomosynthesis image volumes using eye tracking combined with a free response human observer study

“…Eye tracking is a method that registers the movement of human gaze for instance when reading text, when driving a car, working on the internet, or as part of evaluating psychiatric disorders or investigating the workload of air traffic controllers [17][18][19][20][21][22] . Eye tracking has been used in radiology, mainly to analyse the way radiologist read mammograms [23][24][25][26][27] but also how different viewing procedures influence the efficiency of reading CT images of the lung 28 .…”