The Adaptive Digital Dashboard
November 29th, 2006
A year after the iDrive redesign, Carl Smith, Mohammad Rahman and I reunited for another automotive project. This one was a contest entry in the 2006 International Award in Design, Engineering and Innovation in the field of Automotive Human Factors.
The competition was sponsored by some prety big names, including the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (icsid) and the Italdesign-Giugiaro group, who are famous for their work on concept cars.
Despite a small culture clash that occured when we psychologists took on the industrial design community, we managed to bring the EU$2500 Ex Aequo award all the way from Italy to George Mason University.
The purpose of our project was to create a comprehensive human centered design approach, from requirements to validation. We conducted field work at car shows, interviewed different types of drivers, and evaluated market conditions. Then we tested the approach by designing a fully digital, touch senstitive dashboard for weekend racers, which was made into 3D mock-ups by a graphics studio at GMU.
The design used psychologically-based rules for displaying information relevant to street driving (top), diagnostics (middle), and a special mode for maximizing performance on the racetrack (bottom). I’m not going to explain the design in detail here. (Our tech report ran more than 100 pages.)
We have some articles in preparation that discuss the design and approach in a more accesible manner