Abstract
Keywords - Users, Design, CyberCars, Interfaces, Prototyping
Abstracgt - In the European research project CyberCars, the design and development of an on-board information system was carried out, having in mind the peculiar characteristics of the vehicles investigated in the project. The application involves a new class of public city-cars, capable of autonomous driving, providing on demand and door-to-door service. Interaction with the users for such new transportation modes plays a fundamental role.
This paper describes the iterative design process used to develop and evaluate the information system. A working prototype was built, with an easy to learn interface, which could be operated by various typologies of users. This system had to give different kinds of information to passengers, such as the travel operation, interaction with the management centre, traffic information, parking availability, navigation and entertainment. In order to highlight the mental models of potential users, Focus Groups with different typologies of persons were the starting point of the work. Thanks to the information collected, it was possible to define the functions to be implemented in the on-board information system. Then the interaction logical flow, the semantic contents and the lay-out for input devices were defined. In the subsequent phase, a working prototype of the information system with its graphical interface was developed. The design was refined through iterative evaluations by experts and by potential users, and using three prototypes with progressive fidelity levels to investigate the various aspects. To guarantee ecological test conditions, a static maquette of the front compartment of the vehicle, hosting the information system, was also designed and developed. The interaction with the system was based on a rotary knob and buttons positioned on the armrest between the anterior seats. The attention paid to user requirements since the first phases of the process allowed to develop an interface which is effective and easy to use.