摘要: |
Icons are visual images used to symbolize an object, action, or concept. If properly conceptualized and designed, they can provide a number of advantages over a text-only approach to presenting drivers with in-vehicle messages. However, poorly designed icons can lead to additional driver workload, driver confusion, and errors. Unfortunately, there are few sources of human factors design guidelines that can be used with confidence during the icon development process. Under contract to the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), Battelle is providing automotive and electronics designers with a set of human factors design guidelines for in-vehicle display icons. The final guidelines are currently under development and will provide in-vehicle information system (IVIS) developers with key information regarding the use and integration of existing and new visual icons. In addition to the hardcopy human factors design guidelines, FHWA asked the Battelle team to develop an interactive design tool for presenting individual candidate icons in a manner that also provides evaluative information about the icons. This design tool, called Icon IDEA (Icon Interactive Development and Evaluation Assistant) provides icon designers with the following basic functions: (1) a searchable database of over 400 candidate icons, (2) access to evaluation ratings for each of the icons in the database, (3) recommendations for further refining the icon designs, and (4) clear and simple design guidelines for developing and evaluating all in-vehicle icons. |