Understand automotive AR-HUD interaction design and user experience trends in one article
Latest update time：2020-09-06
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HUD (Head Up Display) is an optical projection technology that has been transitioned from fighter applications to vehicles. It is an application that helps aircraft pilots reduce their cognitive load and improve their situational awareness. Automotive sensors and advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) features, when integrated, make it easier for drivers to detect threats or warnings and take action faster.
With the continuous breakthroughs in optical, AR, image recognition and other technologies, AR-HUD is presented in front of the driver in a more natural image processing method. AR-HUD allows these images to represent the real world and provide more useful information, such as Navigation, threat identification, etc.
01
Interface elements and layout features of AR-HUD
Many OEMs such as BMW and Cadillac have begun to introduce AR-HUD into mass-produced models, and many front- and rear-mounted start-ups such as Navyd and Wayray have also developed a variety of AR-HUD in-vehicle devices.
Displaying information directly on the real road is an important feature of AR HUD. To achieve this feature, it is necessary to analyze and model the road conditions ahead through the forward-looking camera to obtain the position, distance, and size of the object; then, the information that the HUD needs to be displayed is Only when the human eye, HUD display surface, and real road are in the same line of sight can a sufficiently immersive AR experience be achieved, and this also requires powerful computing power.
The current mainstream AR-HUD products basically include the following information functions: current vehicle speed, ACC adaptive cruise assist, vehicle distance warning, lane change prompt, environmental pedestrian warning, lane departure warning, and front vehicle warning. They are used in navigation information. are not exactly the same in presentation.
Although the interface still uses steering arrows to show the driver the next change in the vehicle's trajectory, the steering or lane change arrows will completely fit the actual road shape, and different products control the imaging distance of this information to the same position in front of the line of sight.
Wayray's design display of navigation information is more innovative and diverse. It abandons the virtual arrow in the center of the line of sight transplanted from the two-dimensional navigation interface. Instead, it uses curved lanes made with virtual elements and pasted them on the real road conditions to simulate driving. members’ behavior. The interface visual elements of these products all use highly saturated colors such as red, yellow, blue, and green, and comply with color semantics. For example, red represents a warning symbol.
Regarding the information selection and information architecture of the AR-HUD vehicle information system interface design, academic research focuses on the matching of the AR-HUD vehicle information system interface and the driving user's information perception and processing.
In Michon's classic driving model, driving tasks are divided into three levels. The first is the operation to maintain the normal driving of the car, that is, the general control task; the second is the task of maintaining the safe driving of the car and safely interacting with other vehicles or pedestrians in accordance with traffic rules and the driving environment, the so-called maneuvering control task; the third is the route, for example Planning strategic tasks such as this require driver reasoning and ideation.
The importance of these three-level tasks in the driving process increases in sequence, and they are alternately generated, interrelated, and work together to keep driving behavior within a safe and stable range.
AR affects the allocation of visual attention more strongly during the driving decision-making stage. While AR tends to present technical task-related cues, AR-HUD optimizes driving behavior. An effective AR-HUD system should only provide salient or prioritized information that is directly relevant to performing that technical task. A non-technical task-specific AR-HUD will reduce the allocation of visual attention, but will lead to distraction in decision-making before the driver is required to perform the task.
02
Human Factors Design Guidelines for AR-HUD
Although different AR-HUD suppliers have different styles and different target groups, the needs of drivers while driving have not changed much. We should consider the driver's human factors issues when designing the entire AR-HUD.
" data visualization"
When speeds and speed limits are displayed using graphics instead of numbers, they are easier for motorists to recognize and understand.
smart
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the speed is related to the current speed limit and visualized
Citroen
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speed visualization, when the top of the two progress bars overlap, it means the speed limit has been reached
Volkswagen
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abstract graphic representing the relationship between speed and speed limit
Lexus
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Speed is visualized as a straight line. When speeding, the straight line turns yellow and the speed line becomes thicker.
On car dashboards, many icons are difficult to understand. This is because the previous instrument panel had a broken code screen and it was difficult to display text. However, in recent years, LCD screens have been widely used in cars. When designing the UI of the instrument panel, text position is no longer a problem. In addition, While visualizing data, appropriately adding clear text descriptions can effectively reduce users' learning costs.
Without textual description, it is difficult for drivers to understand
the meaning of certain function icons.
"Different ways of displaying redundant information"
HUD can accommodate other information besides the dashboard content, but this information should be displayed with different graphics, and attention should be paid to making full use of the window display space when designing.
Tesla
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A simplified version of the Tesla HUD showing the speed section of the instrument panel
BMW
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HUD not only displays vehicle speed, but also hybrid vehicle status and activity
"Do not display meaningless content"
In different scenarios, the content in the car window display may be different, but it must be very important information. Obviously, a large amount of information and decorations will bury important information, resulting in important information not being recognized quickly and effectively.
smart
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navigation prompts only appear when turning, and information that needs to be displayed for a long time is not designed in the HUD visual interface
"Still recognizable in a blurry state"
The visual design of the HUD must ensure maximum contrast and clarity. The ideal HUD is still readable even if it is blurry. Different from the dark environment and solid color curtains of movie theaters, the HUD projection screen is a car window, and the world behind the car window is complex and changeable. Sometimes there is even strong sunlight shining directly on the car window, which also makes HUD design full of many limitations.
Although the UI has been blurred, important information, such as excessive speed, can still be identified.
"There needs to be a transition before the warning message appears."
The warning message should be accepted by the driver instead of being displayed very abruptly. Such as warning messages that appear suddenly to emphasize speed limits or other traffic regulations. Indeed, when the driver has not established the expectation that "increasing speed will cause certain problems", suddenly popping up a warning message is very abrupt and even presumptuous, which can easily cause driver stress and cause unnecessary traffic accidents.
Therefore, providing a smooth transition animation in HUD design may be a solution. For example, as the vehicle speed increases, the prompt information slowly transitions from a relatively mild reminder to a serious warning, which would be more friendly.
03
Interaction design of AR-HUD
From a design perspective, AR-HUD will also contain complex visual information:
brightness elements, graphic elements, color elements, layout factors, information congestion, etc.
Among them, the interactive design of AR-HUD directly affects driving safety and in-car riding experience.
" color design"
Choosing the right colors for prompts and alerts, combined with text and other visual elements, is critical when designing a good human-machine interface. Among the current color schemes of several AR-HUDs, blue and green are the main colors, and red and yellow are used as auxiliary colors. Most display information prompts. Of course, if the OEM brand identification color is introduced into the AR-HUD color scheme, There is no problem in the system. The OEM can define the key color system of AR-HUD.
AR-HUD is easily affected by the environment outside the car. The light intensity, weather conditions and other conditions of the external environment directly affect the interactive design of AR-HUD.
Under higher brightness contrast conditions, users are more likely to choose different color combinations, while under lower brightness contrast conditions, brightness contrast plays a more important role in visual perception than color combinations.
In the color design and matching of the interface design, the main colors in the current natural environment should be fully considered, and graphic color blocks with high contrast (semi-transparent) should be used to display key information, and the graphic color blocks should not overlap with other graphics or text. , let alone block the line of sight.
"Spatial Perception and Motion Design"
Users always hope to obtain as much depth information as possible to create a sense of reality in the interactive interface similar to the real world. Visual guidance can naturally express the relationship between visual elements through changes in size, color brightness, spatial perspective, and positional direction organization, shape the visual weight of different interface elements, and build a clear visual hierarchy.
In the AR-HUD human-computer interaction interface, the light and dark changes of design elements become the basis for judging the distance of objects. The changes in light and shadow and aerial perspective are used to produce a three-dimensional effect, which is combined with the three-dimensional view of the environment in real time to form a dynamic visual element with a certain three-dimensional and three-dimensional sense.
In motion effect design, all dynamic effects serve to convey information during driving and must be designed under the premise of driving safety. Cool and technological effects are not necessarily beneficial to driver safety. If the information is prompted Slowly transitioning from a relatively mild reminder to a serious warning will be more driver-friendly, and the smooth transition effect will also make it easier to reduce cognitive load and tension during driving.
"Information Layout Design"
Hick's law describes the length of time it takes for users to make decisions. Increasing the number of choices will increase the reaction time for people to make decisions. If too much information is distributed, attention will be disturbed and cognitive load will increase.
The driver can visually perceive 5 to 9 items at a time, and this number also includes other visual elements in the field of view except the AR-HUD itself. Therefore, when designing the AR-HUD human-computer interaction interface, a reasonable layout of interface information is required And quantity plays an important role in reducing driving load. The number of main design elements presented in real time by AR-HUD is best kept within 1-3, and the number of design elements (or visual element groups) that present the most critical information is best only one.
The fastest way to obtain key driving vehicle information is the starting point of the AR-HUD interface layout. The best design is to obtain information without the driver having to think during use.
Hierarchical relationships above level 2 are not suitable to be presented in AR-HUD. The information display on the page is simple and direct, with clear priorities. There is no redundant information display. Only the information that the user is most concerned about is on the interface, so as to improve the driver's confidence. The efficiency of information acquisition is also achieved without destroying the integration of the environment and the interface, which is more suitable for the interface design of AR-HUD.
04
Automobile AR-HUD design case
Summarize:
From a technical perspective, AR-HUD needs to solve problems such as ghosting, clarity, and environmental integration. Factors such as optical imaging and projection technology and system computing power also limit the display effect and experience of AR-HUD. In addition, optical modules and The hardware is bulky, which is not conducive to the design and layout in the car. As a result, there is still a lot of room for optimization of AR-HUD.
AR-HUD is directly related to the strategic tasks of driver reasoning and conception. Future AR-HUD interaction design and user experience will greatly affect driving safety, dazzling dynamic special effects and excessive pursuit of visual design design aesthetics. It is not necessarily beneficial to driving safety. Before AR-HUD can be mass-produced, HMI designers still need to work hard. We must always remember—we are designing for “driving safety”!
Article source: NewAuto New Auto
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