Shaping the next generation of UX in cars - Interaction design guidelines for music streaming services in cars

Abstract

The aim for this thesis has been to deliver a set of interaction design guidelines for the user experience of music streaming applications in cars. These guidelines will provide designers with concrete guidance of how to design safer interactions with the head unit in a car to reduce driver distraction and increase the overall usability. As the goal was to deliver a set of guidelines based on insights and knowledge from design research, the design process has followed a Research through Design approach, combined with a Goal-Directed Design approach, looking at user behaviours and needs in the context of interacting with music streaming applications while driving. The derived guidelines are motivated through an extensive literature review, user research, and user testing where the majority of the guidelines has been derived from tested hypotheses for driver safety by using a number of attention measurements, looking at driving performance, usability, visual attention and cognitive load. The remaining guidelines are motivated through already carried out research. The result of the work stress the importance of taking driver distraction into consideration when designing for in-car experiences. These guidelines do not stand-alone guarantee safe interactions but together with already existing guidelines for in-car HCI and best practices within interaction design they provide a solid ground for decreasing driver distraction and improving the safety of the driver while using a music service in the car.