EDI Autonomous Vehicle Navigation Assistant

The goal was to develop a navigation system for a self-driving vehicle that aimed to earn the trust of the user. After user testing, we added a new screen for parking options and refined other areas of the interaction that was unclear.

Sketch "20 minutes away from destination"

Design Concept

A voice user interface (VUI) built into an autonomous, self-driving vehicle.
Designed to increase user trust in autonomous vehicles.
VUIs are conversational and can respond to the user requests.
The voice assistant will explain every choice it’s making, so the user is entirely aware of each action.
The VUI can be told to make different choices, if realistic, so that the user has a sense of control as the passenger.
The VUI or voice assistant is multimodal, meaning it comprises of:
- A voice user interface that the user interacts via voice.
- A tablet screen embedded into the console of the car for tactile interaction.

Goals

To create a trusting relationship between the user and interface.
To emulate the natural flow of a person-to-person conversation (conversational approach
to interface interaction).
To have a simplistic, multimodal interface (tablet and voice).
To establish a genuine human-computer interaction experience.

Potential alternative uses for nav tablet

Research & Testing

The purpose of the usability evaluation was to collect user opinions on the overall functionality, layout, and structure of the hypothetical voice user interface prototype, and to see how we can improve our design. By conducting a series of task prompt evaluations on sample subjects, the goal was to observe the users in completing the tasks in order to acquire information on what design updates should be made.

Through this evaluation, the goal was to gain an understanding of how our design concept is perceived by external individuals. Some areas to explore were:

Effectiveness of the functionality and layout
Clarity and simplicity of the tasks
Usability of the design.

Prototypes

Based on both evaluations, there were some common issues to the design that were exposed.

The route selection page on the tablet interface provided the most difficulty for both participants, and hence indicated the need for design revisions. To meet this challenge, the team discussed how the page components and layout could be revised to make this task more straightforward.

The VUI being able to read aloud the text message received was described by both participants as being useful. The use of everyday common language seemed to be viewed from a positive scope by the participants.

However, the first participant stated that the voice seemed a bit robotic. Therefore, based on this observation, the articulation, intonation, and mood from the voice must be kept in mind as a more subtle design feature to be altered.