CHAPTER 19: BACKGROUND OF THESE HUMAN FACTORS DESIGN GUIDELINES FOR ATIS/CVO
Significant advances in electronics and microcomputing during the past few decades have led to the feasibility of a functionally powerful, computer-based ATIS as part of the automotive environment. Although these systems range in functionality, they all have the goal of acquiring, analyzing, communicating, and presenting information to assist travelers in moving from a starting location to a desired destination. While systems under development or in production promise to improve travel safety, efficiency, and comfort, they represent a new frontier in ground transportation. This handbook is intended to address a growing information gap between the advanced and diverse status of automotive technologies such as ATIS devices, and the availability of human factors design criteria that can be used during the system design process. Specifically, the relationship between various ATIS design parameters and the driver's ability to effectively and comfortably use an ATIS--given variations in operating conditions, driving tasks, and driver demographics--has not been extensively studied. Most design guidelines for automotive displays have been derived from display design guidelines developed for military applications (e.g., MIL-STD-1472D). Such guidelines are often inappropriate when applied to automotive design situations, due to differences in user populations, user expectations, operator tasks, design constraints, design trade-offs, and user capabilities and limitations.
For example, the older driver presents a unique concern with regard to the design of automotive display systems. As individuals live longer and drive longer, a larger proportion of the driving population is age 65 or older. Experimental data indicate considerable differences between older and younger drivers with respect to sensory, cognitive, and psychomotor abilities. For instance, in the visual domain, older drivers are characterized by decreased accommodative ability, decreased acuity, decreased contrast sensitivity, increased glare sensitivity, and increased luminance requirements. Older drivers are at a particular disadvantage when attempting to use many modern display systems: their own abilities to use the systems have decreased, while the visual, information processing, and motor demands placed on them have increased. Wherever possible, design guidelines specifically aimed at the older driver have been included.
In summary, there is an urgent need for a clear, relevant, and well-referenced set of human factors design guidelines, for ATIS devices. This document summarizes human engineering data, guidelines, and principles, for use by creative designers, engineers and human factors practitioners during the ATIS design process. These summaries take the form of design guidelines for 75 distinct ATIS design parameters. These design guidelines are intended to: (1) be concise, (2) be unambiguous, (3) be traceable to specific references, where applicable, and (4) highlight implications for driver performance, where appropriate.