Joyride! Towards User Experience Design for In-Vehicle Systems

Licentiate thesis, 2014

Modern vehicles are no longer used solely for transportation but are also multi-featured environments that offer a host of additional possibilities. As a result, the topic of in-vehicle user experience has become a primary area of interest for the vehicle industry and for vehicle researchers worldwide. While existing design approaches for human vehicle interaction focus on factors such as safety and efficiency, there is an emergent need for design knowledge that can support a process that is geared towards the facilitation of desirable in-vehicle experiences. This thesis presents an approach for designing in-vehicle interactions that is rooted in user research and existing, theoretical user experience knowledge. The main contribution of this thesis is the need dimensions, which are factors that help connect the abstract human needs to specific ways that these needs are satisfied. The need dimensions can be used in order to represent the user’s interests in all phases of the design process and help design teams understand and empathize with their target groups. The need dimensions can contribute in the analysis phase of the design process by pinpointing areas worth exploring further and by suggesting appropriate user research methods. In the synthesis phase, the need dimensions can be used with structured ideation methods in order to produce design solutions that target specific user requirements. Finally, the dimensions can help optimize the evaluation phase towards checking whether the user’s needs and wants are fulfilled by proposed design solutions. A vehicle interaction design process that is focused on users can generate positive interactions and therefore support the creation of desirable user experience.