Evaluation of car instrumentation clusters by using eye-tracking

The importance of the ambience presented by instrumentation in the vehicle of today is of great significance for the automotive industry. The rapid technological development of electronic equipment has enabled the large amount of information devices in the drivers' environment. The types of driver information and their appearances are well identified by car manufacturers, but there is a lack of knowledge regarding drivers' perceptions of instrumentation clusters as well as their appearance. To increase this knowledge a study was conducted in order to measure these perceptions. Twenty-three subjects were studied using a method consisting of eye-tracking, assessments and interviews. Each subject was to view eight clusters and to assess each cluster according to six different semantic descriptions. The interviews were based on the subject's individual eye-tracking data. The subject was monitored by an eye-tracking equipment during the assessment task. The results showed that there were some significant correlations between time spent viewing a cluster and its assessment. Moreover, the results also give a view on how clusters are assessed and why they are assessed in particular ways.