Towards an Interaction Language for Force-enabled Touchpads in Cars

Force-based touch input is a novel input method for automotive interfaces. It constitutes an efficient and effective way of in-car interaction with an added degree of freedom. Research on force-based in-car interfaces is still scarce. Recommendations such as gesture sets or interaction languages that could guide future implementations have not yet been proposed. As a first step towards closing this gap, we contribute an interaction language for force-enabled input on touchpads in the center console. The language was elicited in a controlled experiment and maps core interactions to common in-car commands. Results from the experiment also shed light onto mental models of in-car force-enabled touchpad input. The elicited interaction language provides guidelines for future force-based touchpad interfaces in the central console.