Usability evaluation of a Volkswagen Group in-vehicle speech system

ABSTRACT

Driving behavior has been trending towards more time in the car and longer commutes. This has fueled the demand for an increasing number of in-vehicle infotainment features, at the cost of the driver splitting attention between the primary task of driving and other secondary tasks. To demonstrate one process we use for generating continuous improvements to the usability of our infotainment systems, we discuss a study where 30 participants were asked to interact with the speech dialogue system of a Volkswagen Group in-vehicle speech system. Participants performed tasks in telephone, navigation, and map contexts. Tasks were timed and videotaped for analysis of three performance measures: 1) Task Completion, 2) Task Time, and 3) participant rating of Task Difficulty. From this analysis, we identified issues that are especially important to the interaction between the system and the driver, which we categorized into a few broad areas: System Organization, Push-To-Talk Functionality, Data Entry, and Speech Commands. Analysis of the issues specific to each category and usability recommendations for each are discussed.

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Index Terms

• Human-centered computing

  • Human computer interaction (HCI)

    • HCI design and evaluation methods