Ergonomics often seems to be involved too late in commercial project development processes to have substantive impact on design and usability. However, in the automotive industry, and specifically in relation to In-Vehicle Information Systems (IVIS), a lack of attention to usability can not only lead to poor customer satisfaction, it can also prese

It is estimated that, in the United States, around 20 percent of all Police-reported road crashes involve driver distraction as a contributing factor. This figure increases if other forms of inattention are considered. Evidence (reviewed in this volume) suggests that the situation is similar in other countries and that driver distraction and inattention are even more dangerous as contributing factors in crashes than drug and alcohol intoxication. Having a solid evidence-base from which to develop injury countermeasures is a cornerstone of road-safety management. This book adds to the accumulating evidence-base on driver distraction and inattention. With 24 chapters by 52 authors from more than 10 countries, it provides important new perspectives on the definition and meaning of driver distraction and inattention, the mechanisms that characterize them, the measurement of their effects, strategies for mitigating their effects, and recommendations for further research. The goal of this book is to inspire further research and countermeasure development to prevent and mitigate the potentially adverse effects of driver distraction and driver inattention, and, in doing so, to save lives.

The four-volume set LNCS 6946-6949 constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 13th IFIP TC13 International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, INTERACT 2011, held in Lisbon, Portugal, in September 2011. The 49 papers included in the second volume are organized in topical sections on health, human factors, interacting in public spaces, interacting with displays, interaction design for developing regions, interface design, international and culural aspect of HCI, interruptions and attention, mobile interfaces, multi-modal interfaces, multi-user interaction/cooperation, and navigation and wayfinding.

Driving a motor vehicle is a complex activity, and errors in performing the driving task can result in crashes which cause property damage, injuries, and sometimes death. It is important that the road environment supports drivers in safe performance of the driving task. At present, increasing amounts of visual information from sources such as roadside advertising create visual clutter in the road environment. There has been little research on the effect of this visual clutter on driving performance, particularly for vulnerable groups such as novice and older drivers. The present work aims to fill this gap. Literature from a variety of relevant disciplines was surveyed and integrated, and a model of the mechanisms by which visual clutter could affect performance of the driving task was developed. To determine potential sources of clutter, focus groups with drivers were held and two studies involving subjective ratings of visual clutter in photographs and video clips of road environments were carried out. This resulted in a taxonomy of visual clutter in the road environment: 'situational clutter', including vehicles and other road users with whom drivers interact; 'designed clutter', including road signs, signals, and markings used by traffic authorities to communicate with users; and 'built clutter' including roadside development and any signage not originating from a road authority. The taxonomy of visual clutter was tested using the change detection paradigm. Drivers were slower to detect changes in photographs of road scenes with high levels of visual clutter than with low levels, and slower for road scenes including advertising billboards than road scenes without billboards. Finally, the effects of billboard presence and lead vehicles on vehicle control, eye movements and responses to traffic signs and signals were tested using a driving simulator. The number of vehicles included appeared to be insufficient to create situational clutter. However billboards had significant effects on driver speed (slower), ability to follow directions on road signs (slower with more errors), and eye movements (increased amount of time fixating on roadsides at the expense of scanning the road ahead). Older drivers were particularly affected by visual clutter in both the change detection and simulated driving tasks. Results are discussed in terms of implications for future research and for road safety practitioners. Visual clutter can affect driver workload as well as purely visual aspects of the driving task (such as hazard perception and search for road signs). When driver workload is increased past a certain point other driving tasks will also be performed less well (such as speed maintenance). Advertising billboards in particular cause visual distraction, and should be considered at a similar level of potential danger as visual distraction from in-vehicle devices. The consequences of roadside visual clutter are more severe for the growing demographic of older drivers. Currently, road environments do not support drivers (particularly older drivers) as well as they could. Based on the results, guidance is given for road authorities to improve this status when designing and location road signage and approving roadside advertising.

This book focuses on the study of secondary task demands imposed by in-vehicle devices on the driver while driving. It provides a mechanism for researchers to evaluate how in-vehicle devices such as navigation systems – as well as other devices such as cell phones – affect driver distraction and impact safety. This book, which features the work presented by international experts at the 4th International Driver Metrics Workshop, in June 2008, offers a summary of the current state of driver metrics research. Edited by workshop moderator Dr. Gary L. Rupp, the book introduces vital information to support the design of in-vehicle information and communication systems (IVIS). Topics covered include: • Driver object and event detection • Peripheral detection tasks (PDT) • Tactile-based detection tasks (TDT) • Modified Sternberg method for assessing visual and cognitive load of in-vehicle tasks • Modified Sternberg method for assessing peripheral detection task and lane change tests • The relationship between performance metrics and crash risk • Characterizing driver behaviors observed in naturalist driving studies • Developing metrics from lane change test studies