From the category archives:

automobiles

Redesigning Toyota’s Keyless Ignition System

by Richard Pak
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The LA Times reporters Ken Bensinger and Ralph Vartabedian recently wrote a story about keyless ignition systems and the associated HF issues (we blogged about it here).  In a follow-up story, they report that Toyota is considering redesigning the system so that instead of requiring a single 3-second press to shut off the engine, it now requires 3 consecutive [...]

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Keyless Ignition in Emergencies: Do you know what to do?

by Richard Pak
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This story in the LA Times illustrates several important HF/usability issues.  First, the  importance of knowing what the user knows before introducing new, seemingly “simple” technology, or changing the way they currently do things (in this case, what people know about ignition systems and how they start their cars).  Second, like the story about the alarms, it also clearly illustrates [...]

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Environmental Controls: Spotlight on Volvo

by Anne McLaughlin
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I rode in a colleague’s new Volvo the other day and I love the environmental controls. The button lights up when active, showing where the airflow is going. Notice how the fan speed control is integrated into air direction display so they each add information to the other.
Compare to the older Volvo buttons, which had a similar theme but not [...]

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Distracted Driving: The Experience

by Anne McLaughlin
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We’ve posted quite a bit on driving before, but these new links are too good to be missed.
This first video from the NYT goes over the dangers of multi-tasking while driving (including on-the-street interviews of what American’s might think) and ends with an interview with David Strayer of the University of Utah, including a video of his lab simulator in [...]

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Human Factors in the World’s First “Purpose-Built” Law Enforcement Vehicle

by Richard Pak
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In the near future, you may see one of these cars in your rear-view mirror. They are new purpose-built law enforcement vehicles that will appear in 2012. I found this press release while searching for something else on the web. The cockpit was designed with human factors input from the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI):

[...]

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HF Potpourri

by Richard Pak
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More potpourri from the web:

Jakob Nielsen has a new book on using eye-tracking in web usability. View a 32 page chapter PDF (26 mb) for free (via PhotoshopSupport).
Using autistics for software quality-control work. Would this work for usability? An obsessive attention to detail is good for design/usability (via Slashdot)
The HF/usability company HumanCentric held an internal competition to [...]

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The Toyota Saga Continues…

by Anne McLaughlin
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Update of an earlier post topic. From Consumer Reports:
Analysis shows over 40-percent of sudden acceleration complaints involve Toyotas
Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kaptainkobold/

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Driving and Writing: Audi MMI

by Richard Pak
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The new Audi A8 sedan has a novel text entry input system:  writing.  Instead of using a knob (an indirect velocity control) or touchscreen (direct position control), the system accepts input using a touch sensitive pad (indirect position control) that can recognize letter input:
This seems to be an improvement over current systems that make you use an indirect input device [...]

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Dangers of Automatic Windows

by Anne McLaughlin
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Recently I posted on some potential human factors problems caused by Toyota’s design of their floor mats. For this post, I would like to compliment Toyota on their automatic power windows. The windows can be lowered fully and automatically by one quick press on the button. However, to be raised, the lever on the button must be continuously raised [...]

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Human Factors vs. Bugs – Somebody stop my Toyota!

by Anne McLaughlin
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In one of my courses this year I had students talk about the kinds of human factors problems they had run across when using computers. There were a number of great anecdotes, but one thing that interested me was the difficulty they had discerning the difference between a software bug and a human factors problem. For example, one student complained [...]

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“Replicants are like any other machine – they’re either a benefit or a hazard. If they’re a benefit, it’s not my problem.”

by Richard Pak

Electric cars are utterly silent making them hazardous when they sneak up on you at low speeds.  Nissan is thinking about having their Leaf electric car emit the whine reminiscent of the flying cars in Bladerunner.  It’s one of my favorite movies so I approve!
“We decided that if we’re going to do this, if we have to make sound, then [...]

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HF/Usability Hodgepodge

by Richard Pak

Things too small for their own post but interesting nonetheless…it’s a hodgepodge, a mélange, a potpourri!

Stay in touch with those who don’t have or want a computer (via Gadgeteer)
“upgrading customer usability without breaking the bank” (via UXforward)
If Craigslist got a makeover, what might it look like? (Wired)
Men and women use car navigation systems differently (GPSworld)

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Two HF Driving News Articles

by Anne McLaughlin

1. Although I had trouble finding corroborating sources, it looks as though the government of Samoa is going to switch what side of the road people drive on in a few weeks. You don’t have to be a human factors expert to guess at the trouble this will cause.
2. New study says older drivers are not “such a hazard.”
What I [...]

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Consumer Reports story on Automobile Ergonomics

by Anne McLaughlin

Zoom over to the Consumer Reports car blog for a case study of accessibility by Gabe Shenhar .

Driving with an injury: Features that can ease the pain (excerpted):

…I have come to a new appreciation, surveying our vehicle test fleet, of what everyday life must be like for people with physical challenges or limited mobility.
For me right now, the key is [...]

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Politics and Research: Driver Distraction

by Anne McLaughlin

A hot item in the news is that research on multi-tasking while driving was suppressed back in 2002 because the NTSA was afraid of “antagonizing” Congress. An excerpt from the NYT article:
But such an ambitious study never happened. And the researchers’ agency, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, decided not to make public hundreds of pages of research and warnings [...]

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Human Factors Potpourri (again)

by Richard Pak

Here are some more human factors-related items that have crossed my blog reader:

Twitter is hot!  Oprah recently twittered on her show and apparently fell victim to a usability problem:  the update button was non-obvious so she never posted her tweet (Touch usability)
Fellow HFE blog Real World Usability will be posting updates of the Ergonomics Society Conference via Twitter
A night at [...]

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