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Version 1 Current »

Date conducted: 05/25/2019

Research goals

  1. To improve the driving/riding experience in MSXIV, specifically related to dashboard interactions, by:
    1. Using MSXII as a model
    2. Understanding driver needs/pain points
    3. Becoming familiar with different situations that drivers may be involved in (short vs. long distance, reverse, etc.)
    4. Analyzing the UI of the MSXII center console


(Loose) Script

  1. What are different driving situations you went through?
    1. Run through each of them.
  2. Where/How/What do you expect _______?
  3. Experience like with the center console?
    1. When would you use?
    2. What would you use it for?
    3. Frustrations? (visibility, ui, reachability?)


Interviews

DRIVER 1 (Adrian)

Process of driving on a track

  1. Cars don’t always start on the track, separate pit lane for people to work on cars
  2. Let pit crew first, they go thru tests (horn, rearview camera), block off lane, and then whistle to go 
    1. Before Drive, parking brake is usually on to not roll around
  3. Get in car, bring weights
    1. Seat belt - frustration; immobile
  4. Pit lane on ramp ready to enter track, check blindspot (hard to check)
  5. Motor noise interferes with bluetooth signal for center screen
  6. To pass a car, usually go to left: go behind, left signal, auto horn
  7. Helmet makes it harder to see
  8. When being passed by another car, look at camera monitor
    1. Difficult to gauge how far away passing car was


Center Screen

    1. Some telemetry on the screen
    2. Problems: Screen too small, infographics weren’t really useful, center screen not angled well which caused glare; hard to read
    3. Chase car has telemetry info; would be nice to still have telemetry access in car in case connection gets lost
    4. Maybe emergency mode to make text really big
    5. Passenger can help read off screen
    6. Most important things on screen: 
      1. Speed
      2. Battery voltage and current draw
      3. Array (V and I)
        1. Can figure out efficiency, if array is over-charging from voltage too high (car shuts down automatically), can use to troubleshoot


  • **if car shuts down will you still be able to see the screen/lights?
  • Backup battery



Steering stalk controls

  1. Headlights (never used)
  2. Maybe adding custom buttons to steering wheel, smaller buttons, protruding out (easier to press), labelled
  3. Hazard also on steering stalk
  4. Cruise control would have been nice (steering stalk, to turn car on and off)
  5. Dashboard (**center console?) buttons had trouble with interference **what interference?
    1. Signal noise (electrical, the way the buttons were wired (elec noise bc of motors)
    2. Better quality hardware :3
  6. Could turn the car off with stalk, sometimes accidentally turned it off
  7. Stalks kind of confusing because they don’t match with actual features
  8. Hard to tell if the E-stop button is on or not 
    1. Press to turn on, twist to release
    2. E-stop good for hard resets
  9. Way to dim screen
  10. Two ways to navigate center console? Touch + knob?
  11. With msxiv, driver might be closer to center console


Other interior

  1. LOUD
  2. Used to be a killswitch for battery that runs control boards to prevent needing to go to the back to do things
  3. Looking through steering wheel to drive 
    1. Flipped steering wheel upside down to look through
  4. Height of steering wheel too high
  5. Added seat cushions to deal with not being able to move far enough front, maybe adding a block on pedal for shorter drivers
  6. Snacks and water put in side of seats
  7. Ventilation in front of car (but didn’t really work well)
  8. Light is helpful on top? **
  9. Separating circuits ?reduce noise **Separating circuits from steering wheel to console, console to battery?
  10. Camelbak storage?
  11. Turn cameras on/off
  12. Fault detector for easier troubleshooting
  13. Like having screen in the middle (but should probably do mockups to check)
  14. Buttons on bottom, not top of center console (easier to press)


General

  1. Radio - radio mounted to earbud, ppt to glove, better would be a button on steering wheel, wire was too short


DRIVER 2 (Micah)

General

  • Super hot :O everything was hot :O everything was black :O
  • Comms
    • Have to take hand off steering wheel to use headsets
    • Wires got tangled, disconnected
  • Rearview was a backup camera, so could only see things directly behind you


Center console

  • Battery pack voltage and current were important, signalling left/right
  • When speed wasn’t working (and since there was no cruise control), used meter that shows driving consistency from a current draw perspective. but there were no units
  • Telemetry wasn’t working properly
  • Times were not always accurate
  • Didn’t know why car turned off sometimes (low voltage vs. emi**??)
  • Bootup for driver display took long; 30 sec - 1 min
  • Bugs related to drive state
    • Knowing drive state is important (light up?)
  • Having SOC estimate would be nice
  • Would have been cool to have how long you have been driving for (for that day)


Driving

  • Accidentally kept the turn signal on by accident because there was no noise (didn’t go back automatically)
    • Maybe a screen next to steering wheel is a better indicator if turn signal is on
  • Car doesn’t go into drive unless you press on brakes
    • Would be nice to get a message that you aren’t pressing on brakes when you want to go into drive (more feedback from car in general)
  • Hazard light turned on by steering stalk which was annoying because didn’t know how to turn them on**?
  • Cruiser control stalk used to turn car on/off/drive states


DRIVER 3 (Robin)


Center screen

  • Screen placement, how far you had to look, hard to see information
  • Glare
  • Whole bunch of info (graphs) in between the numbers you wanted and the numbers you wanted
    • Ideally someone in the lead/chase car would have this information and tell driver what to do; unless telemetry is down, wouldn’t need that information
  • The physical screen was too low
  • Most important: Speed and (battery) voltage; shouldn’t be voltage this time; should be SOC, Cruise control on/off


Other

  • All buttons were broken :0
  • Mechanical parts failed
  • Radio awful! Kept dropping radio, take hands off wheel, re-adjust earpiece, couldn’t hear sometimes, lose communication


Steering stalk

  • Cruise control, most important for steering wheel
  • Steering stalk was super confusing, random patterns to do, mapped oddly



Top research findings/insight

  1. Drivers need more feedback from the car
    1. Reminder to activate parking brake before Drive state
    2. Turn off turn signal after turning
    3. Why the car shut down (array voltage and current draw, low voltage, emi**)
      1. Extra battery source?
  2. Most important information for drivers
    1. Speed
    2. Battery pack voltage (SOC)
    3. Turn signal
    4. Drive state
  3. Improve communication method (radio/PTT)
  4. Other usability problems:
    1. Heat
    2. Telemetry connection issues
    3. Visibility (cameras)
    4. Mechanical stuff (buttons not working)


Design considerations based on research findings

  1. Drivers need more feedback from the car
    1. Test different kinds of feedback: visual, sound, tactile
    2. Where will components live? (steering stalk vs. center console)
    3. How can drivers be informed in case of telemetry problems?
  2. Most important information for drivers
    1. Improve visibility of these primary metrics
  3. Improve communication method (radio)
    1. More stable/less interference
  4. Other usability problems:
    1. Heat: How to improve especially for backseat passengers


Next steps

  1. Build lo-fi physical prototype and complete round one of usability testing
  2. Find out what the MSXII screen looked like and how it was built/coded
    1. https://uwmidsun.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/ELEC/pages/36306116/Driver+Display
  3. Understand all possible reasons for the car to shut down to design feedback options




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