In this paper we present a design space for interactive windshield displays in vehicles and discuss how this design space can support designers in creating windshield applications for drivers, passengers, and pedestrians. Our work is motivated by numerous examples in other HCI-related areas where seminal design space papers served as a valuable basis to evolve the respective field -most notably mobile devices, automotive user interfaces, and interactive public displays. The presented design space is based on a comprehensive literature review. Furthermore we present a classification of 211 windshield applications, derived from a survey of research projects and commercial products as well as from focus groups. We showcase the utility of our work for designers of windshield applications through two scenarios. Overall, our design space can help building applications for diverse use cases. This includes apps inside and outside the car as well as applications for specific domains such as fire fighters, police, ambulance.
Drivers attend to a lot of information at various locations inside and outside the car as well as on external devices (e.g. smart phones). Head-Up Displays (HUDs) support keeping drivers' visual focus directed towards the street; as they present virtual information in the windshield area on top of the physical world within the field of view of the driver. Displayed information, however, is often spatially dissociated with its cause in the physical world: for example a warning is displayed, yet drivers still require time searching for the hazard causing it. Windshield displays (WSDs) allow virtual warnings being displayed at the position of the hazard. We compared HUD and WSD with the baseline no-display and found that drivers demonstrate a calm gaze behavior with WSDs; they keep their visual attention in average 1.5 s longer focused on the leading car. However, we also found no significant faster reaction time compared to HUDs. We discuss our findings comparing HUDs to WSDs, present potential limitations of our study and point out future steps in order to further investigate the advantages of WSDs.
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