• Login
• Admin

Mohd Hasni, Yasmin (2012) An exploration of cultural needs for in-vehicle navigation systems (IVNS). PhD thesis, University of Nottingham.

Preview

PDF - Requires a PDF viewer such as GSview, Xpdf or Adobe Acrobat Reader Download (7MB) | Preview

Abstract

This thesis explores potential cultural needs appropriate to the design of in-vehicle navigation systems (IVNS). Such research is important given the increasing popularity of IVNS worldwide and the potential impact of their designs on increasing driver's satisfaction which leads towards safe driving environment. A review of the literature showed paucity in considering drivers' cultural values for navigational interfaces. The overall aim of the thesis was to explore characteristics of potentials driver's cultural needs for IVNS

Four empirical studies are described in the thesis to address cultural issues in drivers' behaviour when engaging with IVNS. The exploration took a bottom-up approach, applying different methods and study designs in an effort to cater for potential cultural needs. A non-structured direction giving study, an online survey, a structured direction giving study and a scenario-based design study were used to explore for potential driver's cultural needs. The non-structured direction giving study and the online survey were baseline research aiming to explore driver's navigation behaviour and perception in basic conditions (between drivers and road environment). The non-structured direction giving study utilised participants from four nations, representing different cultural backgrounds; United Kingdom (UK), Malaysia, China and Japan in UK environment. The online survey collected opinions from UK, Malaysia and Japan local drivers. The different cultural groups showed some suggestions of driver's cultural needs. The structured direction giving study and the scenario-based design study utilised participants from UK and Malaysia to investigate the reliability and characteristics of driver's cultural needs for use in navigational interface.

The four studies showed reliable navigational elements emerging from culturally different environments. Based on the categorisation scheme developed by UK drivers in UK environment, a cultural framework was proposed. The framework makes a distinction of navigational elements into three attributes; basic, trueness and personal. Ego directions and landmarks were consistently used in constructing navigational instructions, suggesting their importance as a basic requirement in designing IVNS interfaces. In relation to trueness of road environment in structuring navigational instructions, junction types and road geometries were commonly used in foreign environments. Differences were observed in navigational instructions across culturally-different drivers for their nation-state environments, suggesting the need to cater for personal preferences in designing IVNS interfaces. Another finding to emerge from the four studies was the need to address how to display satisfactory information density on the interface according to cultural groups. For future work, the proposed cultural framework could be used in developing culture-specific prototypes of IVNS.

Item Type:	Thesis (University of Nottingham only) (PhD)
Supervisors:	Burnett, G.E.
Keywords:	culture design issues
Subjects:	T Technology > TL Motor vehicles. Aeronautics. Astronautics
Faculties/Schools:	UK Campuses > Faculty of Engineering > Department of Mechanical, Materials and Manufacturing Engineering
Item ID:	13583
Depositing User:	EP, Services
Date Deposited:	13 Jan 2014 08:18
Last Modified:	16 Dec 2017 17:48
URI:	https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/id/eprint/13583

Actions (Archive Staff Only)

Edit View