An evaluation on the design of non-ISO vehicle icons

Abstract

Effective in-vehicle icons are used to convey quick and complete understanding of information to drivers for safe driving; however, misunderstood icons may result to worse. Former studies were able to point out the ineffectiveness (in terms of matching accuracy) of non-ISO vehicle icons. This study was conducted to fill in the gap in literature that addresses the need for redesigning ineffective non-ISO icons for improvement in terms of the said performance measure. Subjective rating in terms of familiarity, concreteness, complexity, and semantic distance of the icons was also evaluated to get an explanation on their objective performance. 20 non-ISO icons were screened from a particular vehicle model in the Philippines and were evaluated using a matching accuracy test that was programmed for easy facilitation of the evaluation and were answered by 98 respondents (50% Novice and 50% Expert drivers). Of these, 6 icons performed below the ISO standard of 66.7% matching accuracy. These underperforming icons were redesigned using guidelines and suggestions from related literature. This study was able to produce significant improvements both in the matching accuracy and subjective rating of the underperforming icons. Driving proficiency, familiarity, concreteness, and semantic distance were identified to be significant factors that affect the matching accuracy of the test subjects.