Automotive Human Centred Design Methods

There is currently a great need for introductory materials to help professionals of all types to understand and deploy Human Centred Design (HCD) methods. This compendium, written in simple everyday language by authors who are experts in automotive ergonomics, UX and HMI, is inclusive and easily accessible.

The 21st century is characterised by ever greater reliance on the innovation paradigm of HCD. In many sectors, the practices of "technology push" and "market pull" have been giving ground to newer ways of innovating which are based more on careful attention to the characteristics and needs of people. Where ethnographic, ergonomic and UX practices were once the remit of only the design teams, the practices and values of HCD are now permeating widely, leading in many cases to business restructuring. The automotive sector, characterised by large and sophisticated organisations, and by more than a century of success, is one sector with extensive requirements for HCD methods.

This introductory book links the philosophy of the Human Centred Design innovation to the basic methods and simple everyday steps which can be taken to better understand customers and to better define briefs and tests. The book will prove a valuable reference to automotive designers who wish to more deeply integrate HCD into their everyday work, and to any professional who wishes to widen her or his skill set and understanding of HCD. The information regarding the selection of HCD methods, and their deployment, will provide a gentle introduction to the world of Human Centred Design.

Voula Gkatzidou is a Human Centred Design Researcher currently working in the Global UX team at AstraZeneca. She has over 15 years’ experience in human centred design, user experience and design research in various fields such as inclusive design, healthcare design and automotive design. She has a PhD in Computer Science from Teesside University in the United Kingdom and has been teaching human centred design widely both at universities and businesses.

Joseph Giacomin is a Professor of Human Centred Design at Brunel University. He teaches Human Factors with emphasis on matters of perception and emotion, and guest lectures widely at universities, governmental organisations and businesses. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Ergonomics & Human Factors (FErgS), a Fellow of the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (FRSA), a member of the Associazione per il Disegno Industriale (ADI) and a member of the Royal Photographic Society (RPS).

Lee Skrypchuk is a Human Machine Interface Technical Specialist based in the research department at Jaguar Land Rover. He received a BEng(Hons) degree in Electronics and Computing from the Nottingham Trent University in 2002, and an MSc in Display Technologies, Systems and Applications from Dundee University in 2003 and a PhD in Engineering from Cambridge University where he studied the impact of Situation Awareness on vehicle interface design. He has worked in the Automotive industry for 17 years on various automotive user interface applications and has seen many of these projects into mass production.