Evaluation of the usability of certain symbols indicating automobile lighting status

Abstract

The research presented in this document addresses the ability of drivers to understand what information has been presented by symbols that are used to indicate certain status of vehicle lights. The concept known as usability can be applied extensively to ergonomic design and testing of a wide range of products and systems, including cars. In order to assess drivers' understanding of what information is exactly presented by symbols that are used to describe the state of the lighting system of an automobile, a usability test was designed. The test included 4 symbols, three of which were ISO-approved symbols. This study of usability of symbols on a sample of drivers showed that understanding of information represented by symbols is relatively low, ranging from 41.93% to 61.29%. Certain statistical tests allow for prognosis results on a population level, using the data based on a sample. For that purpose, we used the Z-test of a sample proportion. Testing of statistical hypotheses yielded even lower values of symbols understanding at the population level, for each tested symbol. Suggestions have been made to improve the usability of this type of symbol.