The Front Seat Passenger: How to Transfer Qualitative Findings into Design

While the field of automotive HCI research abounds in driver-focused design and studies of driver distraction, relatively little attention has been directed to the front seat passengers. A challenge for designers and researchers is the ideation through exploration of passenger experiences and needs and the question of how to integrate them in design solutions. In this paper, we ground an ideation exercise based on results of a probing study conducted at two petrol stations. A probing package for front seat passengers was designed and distributed in cooperation with a petrol station company. Approximately 700 customers were approached randomly and 90 probe packages were handed out. 30 probing packages were returned and a segment clustering and a qualitative analysis were performed. The results gave insights into the activities and needs of front seat passengers and were then used in a design workshop together with a group of industrial designers. A set of ideas for novel interface solutions for front seat passengers were developed such as the invisible engine (look through the motor block with a display-based camera system). We further discuss the challenges and shortcomings of how to interpret and express ideas when transferring qualitative research findings into design.