Project Overview
During the spring of 2025 I was part of a University project in collaboration with the R&D department at Scania. Our assignment was to explore ways to visualize birds-eye-view sensor information to the driver in ways that would foster safe driving and peace-of-mind. My team had "switching lane on the highway" as our scenario.
The task required us to investigate the mental model of the drivers in the given scenario, and consider how to convey the most crucial information in a way that would not exceed the drivers cognitive capacity.
The task required us to investigate the mental model of the drivers in the given scenario, and consider how to convey the most crucial information in a way that would not exceed the drivers cognitive capacity.
Our team consisted of both Design- and Cognitive Science students.
The process
Through qualitative interviews with truck drivers we gained a better understanding of things relating to the driving experience such as dead spots, speed management, important surrounding vehicle cues and internal HMI habits.
We created a 2D animated prototype that we used to conduct Wizard of Oz style user testing in order to evaluate our concept. Aspects we wanted to evaluate in our concept was the use of color, representations, angles and overall intuitive response.
We created a 2D animated prototype that we used to conduct Wizard of Oz style user testing in order to evaluate our concept. Aspects we wanted to evaluate in our concept was the use of color, representations, angles and overall intuitive response.
The core of our concept was to communicate potential danger to the driver with different colored lanes, based on approaching vehicles speed projection. Based on the insight from user interviews that what's behind you is far more difficult, but crucial, to register in the given scenario, we decided to visualize the road straight above to maximize "backward vision" without projecting the view backward which could make the mental model ambiguous.
The project team:
Me │ Andrea Svensson Cojocaru │Mengjia Ren │ Linda Söderqvist │ Moriab Youssef │ Patricija Greiciute