Development of a model of subjective feelings for the front visual quality during automobile driving

Abstract

The main goal of this study is to develop a model of subjective feelings for frontal visibility, often called the feeling of 'openness', for automobile drivers. Moreover, this study proposed a method to overcome the limitations of the rating scale method, although it has been used in a great number of studies. To this end, eight potential design variables of automobiles were extracted from 25 candidate design variables. A questionnaire for evaluating the openness of an automobile was developed based on these variables. By using this questionnaire, a user experiment was conducted to investigate a relationship between the feeling of openness of automobiles and the design variables. Twenty-six participants evaluated the feeling of openness and the perceived rate of the design variables for 30 automobiles. The results showed that the variables such as the height of headlining, the height of cluster housing, the inclination angle of wind shield, and the volume of A-pillar were the critical design variables affecting the feeling of openness of the automobiles. Moreover, the optimal perceived level of each design variable was found out. The results of this study can be applied to designing automobile interior for good frontal visibility.