Exploring visual response on form features of the autorickshaw

Abstract

Styling plays an important role in automotive appearances to attract visual attention. Features such as the headlights and windscreen become the prime carriers of style that can evoke visual interest. These features involve major to fine refinements in form as well as their compositional arrangements while designing. The feature that evokes high visual interest in isolation, or whether the combinations of features sustain visual interest for a long time, can be valuable knowledge for the designer and stakeholder teams to make visual decisions on form especially during early stages of designing. Present study deals with feature level observations of Autorickshaw concepts as Areas of Interest (AOI) to assess attention distribution towards the form features during concept development stage. The data is obtained as visual response of Product Designers (PD), Automobile Designers (AD), Autorickshaw Drivers (DR), and Passengers (PS) through eye tracking. The investigation analyzes how visual attention can be driven by features in isolation or in combination within larger units for four concept representations of the Autorickshaw. The effect of variations in visual-formal characteristics of the designed form is analyzed conjointly with by assessing the dwell time (DT) on each feature through a demarcation of specific AOIs, as well as a gridded analysis of the spatial distribution of visual attention on specific features. The findings indicate that the concept with curved features that are arranged in proximity, evoke high visual interest; instead of a concept, that supports sharp angular non-proximal features, implying that proximity and curved features can have strong combining effect to evoke and sustain visual interest in Autorickshaw styling. Overall, it was observed that the spatial distribution of attention converges, getting focused on the Cowl and the Headlights during style scrutiny. Increase in proximity of features results in an increased dwell time, thereby causing an active visual scrutiny that sustains visual interest. A combination of strategically placed proximal features, accentuates visual interest and the perception of style in observers. When available at the early stages of designing such inferential visual response feedback as objective knowledge can help the designers to anticipate sustained visual interest in a designed object, and help predict product acceptance, thereby curtailing potential market risks.