A Study on Integrated Design Process of Software and Hardware Interfaces for Automotive Human-Machine Interaction

The design of automotive human-machine interface has become an important topic in the field of automotive design. It is closely related to the styling design of automotive interiors, construction of information models, and process for user operation and interaction. It is also an important source of the user’s sense of driving, safety, and experience. The purpose of this paper is to establish an integrated design process for automotive human-machine interface that integrates hardware interface (styling design) with software interface (interaction design) in order to improve design efficiency and optimize design effects. The structure of the research is as follows: Firstly, logical cues for the integrated design process for automotive human-machine interface that integrate software and hardware were proposed through the analysis of research on and the development process of “software and hardware” products; secondly, the temporal structure of the integrated design process for automotive human-machine interface that integrates software with hardware was presented through the analysis of the design process of automotive styling and interaction; thirdly, the objects and tasks of the integrated design for automotive human-machine interface were provided through the analysis of the objects of automotive styling design and interaction design; fourthly, the integrated design process for automotive human-machine interface was constructed based on the logical cues, temporal structure, and objects of the design process, and the application practice of the design process was implemented with reference to design project cases from the self-developed “Human-Machine Interface for Electrical Vehicles” for mass production. The final sections discuss the contributions of this research and present the conclusions and future research directions.