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alistaira
Duane, you didn't look at the fonts sufficiently carefully before commenting. ...
Microchip
As an aging driver I have noticed over the last decade that it takes ...
Silicon Valley Nation: Probing how we are driven to distraction
Brian Fuller
9/25/2012 9:23 AM EDT
Glance times
Women's glance times were not noticeably different when comparing the two font styles, Reimer added. For women, the figures were equivalent in the first group and showed a 3.3 percent improvement in the second group.
"I would have expected to find, based on [information from] font experts...to find a couple percent difference. I was shocked by the level we found it at," Reimer said in an interview. Male "drivers are keeping their eyes on the road longer with the humanist-style type face. When they look off the road it takes shorter time" with men.
Reimer said the difference in test results between the genders remains unexplained. "It's possible women are…more efficient at moving information" that is displayed, he said "It could also be a neurobiological difference."
Lessons being learned
While not directly relevant to hardware design, there are some lessons here for electronics designers.
"In terms of inside the vehicle, the electronics are going to have more intelligence and a focus is always on the technology," Reimer said. "Let's think about the basics and work with the human-factors folks [as to] what's the use case going to be."
Asked whether he thought there would be much difference if he had studied a heads-up display, where the electronics output is projected onto the inside of the windshield, Reimer said he expected a similar result. A driver's "vision is still restricted to an object projected. You're not actually looking at the road environment and information at same time, but your eyes aren't quite as far away from the road," he concluded.
Related stories:
--New App Eliminates Texting and Driving Distractions via GPS Technology
--Now they have our attention!
Women's glance times were not noticeably different when comparing the two font styles, Reimer added. For women, the figures were equivalent in the first group and showed a 3.3 percent improvement in the second group.
"I would have expected to find, based on [information from] font experts...to find a couple percent difference. I was shocked by the level we found it at," Reimer said in an interview. Male "drivers are keeping their eyes on the road longer with the humanist-style type face. When they look off the road it takes shorter time" with men.
Reimer said the difference in test results between the genders remains unexplained. "It's possible women are…more efficient at moving information" that is displayed, he said "It could also be a neurobiological difference."
Lessons being learned
While not directly relevant to hardware design, there are some lessons here for electronics designers.
"In terms of inside the vehicle, the electronics are going to have more intelligence and a focus is always on the technology," Reimer said. "Let's think about the basics and work with the human-factors folks [as to] what's the use case going to be."
Asked whether he thought there would be much difference if he had studied a heads-up display, where the electronics output is projected onto the inside of the windshield, Reimer said he expected a similar result. A driver's "vision is still restricted to an object projected. You're not actually looking at the road environment and information at same time, but your eyes aren't quite as far away from the road," he concluded.
Related stories:
--New App Eliminates Texting and Driving Distractions via GPS Technology
--Now they have our attention!
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Bert22306
9/25/2012 4:43 PM EDT
This article is confusing. It would have been instructive to get the actual glance times of men and of women, when viewing the two font types. As written, the only thing I can conclude is that the simpler font has a more beneficial impact on men. What I cannot tell is whether women are having to look longer regardless of font.
Here's the issue:
"For women, the figures were equivalent in the first group and showed a 3.3 percent improvement in the second group."
The way I read this, women's glance times are about the same as men's for the Eurostyle font, the bad one, and hardly improve at all with the good font. To me, that sounds like women are spending less time looking at the road, overall. Yet, the article says:
"It's possible women are…more efficient at moving information" that is displayed, he said "It could also be a neurobiological difference."
Which makes me think that something is missing somewhere in the explanation?
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Duane Benson
9/26/2012 2:14 AM EDT
This kind of strikes me as a bit of a "blinding flash of the obvious." Helvetica/Ariel is known to be one of the more readable fonts. Old english and script type fonts are much more difficult to read.
I wouldn't even have to run a study to conclude that people will read faster, get the meaning faster and thus be distracted for less time with an easy to read font vs a difficult to read font.
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alistaira
9/26/2012 10:56 AM EDT
Duane, you didn't look at the fonts sufficiently carefully before commenting. Helvetica is an example of a "grotesque" font, at least if Wikipedia is to be believed. Follow the links in the article, quite revealing.
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Microchip
9/26/2012 4:59 AM EDT
As an aging driver I have noticed over the last decade that it takes significantly longer to “acquire” the data and “see” what is in the scene. This may account for a number of accidents where fast moving vehicles are missed by aging drivers exiting side roads. As eyesight deteriorates the ability to change focus from infinity [as when looking straight ahead] to shorter distances as little as 60 cm [called accommodation] for reading displays and instruments also deteriorate. Correct prescription glasses will help, but the impact of the contrast ratio of font to background and light level are also important.
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