Applying Ecological Interface Design to the Driving Domain: The Results of an Abstraction Hierarchy Analysis

Ecological interface design (EID) has been successfully applied in the domains of aviation, process control, and medicine. Until now, it has not been applied to the driving domain. This paper describes the results of applying the first step of EID, the abstraction hierarchy (AH) analysis, to the driving domain and then highlights key methodological differences. Key differences include heterogeneity at the level of functional purpose level, as well as the emergent domain constraints in which the other drivers define key work domain constraints. It is hoped that the information requirements identified here will help drivers form better mental models of driver support system (DSS) functions and assist in appropriate calibration of trust in these systems. This analysis demonstrates the generality of the AH analysis and provides an example that is substantially different from previous applications.