The impact of secondary in-vehicle display animations and their location on driver attention and glance behavior
DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1005249
archive: archived pipeline: cataloged verified
Get this paper ↗ (DOI — opens at the source; we link to it, we don't host it)
Summary
This study investigates the distraction potential of non-driving-related animations on in-vehicle displays, addressing a gap in research regarding how visual design elements can be implemented without compromising driver safety. While previous guidelines focus on displaying driving-relevant information, manufacturers increasingly use animations for aesthetic appeal. Guided by the SEEV (Salience, Expectations, Effort, Value) model, the researchers hypothesized that animation salience, display location, and task relevance would significantly impact driver attention. The experiment utilized a moving-base driving simulator with 53 participants performing a car-following task and a visual Detection Response Task (vDRT), where drivers reacted to red dots appearing in the road scenery. Sixteen distinct animations, varying in fade-in time, brightness, color, and movement type, were presented in either the cluster display (instrument cluster) or the Central Infotainment Display (CID). The study comprised multiple test drives, including a condition where driving-relevant information texts were introduced to the CID to increase its perceived value and expectancy. Results indicated that animations generally impaired vDRT performance, causing drivers to miss road stimuli. However, specific design features mitigated this effect; slow fade-in animations, reduced brightness, and smaller object sizes did not significantly impair performance compared to baseline. A significant location effect was observed: animations in the cluster display caused greater distraction than those in the more distant CID, supporting the hypothesis that lower-effort locations capture attention more readily. Crucially, this location effect disappeared when driving-relevant texts were displayed in the CID, demonstrating that increasing the value and expectancy of a distant display moderated the distraction caused by unrelated animations there. Subjective ratings aligned with objective data, identifying instant appearances and rotations as highly distracting, while gradual fades were rated as least distracting. The findings provide empirical design recommendations for automotive interface developers. To minimize distraction, animations should employ low-salience features such as slow fade-ins and reduced brightness. Furthermore, placing non-essential animations in distant displays like the CID, rather than the cluster, reduces attentional capture. The study also highlights that the distraction risk of a display location is not fixed but can be moderated by the presence of task-relevant information, suggesting that clear differentiation between entertainment and critical information zones is essential for safe in-vehicle display design.
Provenance
The full processing record for this entry. Every stage of this paper's journey through the pipeline is logged — what ran, with which tool and model, how many attempts it took, and when it last completed.
| Stage | Outcome | Tool | Model | Prompt | Attempts | Completed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| discover | success | Crossref | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-25 |
| archive | success | canonical_url | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-26 |
| extract | success | cached | — | — | 2 | 2026-06-26 |
| clean | success | clean | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-25 |
| chunk | success | chunk | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-25 |
| embed | success | embed | Qwen/Qwen3-Embedding-8B | — | 1 | 2026-06-25 |
| promote | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-25 |
| summarize | success | llm | qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant | summ-v5 | 1 | 2026-06-26 |
| tag | success | vector_similarity | — | — | 6 | 2026-06-25 |
| verify | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-26 |
Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-26; verification: verified.
Topics
Ranked by relevance to this paper. Hover a topic for its definition.
Information type
What kind of knowledge this paper contributes, grouped by family — independent of topic (what it is about) and method (how it was studied).
- Applied Guidance: design guidelines
- Empirical Findings: behavioral performance data
- Methodological Resource: tool software