WorldDAB’s Automotive UX Group – one year on

Almost a year ago to the day, we set up the Automotive User Experience (UX) Group to focus on improving the user experience for in-car DAB radio and understanding the impact of future technology trends. The group has a diverse range of members, from automotive OEMs and tier one manufacturers to those across the radio industry.
Setting up this group, bringing together broadcasters and car manufacturers to collaborate on creating the best in-car digital radio experience possible, has instigated lively discussion and debate on what constitutes a great in-car digital radio experience. This is the first time this kind of collaboration has happened and people clearly care deeply about the subject, being willing to listen, learn and work together on understanding what the digital radio UX is today and how to improve it in the future.
The group felt that setting key areas of focus would ensure clear goals and outcomes. These included:

• Overall simplicity and intuitive nature of user interfaces
• Station search option – by multiplex or A-Z
• Icons, logos and terminology and how easy these are to understand
• Radios prominence in the dash board
  • “Radio” or “Media” buttons and how easy it is to find digital radio
• Hybrid radio and connected cars

We quickly realised that, although everyone had strong opinions about what constitutes the best user experience, there isn’t always clear evidence available to support them. That’s why we set out to design and carry out consumer research to better understand the digital radio experience in cars today and how it could be improved.
Research has already been carried out in the UK and Netherlands with interesting results and our intention is to cover six European markets in total.
Car manufacturer group members have told us the initial findings have already been used to input on internal design discussions, showing how this work will make a difference.
The results of the research are vital to inform the next step for the group – development of a set of digital radio UX guidelines for both broadcasters and OEMs. The guidelines will help and give clarity to both sides of the industry, ensuring the driver has the best experience with digital radio. Work on the guidelines will start in the next two months and be finalised later in the year.
At this year’s WorldDAB Automotive Event in Munich I’ll be presenting the findings from our research so far and outlining the next steps for the group. I believe this is one of the most important pieces of work being undertaken within WorldDAB and we would like to encourage as many stakeholders as possible to join the group and help shape the in-car digital radio experience for listeners. To find out more and to register visit https://www.worlddab.org/events/detail/473
F.WDAB