Usability and acceptance of truck dashboards designed by drivers: Two participatory design approaches compared to a user-centered design

Previous literature reported that Participatory Design (PD) results in satisfying products and presents other subjective benefits. PD implies an active involvement of users during all steps of the design process, including during concepts specification (contrary to user-centered design, UCD). This study compared the usability and acceptance of truck dashboards resulting either from a PD or from a UCD design processes. Moreover, design concepts from two PD approaches were compared: a collective versus an individual design session. Results showed that concepts resulting from user-centered design and individual design sessions were perceived as more useable and accepted than the concept resulting from the participatory workshop. These findings question PD benefits and encourage to further explore the different PD approaches in the industrial development of truck dashboards.

Automated summary

The study compared the usability and acceptance of truck dashboards resulting from different design processes, finding that concepts from user-centered design and individual design sessions were more usable and accepted. These results question the benefits of PD and suggest further exploration of different PD approaches in industrial development.