Design Guidelines (Interaction Principles)

Android Automotive Design Principles.

• Drivers need to quickly understand tasks or system states by glancing at the screen. They should be able to read the content within 2 seconds and return their focus to the road.

• Make sure that system response times after user input – for example, the time between a tap and the resulting ripple animation – do not exceed 0.25 seconds. If content takes more than 2 seconds to load, a spinner or similar interface change should indicate that the device is responding.

• Show relevant driving-task information immediately and accurately under normal driving conditions. Display any malfunction or safety status in real time.

• Safe driving requires that drivers keep their hands on the wheel as much as possible:

Use one-handed gestures

No operation should require removal of both hands from the steering wheel. Gestures (such as waving to interact with the system) should require only one hand and should not require any maneuvers that could negatively impact operation of the vehicle.

• Speech-based communication systems should permit hands-free speaking and listening. Starting, ending, or interrupting a spoken dialog, however, can be done manually.

• Design multistep voice interactions carefully to minimize driver distraction.

• Interaction sequences should be interruptible and resumable at logical points. The driver should control pacing.

• Information needed for driving and safe vehicle control (such as navigation directions) should be prioritized over information unrelated to driving (such as media titles).

• Information unrelated to driving (such as ads, social media content, web page content, books, periodicals, email, and subscription alerts) should be carefully considered to minimize driver distraction.

• The interface should give priority to audio information that is critical to driving. For example, when navigation directions are being relayed, media volume should be lowered or ducked. In addition, users should always be able to fully adjust the volume down to a muted level.

• Avoid pulling the driver’s attention away from the road for non-essential reasons:

Avoid hazardous or distracting activities

The system should not allow unnecessary and potentially hazardous activities, such as playing most games, manually surfing the internet, or participating in fitness activities involving unsafe hand or foot maneuvers while driving.

• Avoid displaying dynamic visual information unrelated to driving, such as videos and auto-scrolling text. Carefully consider the use of animations to ensure they aid the driver’s situational understanding.