An Exploration of Tactile Warning Design Based on Perceived Urgency

Abstract

When there is information overload on the visual modality, another system of warnings must be adopted to prevent potential risks—tactile warning systems present a viable alternative. Building on work on design approaches for auditory warning systems that match appropriate warnings to the severity of risk, this thesis presents an approach to design tactile warnings based on perceived urgency. To do this, I use a subjective rating technique. I performed three experiments to demonstrate this approach. Our research approach uses subjective rating technique to evaluate perceived urgency. Three experiments were conducted to design tactile warnings with a tactile interface developed by attaching a grid of tactors on a vest. In Experiment 1 and 2, I evaluated perceived urgency of several warning designs with three important parameters of tactile warnings with subjective rating. In Experiment 3 I examined one warning design in the context of flight simulation. The results of Experiment 1 and 2 showed that participants can discriminate between all levels of perceived urgency from most warning parameters. In Experiment 3, the results showed that selected warning design was correctly mapped with the severity of most events. The findings suggest that tactile warnings based on perceived urgency can be a possible approach, but further studies will be required to evaluate different parameters of tactile warnings.