A Comprehensive Learnability Evaluation Method for In-Car Navigation Devices

Although usability is a broad subject, the literature relating to in-car navigation devices tends to focus primarily on efficiency of use. In this paper, we explore the neglected issue of learnability, that is the ease with which users learn to use, as well as some justification of its importance as a distinct issue.

We present an evaluation method designed to identify learnability related problems with in-car navigation devices, along with a complete set of basic tasks with which to apply it to. Our method is applied to a device, identifying various learnability problems. Recommendations for builders of in-car systems are made based on these observations.