The research presented in this paper is taken from 3 projects commissioned by the UK Department for Transport (DfT). The first involved the development of a Human Machine Interface (HMI) Safety Checklist for the assessment of in-vehicle information systems (IVIS), which would later be used as a ready-made tool for the assessment of compliance of IVIS against the EC's Statement of Principles. The second involved the development of detailed human factors (ergonomic) guidelines for IVIS and, most recently, the third involved an assessment of current knowledge about and compliance with the EC's Statement of Principles on HMI within the U.K., using the HMI Safety Checklist mentioned above. This paper reports, in particular on the IVIS Guidelines project. The 'user friendly' guidelines developed emphasize to designers and manufacturers of in-vehicle information systems that safety and driver usability are paramount design issues, and contain (in about 50 pages) a synthesis of current knowledge that summarizes the state-of-the-art in relevant human factors areas. They also provide guidance on where to locate more detailed knowledge.
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