User experience evaluation in an automotive context

Tough competition in the automobile market makes it very important to exceed customer expectations with in-vehicle devices or applications in order to stand out in an already saturated market. Research on human-machine interaction (HMI) showed that user satisfaction is not only influenced by usability factors but also by user experience (UX). Since UX in the automotive context has not yet been comprehensively investigated, this article presents a feasible research method for the measurement of UX. We rely on the fulfillment of psychological needs as a user experience measurement and conducted three online surveys to develop a questionnaire for that purpose. We analyze nine need scales, each with 10 items, and reduced the item count afterwards for a shorter form of the questionnaire. Results reveal that the method successfully measured the intended needs. Future work with respect to a further extension and improvement of the method is discussed.