User Experience of In-Vehicle Gesture Interaction: Exploring the Effect of Autonomy and Competence in a Mock-Up Experiment

To interact with the increasing number of infotainment systems today, touchless gestures are gaining popularity. But only if the interaction is adapted to human needs, the proposed benefits will come into effect. A three-way (2 x 2 x 2) mixed design was adopted examining basic psychological needs and their association with motivation, UX, and the acceptance of gestures. Thereby, the influence of freedom in the gesture execution, visual cues, and motivation framing was investigated. In this study, 27 participants experienced gesture interaction with infotainment content in an experiment with a realistic car mock-up. Results suggest that participants perceived higher autonomy interacting with free gestures and higher competence for the supportive visualization with visual cues. Autonomy, competence, and system relatedness affected the motivation, UX, and acceptance. The present study provides novel insights into the acceptance of in-vehicle gesture interaction and implications for future design of automotive user interfaces.