Assessing Gender Perception Differences in Color Combinations in Digital Visual Interfaces Using Eye tracking – The Case of HUD

AbstractTo examine the cognitive gender differences of color combinations in the visual system in the digital visualization interface, we simulate six common driving scenarios with a head-up display (HUD) and process adaptive and multicolor coding forms, and then analyze the cognitive patterns and visual characteristics of HUD color combinations by men and women through eye-tracking experiments based on quantitative color extraction. The achieved results reveal that there exist gender cognitive differences in users' search performance and cognitive efficiency of HUD color combination vision. Additionally, through cognitive experiments and data analysis, we extract three cognitive evaluation latitudes of interface color combinations, namely discriminability, perceptibility, and cognitive performance, and develop a cognitive evaluation model of interface color combinations. This investigation aims to provide useful guidelines for digital visual interface designers to better meet the requirements of users of various genders, enhancing the safety and efficiency of color combination design.Keywords: Head-up displaycolor combinationsgender differenceseye-tracking technologymale and female perception AcknowledgementsWe are grateful to Shandong University for the support of the experimental site and equipment.Authors' contributionsYL was involved in experimental design, software development and draft writing. FS was involved in the conception experiment and reviewed the original draft. YL contributed to project administration and original draft review. YW was involved in the draft writing and data sorting. YL contributed to the draft writing and experimental design. YW contributed to the draft writing and experimental design.Code availabilityThis information is available upon request.Ethics statementThis study was approved by the Human Ethics Committee of Shandong University and conducted in the Industrial Design Science Laboratory, School of Mechanical Engineering, Shandong University. The experiments were performed according to the Declaration of Helsinki. All participants voluntarily participated in this study and gave informed consent before starting the experiment.Consent formThis information is available upon request.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Data availability statementThis information is available upon request.Additional informationNotes on contributorsYaying LiYaying Li is currently pursuing the PhD degree with the School of Mechanical Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong, China. Her research interests include human–computer interaction, design cognition, female interface perception.Yong WangYong Wang is currently studying for his doctorate at The School of Mechanical Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan, Shandong Province, China. His research areas are design aesthetics, industrial design and color matching design.Fanghao SongFanghao Song is currently a Professor and a PhD Supervisor with the School of Mechanical Engineering, Shandong University. His main research interests include design cognition, design anthropology, and design aesthetics.Yan LiuYan Liu is currently a Professor and a PhD Supervisor with the School of Mechanical Engineering, Shandong University. Her main research interests include design cognition, design aesthetics, design anthropology, and design aesthetics.