Practitioner Summary: Text-rich in-vehicle interfaces are increasingly common, but the effects of typeface on task performance remain sparsely studied. Subjects completed menu selection tasks while in a driving simulator. Future work will need to assess whether other typeface characteristics can be optimised to further reduce demand, improve legibility, increase usability and help meet new governmental distraction guidelines. Text-rich driver-vehicle interfaces are increasingly common in new vehicles, yet the effects of different typeface characteristics on task performance in this brief off-road based glance context remains sparsely examined. This research suggests that optimised typefaces may mitigate some interface demands. Error rates for both males and females were 3.1% lower for the humanist typeface. The impact of typeface was either more modest or not apparent for women. Total response time and number of glances showed similar reductions. Among men, use of the humanist typeface resulted in a 10.6% reduction in total glance time as compared to the square grotesque typeface. Menu text was set either in a 'humanist' or 'square grotesque' typeface. Impact is a realist sans-serif typeface designed by Geoffrey Lee in 1965 and released by the Stephenson Blake foundry of Sheffield. Text-rich driver-vehicle interfaces are increasingly common in new vehicles, yet the effects of different typeface characteristics on task performance in this brief off-road based glance context remains sparsely examined.

Impact typeface