Lee’s work is instrumental to our understanding of what people really need and what would genuinely delight them in a future vehicle, accommodating the full range of peoples’ aspirations, behaviours and capabilities.

Professor John Clarkson, Director of the Engineering Design Centre

Lee’s Fellowship is designed to address the challenges currently facing the automotive industry, such as automation, electrification, and digitalisation, as well as Jaguar Land Rover’s aspiration for Modern Luxury by Design. To address these challenges, Lee and the team are taking a human-centred approach to understanding not only the characteristics of the human, but also the goals they may have in the vehicle, in order to understand and enhance behavioural aspects of the future vehicle offering. 

Speaking about the Fellowship, Lee says: “So much engineering these days is done from a top-down approach and for good reason, but this doesn’t always consider characteristics of the human from all the relevant angles. This Fellowship is unique in that it is skills focussed. I passionately believe that by introducing specific skills in the area of human-centred science we can create systems that will positively influence user experience, customer behaviour and increase the adoption of new technologies. 

Twelve months on from the start of the fellowship we have been able to look at how the company integrates an understanding of the human into vehicle systems development. One example is the user interface of the vehicle, by understanding at a fundamental level how users behave with our in-vehicle systems it allows us to make appropriate changes to reduce the complexity of information contained within the vehicle and subsequently reduce the cognitive workload of the user.”

It is anticipated that by refocussing on the basic principles of human-focussed behaviour and interaction and understanding from the ground-up how the vehicle should be designed, Jaguar Land Rover can make more informed decisions about what is best for our customers. 

Lee added: “So far, we have looked at the impact of digital controls, augmented reality head up displays, as well as getting into topics such as ride and handling, and the impact of subjective evaluation with a view to trying to digitally model the human to help with early-stage simulation and validation exercises. The pandemic has made us have to think differently about how we develop the systems we produce, and this research has been able to establish internal methodologies to help.”

“The Fellowship is operating on two levels. At a company level I am working hard on developing our internal processes and methods to result in the best data driven outcomes, while at an academic level I am investigating new ways in which we can make interfacing to the human better all-round in an automotive context.”

Professor John Clarkson has an interesting perspective on the challenge: “My first car was simple, easy to drive and unreliable. My current car is rather more reliable, still easy to drive, but complex. This complexity contributes directly to its improved reliability, efficiency and safety, but also makes a number of the non-driving activities more challenging – do I really need three different ways to access the entertainment system with each of them using a different interaction model? Lee’s work is instrumental to our understanding of what people really need and what would genuinely delight them in a future vehicle, accommodating the full range of peoples’ aspirations, behaviours and capabilities.”

Lee is working with a number of leading universities in vehicle design and is embedded in the Research department at Jaguar Land Rover. 

Lee would love to hear from you if you have any questions about the project and would welcome discussions around future potential PhD opportunities, contact Lee at LSKRYPCH@jaguarlandrover.com or LS578@cam.ac.uk