Satellite navigation has become commonplace in modern vehicles, but with all such devices there is a conflict between providing the user with as much driving information as possible while avoiding distraction from the road. Most modern Sat-Navs display rich 3D route maps and a plethora of different route stats which look great in store but typically do not carefully consider a driver’s cognitive load and attentional state while on the road.

Straightaway is a simpler approach to satellite navigation, it focuses on the task in hand so only provides the driver with the information necessary to successfully navigate the programmed route. The map display is shown as a simplified 2D schematic which excludes unnecessary information about the surrounding area, exact road layouts and distances, but provides critical information about junctions and major road features allowing the driver to retain a mental model of the route. Schematic mapping has been shown to significantly decrease the total fixation time on a sat-nav screen and the number of glances required during use, putting focus back on the road (Lee et al., 2008).

People are generally bad at visualising distances and when describing a route, people almost always use landmarks as reference points instead of quoting distances, so Straightaway does the same. Where possible voice commands are given in the style “turn left at the church” or “take the third left” instead of “turn left in eight hundred yards” which has been shown to greatly improve the user’s ability to correctly follow commands (Ross et al., 2004).

Straightaway knows when it is stationary and when it’s on the move so automatically tailors the menu system to the current context. When stationary, the menu offers full access to all features of the device but when moving, or during a momentary halt, a simplified single screen menu featuring large buttons and only the most common functions is presented in order to keep interaction with the device while driving to a minimum. Passengers can unlock the full menu when moving by using an on-screen gesture.

To aid interaction while driving, voice recognition is used to allow hands free input of addresses or other text.