Every driver needs to visually find an automotive dashboard, understand it and return attention to the road. That demand has given car designers a problem familiar to anyone building a digital product: deciding what deserves space on a screen, how to present it and when to ask someone to interact.
What a Dashboard Asks of the Driver
Using an in-car screen involves more than looking at it. Finding a control, making a selection and checking the response can occupy the driver’s eyes, hands and thoughts.
US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration guidance sets benchmarks for assessing those visual demands: individual eyes-off-road glances of two seconds and cumulative eyes-off-road time of 12 seconds for a task. These are voluntary design and testing guidelines.
Transport Canada’s voluntary guidance also recommends brief glances, confirmation that an input has registered, and tasks that are easy to interrupt and resume. A driver can then leave an unfinished interaction when traffic demands attention.
The order of information matters just as much. Directions needed for driving take priority over secondary content, such as the title of a song.
From the Instrument Panel to the Software Dashboard
Similar questions about visibility arise in other services. An online casino serving consumers in Great Britain under a Gambling Commission licence, for example, must display elapsed session time and financial position during casino gaming sessions.
The connection between cars and software dashboards is more direct. In March 2005, information-design specialist Stephen Few described the car dashboard as a model for software that gathers essential information in one place for quick monitoring.
His argument centred on communication. Software could adopt the instrument panel’s purpose, then choose charts and figures suited to the data.
Microsoft’s current Power BI guidance follows that approach: keep the overview on one screen, make important figures prominent and provide access to detailed reports. Consistent scales and timeframes help readers compare what they see. Someone checking the overview can decide which figure needs a closer look.
Making a Short Interaction Useful
Inside the car, small details determine how easily someone can follow an interaction. Google’s Design for Driving guidance recommends that drivers should be able to read screen content within two seconds. Feedback should appear within a quarter of a second after an input; loading that lasts more than two seconds should have a visible indicator.
These responses tell the driver whether the system has registered an action and is still working. Google also recommends lowering media volume during spoken navigation directions. Giving information priority involves sound as well as screen space.
Voice controls need careful handling too. Hands-free conversations still require mental effort, so Google advises designers to simplify multistep exchanges.
On a smaller screen, Apple’s watchOS guidance addresses a related problem. It favours concise, single-screen interactions, simple gestures and navigation with few levels. Watch-face complications, the small displays of information on the face, put useful updates within immediate reach.
For both devices, selecting what to show comes before arranging it. A short interaction works when the information and controls match the task someone wants to complete.
When Clear Information Becomes a Requirement
In regulated services, the presentation of information has a consumer-protection role. Gambling Commission standard RTS 2E requires casino gaming sessions to display the customer’s net position since the session began. This shows how the customer’s balance has changed during that session, in the account or product currency.
The Commission’s time requirements specify that elapsed time should remain displayed throughout the session, in seconds, minutes and hours. These requirements applied to online slots from 31 October 2021 and extended to other remote casino games, excluding peer-to-peer poker, on 17 January 2025.
Keeping these figures viewable lets customers check their position without opening account records.
Gambling carries financial risks and is restricted to adults. Anyone in Great Britain concerned about their gambling can contact the National Gambling Helpline, run by GamCare, for free, confidential support.
Financial services have related obligations. The FCA’s Consumer Duty requires firms to support customer understanding, with accompanying guidance recommending plain language, logical presentation and prominent key information.
Back in the driving seat, these principles have an immediate purpose. A clear direction helps someone prepare for a junction; a prompt response confirms an action. Elsewhere, a labelled figure helps someone assess their finances or time spent. The dashboard’s lesson is practical: give people the information they need, where they can find it, before their next decision.
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