Shared Spaces, The Family Cabin Experience

The data visualization above illustrates how families interact with one another within the shared space of a car cabin.

Sampling and Recruitment Strategy

The strategy I used to gather participants was outsourcing through individuals I knew, including friends and family. I wanted to sample two different groups of individuals to see if there was a prevalent comparison point between the families from either group.

The first group I sampled was the parents of the Men's JV Soccer at Olentangy Orange High School, ranging from the age of 15-17 years old. The team consisted of 19 athletes, and each athlete had two parents. In total, roughly 38 parents had the opportunity to take this survey, and about half of those individuals took the survey (19 participants).

The second group I sampled was a fifth-grade class from my old elementary school, Five Points Elementary. I emailed my survey to a fifth-grade teacher, and she emailed the survey out her students' parents. She has about 25-30 students with each student having two parents. There was an opportunity for 50-60 parents to take this survey, and about half of those parents took the survey (28 participants).

Survey

I put together a 12-question survey that was open to my two sampling groups for one week. At the conclusion of my survey, I was able to receive a total of 47 responses from the two sampling groups.

Survey Questions

1. Do you consent to having your responses collected and shared for research purposes?  

Open Response

2. What is you gender and age?

Open Response

3. What is the age of your child or children?

Open Response

4. What is the relationship to your child or children?

Open Response

5.  What is the make and model of all the vehicles you own?  

Open Response

6. What encourages you come back to your trusted car brand?

a. Safety

b. Trustworthy

c. Other:

7. What are difficulties that comes to mind when taking a long road trip?

a. Sitting for an extended period of time

b. Becoming bored

c. Body aches

d. Bathroom breaks

e. Not enough outlets in the car to charge devices

f. Other:

8. What activities do you and your family members typically do to pass the time while traveling in the car? Select up to THREE

a. Road trip games

b. Chat with a family member/friend

c. Listen to music with headphones on

d. Listen to music on the car radio

e. Read or listen to an audiobook

f. Watch a movie or tv show

g. Take a nap

h. Other:

9. What do you believe are important aspects of the interior of a car? Select up to THREE

a. Wireless charging pad for front-seat passengers

b. Wireless charging pad for rear-seat passengers

c. Heated and ventilated front seats

d. Moonroof

e. Driver Profile Settings

f. Household Outlet

g. Rear-seat sunshades

h. Rain-sensing windshield wipers

i. Built in air compressor for car maintenance

j. Rear-Cross Traffic Alert with automatic emergency breaking

k. Other:

10. If you could change or add one feature to the interior of your car to create a more connected experience for your family, what would it be and why?

Open Response

11.  Is there anything else you would like to share?

Open Response

12. Would you be interested in participating in a follow-up interview?

a. Yes

b. No

c. Maybe

d. Other

The Family Cabin Experience

Hello! My name is Alivia Busi, and I am currently a senior at The Ohio State University studying Industrial Design. This year, I am partnering with Honda for my senior capstone project, where my team and I are researching ways to improve the family cabin experience and create stronger connections between parents and their children. I would truly appreciate it if you could take my 5-minute survey to help contribute to our design research. Your responses will provide valuable insights as we work toward developing solutions that better connect families during their time in the car. Thank you so much for taking the time to participate! Your input is greatly appreciated by both myself and my team.

Google Docs

Survey Results

1. Do you consent to having your responses collected and shared for research purposes?

47/47 Responses

2. What is you gender and age?

47/47 Responses

3. What is the age of your child or children?

47/47 Responses

4. What is the relationship to your child or children?

46/47 Responses

5.  What is the make and model of all the vehicles you own?  

47/47 Responses

6. What encourages you come back to your trusted car brand?

47/47 Responses

7. What are difficulties that comes to mind when taking a long road trip?

47/47 Responses

8. What activities do you and your family members typically do to pass the time while traveling in the car? Select up to THREE

47/47 Responses

9. What do you believe are important aspects of the interior of a car? Select up to THREE

47/47 Responses

10. If you could change or add one feature to the interior of your car to create a more connected experience for your family, what would it be and why?

36/47 Responses

11.  Is there anything else you would like to share?

19/47 Responses

12. Would you be interested in participating in a follow-up interview?

47/47 Responses

Reflection

Through my survey, I was able to gather an optimal amount of data to analyze how families interact with one another within the shared space of a car cabin. Based on the data, majority of the participants who took this survey were mothers between the ages of 40-49. Majority of their children were between the ages of 10-19. The primary activity to keep an individual entertained was listening to music or taking a nap. Although, prolonged sitting created the most discomfort amongst individuals. There was a wide variety of car brands individuals owned due to safety and closely followed by trustworthiness, but Honda was the most popular.

Disclaimer

Some of the charts in this article were recreated using Chat GPT, based off of a survey I designed in Google Forms. The goal, to make the charts easily understandable and clean.

Other charts were generated using Canva; I manually entered this data.