Old bugger vs complicated dashboard controls
Discussion
Is it just me, or are cars generally becoming way too complicated to control easily whilst driving. I have an Audi S5, with an "infotainment system", where you have to go into a menu to find the screen to alter a radio station, or alter the heater/AC etc, etc. I was faffing about with mine today, when I suddenly realised I was heading for the greenery to my left. Not a good situation. As a 51 year old, I remember having slide controls, with, for example blue at one end, and red at the other, meaning cold to hot, similarly there was a dial with a picture of a windscreen, face, and feet, and you just simply chose one in the blink of an eye, and it worked. The new Audi is a beautiful car to drive, but I do think the designers need to go more back to basics with heater, and radio controls, before my head explodes, as I try to take in all the info from the road, and the dash screen. Regards. Tim the Luddite. 
In this case not just you, control designs have been - in SOME cars - ruined by idiots who saw people buying ipads and said "let's do that... in a car". Never mind the whole "looking where you're going" thing, we've got clean lines!
German brands seem to be worst (and the model S). Form over function.
German brands seem to be worst (and the model S). Form over function.
Land Rovers Meridian system is needlessly complex. The stupid safety warnings it flashes up when in Nav mode force you to look at the screen and not the road. f
king stupid.Just tuning the radio is hard, actually using the iPod stuff requires you to stop unless you want to risk a crash.
At least the heater controls are. Proper rotary knobs and buttons. Not some virtual crap.
Major Fallout said:
I met a Bentley designer at a party and started talking about this.
I asked why in the GT are the buttons so small? When most of the owners are older and or have failing eyesight?
You'll have to ask the bloke that originally designed them to go in the Polo I guess I asked why in the GT are the buttons so small? When most of the owners are older and or have failing eyesight?
dme123 said:
Major Fallout said:
I met a Bentley designer at a party and started talking about this.
I asked why in the GT are the buttons so small? When most of the owners are older and or have failing eyesight?
You'll have to ask the bloke that originally designed them to go in the Polo I guess I asked why in the GT are the buttons so small? When most of the owners are older and or have failing eyesight?
dme123 said:
This is one of the reasons I like the interior design and ergonomics in Volvos. I work in IT, I love technology and toys and things with lots of menus to explore but not when I'm driving for fk sake.
Same here, I'm an IT nerd but some cars are just too much. I was buying a new car at the weekend so test driving various cars. The one I bought has more buttons than my laptop and I suspect I'll use less than 10% of them in practice. The worst one I drove had a 7 inch touch screen, touch screens just don't work in cars because you need to look at it to see if you have pressed it, something that proved impossible on a bumpy road!k sake. Not just cars they'll stick a tft screen to anything now and people will think that makes it automatically better and they need it.
Clients house the other day- 3 flats in a conversion, instead of the entryphone having 3 buttons marked a,b,c they've got a 5" tft, numerical keypad + more buttons and i had to read the scrolling text on the stty low res display to ascertain i needed to press #-0-2-<call> to ring for flat B... then his MiL turned up and rang him cos she couldn't work it... they could stick a tft screen to a turd and sell it to idiots- oh hang on apple already did that..
Clients house the other day- 3 flats in a conversion, instead of the entryphone having 3 buttons marked a,b,c they've got a 5" tft, numerical keypad + more buttons and i had to read the scrolling text on the s
tty low res display to ascertain i needed to press #-0-2-<call> to ring for flat B... then his MiL turned up and rang him cos she couldn't work it... they could stick a tft screen to a turd and sell it to idiots- oh hang on apple already did that..I find the iDrive pretty intuitive on my F30, but frankly there's no need to use it when moving unless you want to dial a number from the phone address book.
Everything else, including radio presets, volume, audio source, and heating and ventilation is operated through conventional dash or steering wheel controls.
Everything else, including radio presets, volume, audio source, and heating and ventilation is operated through conventional dash or steering wheel controls.
Unfortunately, hipster web2.0cloudsocial types appear to have taken over much design (in a number of fields - windows 8, I'm looking at you) and completely forgotten usability. Probably in concert with the bean counters because 2 buttons and an lcd is cheaper than 3 buttons and a couple of knobs.
A knob is the best control for setting a value within a range (i.e. a heater), buttons need to be big enough that you can hit the right one easily, and scrolling through a menu using buttons is never, ever a good solution. Particularly in a car.
A knob is the best control for setting a value within a range (i.e. a heater), buttons need to be big enough that you can hit the right one easily, and scrolling through a menu using buttons is never, ever a good solution. Particularly in a car.
Tim Farquhar said:
Is it just me, or are cars generally becoming way too complicated to control easily whilst driving. Regards. Tim the Luddite.
Tim, this is not just you. Cars have become steadily worse for completely unecessary pseudo-functional tosh. My daily driver is a Forester 2.5XT. It has just the right number of necessary bits to make life very comfortable. Any more would be technology overload.The other month I was with a girlfriend who has a near perverse penchant for fast Mercedes, she has one of these super-dooper AMG things. I drove the car home in utter disbelief as the dashboard, and every other nook and cranny, lit up like a Christmas tree on Bonfire Night. Once we arrived at home we carefully counted the number of buttons in/on the car. We counted ninety-six bloody buttons, yes ninety-six, many of which are multi-function[!!] Who needs ninety-six buttons in car? And if so, why? Now, the statement I put to the modern day car manufacturers is this, 'Car drivers are meant to be driving the car as it is purportedly designed for, not having constant distractions from unecessary blinged up chav'esque chintz controls.'
Sadly, the majority of the population having sheep-like tendencies now aspire to this type of car. You see, they know no different and it is the norm' for them to be able to control the household central heating system from the driver's seat whilst travelling at 85mph on the M4/M40/M6 et al. And even better if the wife can turn on/off the washing machine when entering the supermarket car park whilst having simultaneous interactive Facetime...whatever this may be?
Current car designers are under immense pressure to find that unique selling point, something the competition hasn't got. Of course, what they don't realize is that the automobile is nothing new. It's all been done before. Fast cars, slow cars, family cars, big cars, cheap cars, expensive cars. And let's face it, behind all the marketing hype [read...bulls
t] the technologies used are nothing new. The materials used are nothing new. The designers approach to design is nothing new and ultimately the end product is...not new. But the current car manufacturers engineering teams believe, to a man, or woman, that what they're designing and promoting is new and for the better good...well at least for the better good of employment and the economy.Interestingly, I actually believe we are seeing, or are soon to see, a complete change to the ownership 'use' of the car. With the advent of the Google/+ others driver-less vehicles people will very soon order their driver-less 'car' as a pay per ride service where they can have, and above all use, as much tech' as possible whilst on the move. Whether the likes of Audi, Mercedes, VAG et al will offer such tantalizing devices, who knows. But I for one am with you in that car manufacturers need to get to grips with their ridiculous belief that people must have the, much unneeded, must have ICE-type gimmicks.
CrutyRammers said:
A knob is the best control for setting a value within a range (i.e. a heater), buttons need to be big enough that you can hit the right one easily, and scrolling through a menu using buttons is never, ever a good solution. Particularly in a car.
Another +1 for knobsJust turn it to where you want it without looking
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