A New Car UI

An anonymous reader writes "As our cars have become more complex, so have the user interfaces with which we control them. Using the current crop of infotainment systems embedded in a car's dash is byzantine and frustrating. UI designer Matthaeus Krenn has put up a post demonstrating his efforts to reinvent in-car UIs in a way that doesn't force people to squint at tiny buttons, instead leaving more of their attention for the road. It's based on using a touch-screen display that realigns the interface to wherever you put your fingers down. It also reacts differently depending on how many fingers you use to touch the screen."

Comments

UI Designers Suck

[Anrego]

Seriously, any time a "UI designer" sits down to re-invent something, the result is inevitably terrible. They focus on whatever new-age idea they have is, and often completely miss the core problem while coming up with some genius solution to a minor one.

My uneducated and rather simple view of how to do it:
- Physical buttons for the stuff you might/can safely touch while driving (basic stereo controls, temperature controls, wiper settings, etc)
- Knobs with fixed ranges for things like temperature (so you can set them without looking). Stuff like volume can be infinite as adjustments are immediately noticeable while adjusting.
- Displays that you can quickly glance at, preferably without having to look down too much (I’m a huge fan of the multi-level dash Honda put in their civic).
- Stuff you will be adjusting while stopped or maybe at a red light can be whatever you want.. fancy touchscreen, display in a weird spot, who cares.

Much as I don’t normally lean in the nancy-state direction, I actually wish these complex touchscreen interfaces were disabled while driving. It just seems like a ridiculous safety concern (and yes I know the passenger could adjust it while you safely drive). Honestly I don’t care if someone is playing with one and smashes themselves into a highway divider, but I don’t want someone smashing into _me_ because they are trying to figure out why their cloud streaming music feed dealie isn’t working.

Re:UI Designers Suck

[ackthpt]

I found a car radio in the desert a couple months back.

It has Mechanical Push Buttons for tuning!!! I am not making this up!

You turn a knob to turn on the power and adjust volume. Another one moves a mechanical red needle across a screen to show approximate frequency you are tuning into. And the most stunning thing is this - When it does not have a high quality signal it still plays, albeit with a modicum of static!

Astounding. Such a futuristic device must have fallen out of a UFO, from an interstellar civilization years beyond our comprehension.

Not a car UI

[sunderland56]

This is not a car UI. It is a UI for the car's entertainment system.

The car's UI is still a steering wheel and throttle/brake pedals.

Re:Not a car UI

[PPH]

Don't forget the clutch pedal.