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Driver Study: People Want Fewer Embedded Apps, Just Essentials That Work Easily
Lucas123 writes 'A study released at the Telematics Detroit 2014 conference revealed the obvious: Most people don't want more distracting embedded apps in their cars; they just want essential apps like navigation and music to be intuitive to use and reliable. Part of the study involved a focus group of 46 people who were asked to evaluate infotainment systems from three luxury car makers and four "mass consumer" car makers. The drivers were asked to do three things: Navigate home, find a pizza shop and find a radio station. Only 40% were able to complete all three tasks. Not surprisingly, the highest rated infotainment system was Tesla because its icons were "large" and it was easy to figure out.'
For any in car control - I need to be able to use it without looking at it.
Too many things fail at this.
"The car stereo I wanted 10 years ago"
"The car stereo I want today":
http://i.imgur.com/NGcUN.jpg
Things that i can feel i'm working and not touchscreens!
BUTTONS KNOBS AND TACTILE FEEDBACK!
That means sensitive touch controls with very little lag
No. That means no touch controls. Touch controls force you to look at where you're placing your fingers and what's happening. Actual physical knobs and buttons can be used even without looking.
I test drove a Cadillac recently and GM's touch screen looks like it was built by people with zero UI experience. Of course, it's just about as bad as every other modern app. Nobody understands flow anymore. And it's not an American thing either. The same problems plagued touch interfaces on imports as well. Oddly, BMW's is much better than it used to be.
This garbage is so sluggish, too. Adjusting climate controls used to be a matter of turning on a knob. Now, I have to tap on a vague piece of plastic. Nothing happens, so I tap again. Then again. Finally, the fans kick on FULL BLAST... And apparently there are only three speed settings. And seriously, adjusting volume by sliding your finger across a screen? Jesus Christ, whomever thought that shit was a good idea is a fucking MORON... Why have umpteen volume levels if all you can do is wildly skate between 0 and MAXIMUM with barely any control.
I don't care if I sound like the old man on the porch, shaking his fist. These UIs are completely retarded.
I need Microsoft Office embedded app so I can work on business-critical documents.
Like the new Lincoln MKZ with TOUCH controls for volume and temperature, on a smooth surface, without any tactile reference. Bravo!
I even hate the push buttons and rotary controls for the heater, it used to be that you could control everything with 2 slides, one for temp and one to choose where to send the air.
It was very easy to know, only by touch, where the slides are. With a rotary button, you have to look at it to see where it is pointing. And the push buttons are also much less convenient, if I have to put the control on front defrost quickly (because the windshield is suddenly fogging) with the old controls I only had to slide it all the way to the right.
Now I have to find the front defrost button wich is the second to the right, flush with all the other buttons.
Even in some car manuals of the 70's and 80's it was stated that if you want to defog or defrost the car in an emergency you just put all the slides to the right or to the top (depending on the orientation of the controls) without thinking, it will automatically put the heater to front defrost,maximum heat, full fan, outside air (no recirculation).
It's the same problem with almost every interface today, from electronics (think about how easy and fast it was to change the volume or choose the input on a 70's Receiver, with it's big buttons compared to receivers of today with it's tiny buttons and display you have to look at)
Don't get me started on volume and mute controls. Why don't laptops get a physical cut off switch as a mute button? When I power up my laptop in a library or at school I have to remember if I put it on mute the last time, and if not I need to wait for the mute button to become responsive but since it's controlled by software and a certain driver, it becomes usable right after Windows decide to play it's login sound. Very annoying. How much would it cost to put a physical switch to cut out the electrical signal to the speakers???
I think we're moving backward with UI, today look ingenuity and trend is more important than usability.
Now get off my lawn!
Try it! Library of Babel
My experience is that people either use the nav system in their head, or they use the one in their car. They have problems doing both at the same time. This means that if you depend on a nav system, you'll always be really new in town, as you'll never learn to associate the instructions with what your eyes actually see out the window.
If you're going to do a study on automobile infotainment systems, you need a broader set of data: 46 people with 7 types of systems, 2 of which are very uncommon. This dataset sounds like they just asked around their office and of the 46 people that work there, only 7 employees had any sort of infotainment system, 3 being the bosses.
Want to do this study right? Go rent 10-12 cars with the various systems, park them at Walmart one day and survey, park them at the mall the next day and survey, park them at the fancy downtown shopping district and survey, and then hold a private dinner for the upper-class folks and survey. 4 distinct groups and hundreds or thousands of data points.
Be sure to include systems that actually are used: Toyota Entune, Ford Sync, GM/Chevrolet Intellilink/MyLink, Honda HondaLink, Dodge/Chrysler Uconnect, Nissan NissanConnect, Mazda, Volkswagen, BMW ConnectedDrive, Mercedes Comand, and Cadillac CUE.
Come on, how many people actually have a Porsche with an infotainment, or a Tesla? Seriously, Ford sold twice as many Fiesta's in the US last year than Tesla has sold total.
"The quality of life is determined by its activites."--Aristotle
If you sat in a showroom for 10 hours strait (sic) you're doing it wrong. Decide ahead of time what you want and how much you'll pay. Make an offer, if they don't like it - get up and walk away.