The Hidden Cost of Touchscreens • Hacker News Board

Re: The Hidden Cost of Touchscreens

#71

Post by joncrane » Tue, Jul 03, 2018, 12:32 PM UTC

namibj wrote: post #53

namdnay wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think that's a lack of attention to detail from Mini. Just a decision made with the knowledge that people don't buy premium cars based on rational decisions. If they did, I'm not sure Mini (or BMW for that matter) would exist... I don't think this is the case for airplanes.

Are there any somewhat affordable cars that skimp on the "bling" to archive this sort of efficiency?

What I've found is that each make of car has it's "way" of doing things. I've found that Toyotas have a consistent placement of controls, as do Hondas, but they are not the same to each other. I haven't driven enough other makes of cars to know definitively, and they can change between generations.

It may be a way to foster brand loyalty. I find Honda's way more intuitive, but Toyota's is fine, too.

Re: The Hidden Cost of Touchscreens

#72

Post by safgasCVS » Tue, Jul 03, 2018, 12:35 PM UTC

NeedMoreTea wrote: post #56

I sometimes feel I am in a minority of one these days. Just about every car I've owned, I develop a muscle memory of where all the important switches are, and how far to turn to "hot enough" or "cool enough" etc. Same for most things around - I know fairly well how far to turn the oven for 180 +-10, no need to look. I might check if it's something especially sensitive (rare). Thanks to iPhone (I have one, and like it…

Preach.

Re: The Hidden Cost of Touchscreens

#73

Post by garadox » Tue, Jul 03, 2018, 12:38 PM UTC

avoutthere wrote: post #50

This is why I will never own a Tesla Model 3. If I can't adjust the air conditioning while looking at the road, I don't want it.

You can adjust the temperature from the scroll wheels on the steering wheel.

Re: The Hidden Cost of Touchscreens

#74

Post by garadox » Tue, Jul 03, 2018, 12:48 PM UTC

Having driven with the Tesla touchscreen, I can tell you you don't need to use it much while driving. The dials in the steering wheel can adjust the temperature, voice control is great for navigation and for selecting music, and range, performance data is on the dashboard (for non model 3).

If you need to do something complex like select a destionarion on the map, I don't think there's any interface that would let you do that safely as you need to visually identify a location.

Re: The Hidden Cost of Touchscreens

#75

Post by ph33t » Tue, Jul 03, 2018, 12:56 PM UTC

My frustration with automotive controls isn't limited to touch screens, but I've never used a touchscreen I like. I have two cars with awesome controls - a 2000 camary and a 20007 suburban. Both have 3 knobs: 1) how hot/cold 2) how fast is the fan blowing 3) where does it blow. The radio has two nobs - "what channel" and "how loud". My wife's 2013 (?) "luxury" car is quite the opposite. All controls are either 1) buttons you have to press or 2) something on the touchscreen. The user interfaces force you to take your attention from the road to use. That is bad and dangerous design ... end of story. I know the world likes to complain about using phones while driving, the the controls on some cars are just as bad.

Re: The Hidden Cost of Touchscreens

#76

Post by dbattaglia » Tue, Jul 03, 2018, 12:58 PM UTC

carlob wrote: post #54

dbattaglia wrote: post #49

This is exactly why I dislike the new MBP touch bar. I spend much of my working day in IntelliJ, debugging Scala code. I so badly want to rest my fingers on the function keys while I step in/out/over code, just as I used to in Visual Studio debugging C# and C++. I recently tried the native touch bar support in the Early Access version of IntelliJ and it was really not any better. It's no fault of Jetbrains either, I…

Why did you buy it then? I think that all the marketing of "touchscreen: oooh shiny!" is working, and there is very little we can do about bad interfaces unless we vote with our feet.

It's standard issue at my current job (as well as my previous one). For my personal laptop I actually bought one of the 2015 MBPs Apple is still selling new in the box. The next time I get a laptop refresh I may very well just go with something like an XPS w/ Ubuntu (at least for work, where I don't need things like Ableton Live, Max/MSP and NI Reaktor).

Re: The Hidden Cost of Touchscreens

#77

Post by degenerate » Tue, Jul 03, 2018, 12:58 PM UTC

NeedMoreTea wrote: post #56

I sometimes feel I am in a minority of one these days. Just about every car I've owned, I develop a muscle memory of where all the important switches are, and how far to turn to "hot enough" or "cool enough" etc. Same for most things around - I know fairly well how far to turn the oven for 180 +-10, no need to look. I might check if it's something especially sensitive (rare). Thanks to iPhone (I have one, and like it…

I still drive a 'dumb' car with actual buttons and knobs, because I loathe (with a passion) almost every car UI I have interacted with. I haven't been in a Tesla yet, but all the big makers (GM, Nissan, Audi, etc) get the interfaces so wrong, to the point where I assume it was their intention. I'd be interested to hear of any cars that get it right.

Re: The Hidden Cost of Touchscreens

#78

Post by jamesrcole » Tue, Jul 03, 2018, 1:01 PM UTC

carlob wrote: post #54

dbattaglia wrote: post #49

This is exactly why I dislike the new MBP touch bar. I spend much of my working day in IntelliJ, debugging Scala code. I so badly want to rest my fingers on the function keys while I step in/out/over code, just as I used to in Visual Studio debugging C# and C++. I recently tried the native touch bar support in the Early Access version of IntelliJ and it was really not any better. It's no fault of Jetbrains either, I…

Why did you buy it then? I think that all the marketing of "touchscreen: oooh shiny!" is working, and there is very little we can do about bad interfaces unless we vote with our feet.

Because there are usually multiple reasons for and against a choice, for a particular person's needs, and the sum of the positives minus the negatives might be the highest for that choice compared to the sums for the other options?

Re: The Hidden Cost of Touchscreens

#79

Post by Angostura » Tue, Jul 03, 2018, 1:03 PM UTC

NeedMoreTea wrote: post #56

I sometimes feel I am in a minority of one these days. Just about every car I've owned, I develop a muscle memory of where all the important switches are, and how far to turn to "hot enough" or "cool enough" etc. Same for most things around - I know fairly well how far to turn the oven for 180 +-10, no need to look. I might check if it's something especially sensitive (rare). Thanks to iPhone (I have one, and like it…

I just bought a car (with Carplay), but I was adamant that I would only have one that had physical buttons and volume knobs on the centre console. Sat in Tesla the other day and was really surprised about how awful the UI was in terms of information heirarchy. Everything seemed to have the same weight. A sea of clickable buttons.

Re: The Hidden Cost of Touchscreens

#80

Post by zrobotics » Tue, Jul 03, 2018, 1:04 PM UTC

NeedMoreTea wrote: post #56

I sometimes feel I am in a minority of one these days. Just about every car I've owned, I develop a muscle memory of where all the important switches are, and how far to turn to "hot enough" or "cool enough" etc. Same for most things around - I know fairly well how far to turn the oven for 180 +-10, no need to look. I might check if it's something especially sensitive (rare). Thanks to iPhone (I have one, and like it…

Same here, if I just want to turn down the AC I don't want to have to pull over to do it safely. Considering it is a ticketable offense in many parts of the US to text/use a phone while driving, how is it any better to have to use the car's touchscreen? I don't disagree with anti-texting laws, but I find it easier to skip to the next song on my phone w/o looking than using Ford's horrible UI.