Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles • Hacker News Board

Re: Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles

#401

Post by navigatesol » Mon, Jun 17, 2019, 1:49 PM UTC

ubermonkey wrote: post #368

marapuru wrote: post #47

Praise to Mazda for making this decision. As a User Experience Professional, I was never able to grasp the true user's need for touch screens in cars. For years I have been working on product interfaces (not just apps). Many studies I conducted actually told me that people favored analog controls over digital touch screens controls. It gives you tactile feedback, making it accessible for anyone with sense of touch. >…

>As a User Experience Professional, I was never able to grasp the true user's need for touch screens in cars. Before phone integration, I might've agreed with you, or at least had no opinion on the subject. After watching many car companies, even high-end ones like BMW and Mercedes, fail utterly at producing reasonable phone integration systems or interfaces, though, I'm all-in on CarPlay. >It basically means they ha…

>I've seen implementations without touch, and they're much, much less useful.

What, exactly, are you doing with your infotainment system that requires so much use? I mean, I agree, CarPlay and Android Auto are nice, but I'm only playing music and using the navigation, both of which can be done easily without the fancy software.

>Most of us are used to being able to adjust the AC without looking

It's not merely that we are used to it, it's the entire purpose of the tactile interface: allowing you to adjust things while keeping your eyes on the road.

Re: Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles

#402

Post by CrazyStat » Mon, Jun 17, 2019, 1:50 PM UTC

ryanhuff wrote: post #246

de_watcher wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The climate control is through the touchscreen?

Yes

You can control AC though the touch screen, which is mostly convenient for the passenger. The driver can also control the AC with a scroll wheel on the steering wheel.

Re: Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles

#403

Post by vanderZwan » Mon, Jun 17, 2019, 1:50 PM UTC

pier25 wrote: post #388

vanderZwan wrote: post #316

Bret Victor's "A Brief Rant On The Future Of Interaction Design" is just as relevant now as it was back in 2011: > There's a reason that our fingertips have some of the densest areas of nerve endings on the body. This is how we experience the world close-up. This is how our tools talk to us. The sense of touch is essential to everything that humans have called "work" for millions of years. > Now, take out your favori…

He has a point in some contexts. Touchscreens will never replace real keyboards for people who make their living typing but can easily replace a scroll wheel for mindless browsing.

Your example is essentially an instance of of "touch screens can replace the in contexts where one does not benefit from extra feedback from touch", which is true but not exactly surprising.

I would say that in a car, being able to navigate an interface without ever taking eyes of the road is a very clear example of a context where tactile feedback adds a lot

Re: Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles

#404

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Jun 17, 2019, 1:51 PM UTC

Shivetya wrote: post #182

Well after owning a Tesla Model 3 I am of the opinion, why in the hell do we need forty plus buttons in cars? Seriously! (Go count your buttons, some cars are higher than that) First off with regards to the touch screen in the Tesla. In the vast majority of drives I never ever touch it. Not once. Why not? Well I have my temperature preference set, I usually play the music that is coming off my phone, and well, what e…

[deleted]

Re: Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles

#405

Post by navigatesol » Mon, Jun 17, 2019, 1:51 PM UTC

mstade wrote: post #400

ubermonkey wrote: post #368

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>As a User Experience Professional, I was never able to grasp the true user's need for touch screens in cars. Before phone integration, I might've agreed with you, or at least had no opinion on the subject. After watching many car companies, even high-end ones like BMW and Mercedes, fail utterly at producing reasonable phone integration systems or interfaces, though, I'm all-in on CarPlay. >It basically means they ha…

I think your assessment is spot on. CarPlay is the best all screen car interface I've used, and these days it's all I ever use if it's available in the car I'm driving. The only car interfaces I like that aren't CarPlay are all buttons and dials, i.e. pre smart phone era cars, and even then only a handful really made sense to me.

>CarPlay is the best all screen car interface I've used, and these days it's all I ever use if it's available in the car I'm driving.

Curious, do you own a car, or are you renting them?

Maybe that's why some people are such advocates for the Apple/Android interfaces: when you're driving different cars regularly it's helpful to have a consistent interface.

Meanwhile, I have never had any problem "getting used to" the various interfaces in new cars I purchase every few years.

Re: Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles

#406

Post by kthejoker2 » Mon, Jun 17, 2019, 1:52 PM UTC

zaroth wrote: post #375

ehnto wrote: post #339

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think we have pretty similar views while talking about the tech and usability itself. It is just that I fundamentally disagree that you need to touch or look at anything while driving. You say people need to interact with navigation while driving, which is simply not true. People want to interact with navigation while driving. They could cope without it. We didn't even have navigation all that long ago, to say we n…

I said people need to navigate while driving, which is almost a tautology. That is to say, while I’m driving I need to know where I’m going. Sometimes I already know from memory, sometimes I’m consulting an external source. Whether that external source is a sticky note on the steering wheel, a phone, audible prompts, or a big touchscreen in the center of the vehicle (TM3), the driver is going to decide which to use b…

> What the driver is not going to do is pull over at an exit to stop the car and check if that was the exit they were supposed to take, and then get back on the highway and keep going.

Funny you should say that, its exactly what people did not too long ago.

You'd look up where you were going in a key map or more broadly a road atlas, write down your instructions (and keep it open to the final destination in case of road closures, etc)

I really don't see the appeal of getting in a car and beginning to drive without knowing where you're going. "I'll look it up on the road" just seems like an intersection of anxiety (deliberately increasing your chance of crashing), annoyance (deliberately making your navigational search harder to perform), and apprehension (increasing the chance you'll miss a crucial turn early in the trip due to lack of navigation).

It's like choosing to juggle while taking a test.

Re: Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles

#407

Post by CrazyStat » Mon, Jun 17, 2019, 1:53 PM UTC

BanazirGalbasi wrote: post #394

CrazyStat wrote: post #390

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Most of us are used to being able to adjust the AC without looking, and that's only possible because there are physical controls we can feel. My Tesla allows me to adjust the AC without looking, using the scroll wheels built into the steering wheel.

Not sure if you're trying to support his point or refute it, but those scroll wheels are a great example of physical controls done right.

I'm not sure it cleanly falls on either category. I agree with him that an all-touchscreen UI would be terrible, but I am correcting the misconception that Tesla has an all-touchscreen UI, because it doesn't.

I also agree that those scroll wheels are great.

Re: Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles

#408

Post by basch » Mon, Jun 17, 2019, 1:53 PM UTC

joking wrote: post #389

ubermonkey wrote: post #368

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>As a User Experience Professional, I was never able to grasp the true user's need for touch screens in cars. Before phone integration, I might've agreed with you, or at least had no opinion on the subject. After watching many car companies, even high-end ones like BMW and Mercedes, fail utterly at producing reasonable phone integration systems or interfaces, though, I'm all-in on CarPlay. >It basically means they ha…

>CarPlay is amazingly good, and only really works well with a touchscreen. >At this point, it would be very hard for me to buy a car that didn't have CarPlay integration with a touchscreen. I've seen implementations without touch, and they're much, much less useful. Well, maybe the solution is to make apple carplay and android auto to work well with a dpad and buttons configuration, those interfaces have been working…

Acura is introducing a touchpad, with absolute, not relative, cursor positioning. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcKa9apjOX8

It reminds me of the PSP/PSV having a touchpad on the back of the screen.

Re: Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles

#409

Post by amluto » Mon, Jun 17, 2019, 1:53 PM UTC

BanazirGalbasi wrote: post #394

CrazyStat wrote: post #390

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Most of us are used to being able to adjust the AC without looking, and that's only possible because there are physical controls we can feel. My Tesla allows me to adjust the AC without looking, using the scroll wheels built into the steering wheel.

Not sure if you're trying to support his point or refute it, but those scroll wheels are a great example of physical controls done right.

The original Model S scroll wheels are not. They regularly fail to correctly count the number of ticks. Worse, you spend quite a bit of time staring at the dash computer trying to get them into the correct mode.

My first car had dedicated buttons, which was the correct design.

Re: Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles

#410

Post by michaelt » Mon, Jun 17, 2019, 1:53 PM UTC

marapuru wrote: post #47

Praise to Mazda for making this decision. As a User Experience Professional, I was never able to grasp the true user's need for touch screens in cars. For years I have been working on product interfaces (not just apps). Many studies I conducted actually told me that people favored analog controls over digital touch screens controls. It gives you tactile feedback, making it accessible for anyone with sense of touch. >…

  As a User Experience Professional, I was
  never able to grasp the true user's need
  for touch screens in cars.

Stage 1: We need a touchscreen so we can show a keyboard for sat nav address entry.

Stage 2: Well, given that we've got this touchscreen, we might as well use it for.....