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The subtle art of designing physical controls for cars

theturnsignalblog.com

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Re: The subtle art of designing physical controls for cars

#171

Post by robertlagrant »

nottorp wrote: post #165
arkh wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you set a target temp You should be able to set 2 temps. Early morning in summer: temperature is under 15°C, no need to heat over 20°C. Evening: outside is 30°C, I don't need 20°C in the car anymore but 25ish would be perfect. A 2 temperatures setting or 1 temperature + delta would prevent having to change it every time I enter the car.

You're designing the controls for the area you live in and for your driving patterns now. There's some famous electric car manufacturer that did the same. His products were unusable in some locales even before he went all political.

BMW's first iteration of iDrive was very ill-received, and so they improved it. I think launching a global car brand is pretty difficult, even if you don't like the guy.

Re: The subtle art of designing physical controls for cars

#172

Post by nottorp »

robertlagrant wrote: post #171
nottorp wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're designing the controls for the area you live in and for your driving patterns now. There's some famous electric car manufacturer that did the same. His products were unusable in some locales even before he went all political.

BMW's first iteration of iDrive was very ill-received, and so they improved it. I think launching a global car brand is pretty difficult, even if you don't like the guy.

But I test drove a Tesla and besides the stupid tablet controls the smart turn stalks couldn't hold a turn signal when turning left at a crossroads that wasn't at 90 degrees. That's life threatening if you ask me.

No, I don't need to know Musk's politics to avoid his cars.

Of course, it's well known that BMWs come without a turn stalk so maybe it seems normal if you compare those two brands :)

Re: The subtle art of designing physical controls for cars

#173

Post by Lanolderen »

arkh wrote: post #164
nottorp wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's how the knobs normally work. And the original poster describes how "automatic a/c" or "climate controls" have always worked in cars, you set a target temp and they handle fan speed and air temperature. Why does the article want to make a multifunction dial with no tactile feedback? Have they only ever driven a Tesla?

> you set a target temp You should be able to set 2 temps. Early morning in summer: temperature is under 15°C, no need to heat over 20°C. Evening: outside is 30°C, I don't need 20°C in the car anymore but 25ish would be perfect. A 2 temperatures setting or 1 temperature + delta would prevent having to change it every time I enter the car.

The issue I see with AUTO most often is noise. Almost every time I've disabled AUTO was in the beginning of a drive while talking to someone having to yell over the fans or just going to move my car 10 meters and it just being annoyingly loud.

The temp I don't believe you can really fix. Sometimes I throw my jacket in the back, sometimes I keep it on, sometimes I'm tired or my stomach is upset and I want it to be a sauna, sometimes I'm sweaty and want it to be a fridge..

Re: The subtle art of designing physical controls for cars

#174

Post by cookie_monsta »

groby_b wrote: post #37
bigstrat2003 wrote: post #11

Car manufacturers, please hire this guy to build your interfaces. He gets it. Touch screens must not be used for controls you are going to frequently operate while driving the car, it's maximum unsafe.

I wish that was the unsafest thing car manufacturers did. Jeep, for example, has just discovered a predilection for random full-screen alerts with a blaring alarm sound, if, for example, they magically inferred there's a tow-truck somewhere. (There's about a 50% chance you'll encounter a tow truck in the next 10 minutes, at best) This is great if, say, you're three hours into a night drive, all alone on the road, and…

Why a tow truck?

Re: The subtle art of designing physical controls for cars

#175

Post by [deleted] »

nottorp wrote: post #148
Retric wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A sun load sensor mostly solves this, they used to be a high end feature but it's becoming more common.

High end? It's on my 15 year old Suzuki. I only know that because the diagnostics told my mechanic it's broken and he replaced it once :) It may just not be advertised.

[deleted]

Re: The subtle art of designing physical controls for cars

#176

Post by [deleted] »

nottorp wrote: post #144
dghlsakjg wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My 1997 Lexus has a knob that controls the digital climate control. Except that instead of a spinny position encoder, they used a knob with stops so you have tactile feedback for when the temperature is all the way up or down. This is the kind of detail that I love about a well engineered car.

That's how the knobs normally work. And the original poster describes how "automatic a/c" or "climate controls" have always worked in cars, you set a target temp and they handle fan speed and air temperature. Why does the article want to make a multifunction dial with no tactile feedback? Have they only ever driven a Tesla?

[deleted]

Re: The subtle art of designing physical controls for cars

#177

Post by Retric »

nottorp wrote: post #148
Retric wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A sun load sensor mostly solves this, they used to be a high end feature but it's becoming more common.

High end? It's on my 15 year old Suzuki. I only know that because the diagnostics told my mechanic it's broken and he replaced it once :) It may just not be advertised.

Thus more common, it’s still not an every model of every manufacturer thing. Tracking incoming angle is also less common etc.

Re: The subtle art of designing physical controls for cars

#178

Post by yellowapple »

nottorp wrote: post #160
rahoulb wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a whole section in the article about experimenting with different positions and weights of the haptic feedback as the dial is moved and how to tie them in to the display on the control itself.

Yes. But how about a dial that stops turning at the minimum and maximum and doesn't need you to take your eyes away from the road at all? So last century eh? Maybe also less life threatening.

> But how about a dial that stops turning at the minimum and maximum

That, too, is mentioned in the article ("This means you can simulate different types of haptic feedback, like different detent strengths and hard stops.").

> and doesn't need you to take your eyes away from the road at all?

Also addressed in the article ("Showing three different data types in one dial is possible but definitely the maximum. When adding a fourth function, keeping track of your position in the interface without looking down becomes too difficult.").

Re: The subtle art of designing physical controls for cars

#179

Post by MontgomeryPi2 »

d1sxeyes wrote: post #162

One of my favourite dash controls ever was the Saab “Night” mode. Very simple, one press and all of the backlight illumination was turned off except for the absolutely critical controls (speed, etc.). Super useful for reducing distractions while driving at night. Most of the night driving I do today is polluted by light splashing off a central LED on the main console, or dynamic instrumentation on the dash itself. Ma…

...and the Saab cup holder. Not a control per se but always fascinates the odd passenger. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/tjVN6p8VkPM

Re: The subtle art of designing physical controls for cars

#180

Post by johnwalkr »

marssaxman wrote: post #91
costcopizza wrote: post #30

One overlooked feature of physical controls is that they also give interiors an identity and experience. Growing up obsessed with cars, I loved seeing how different brands would lay out the cabin. Volvos from the 2000s used a rather large diagram of a seated person to select the HVAC vent for example. Also, in my brain, a 3000+ pound object just dang requires some stuff to physically press, push, and hear click! A co…

The classic Range Rover has a seat-adjustment control in the shape of a little seat. If you want your seat to lean back, you just grab the back of the miniature seat and push it in the appropriate direction; the motors in the actual seat move it to match. While I'd have preferred a simple, bulletproof, nonmotorized seat, if one must automate, that's a great interface.

Other cars have this too. I was going to make the same comment, it’s such a perfect interface.
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