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Mercedes-Benz commits to bringing back physical buttons

drive.com.au

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Re: Mercedes-Benz commits to bringing back physical buttons

#471

Post by mghackerlady »

everdrive wrote: post #129
shcheklein wrote: post #12

If they have custromer feedback and focus groups like they mention how did it happen in the first place? Some overoptimistic head-of-something? Really curious. I own previous -2021 mb and had to drive the upgrade (touch buttons) once as a replacement car. UX is terrible. Period. I even checked then in the dealership what they did to S-class and mybachs - and yes, same crappy wheel, etc. Anyways, I was mostly surprise…

>If they have custromer feedback and focus groups like they mention how did it happen in the first place? This is part of the modern UI paradox. Never before has UI and UX gotten so much attention, and logging, and tracking, and research, etc. But of course with all that additional attention UI and UX is generally getting worse over time. I have my theories why, but I'd bet they're paying for decent talent here and a…

They aren't doing all that research to make their product better for you, they're doing it to make their product better for them. Those metrics help them design to keep you on [platform] for as long as possible, consuming as much [product] from [company] as possible. It benefits them to be easy to do the things they want (buy something or view ads) and hard to do things they don't want you to do (leave, change settings, generally take any kind of control)

Re: Mercedes-Benz commits to bringing back physical buttons

#472

Post by torginus »

wongarsu wrote: post #448
ofrzeta wrote: post #367

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Technically SAP is a Société Européenne but still somehow the biggest German software developer.

And fittingly SAP is successful despite horrible UX

SAP is basically the core of the German compliance machine. Most of the time, people get onto SAP not because its good, but there's a bunch of compliance regs, which basically say 'use SAP'. Noncompliance results in firms basically not doing business with you.

You could try to be boneheaded and comply with whatever standards they need your own way, but that would mean your business partners would need to do more due diligence and expose themselves to risk of what happens if regulators are not happy with the way you conduct your business. So you use SAP.

Re: Mercedes-Benz commits to bringing back physical buttons

#473

Post by r14c »

sneak wrote: post #407
thefounder wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Little she knows that if she uses the “self driving” from Tesla she may get into a death trap.

It’s way safer than most human drivers. I use it all of the time.

Do the stats back up your anecdote? iirc Tesla autopilot has some bad failure cases

Re: Mercedes-Benz commits to bringing back physical buttons

#474

Post by CrimsonRain »

codefeenix wrote: post #446
CrimsonRain wrote: post #391

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are absolutely right. See my other post before where I saw essentially the same thing. It is absurd how bad the German companies are; the only thing they know how to do great is the engine. I never understand these people with their ac knobs... What are they doing that they need to change AC all the time during driving? I set it to 21.5 with auto, and it is perfect for the whole car. Why do people need to constan…

>the only thing they know how to do great is the engine. EA888 G1 has entered the chat.

Yeah, they are not so good with that either or just cheats.

Re: Mercedes-Benz commits to bringing back physical buttons

#475

Post by torginus »

_the_inflator wrote: post #31
nokeya wrote: post #6

I’m quite suspicious that they do that not because they understood or learned something, but because China requires physical buttons starting next year. And they simply don’t want to lose one of their biggest markets.

Despite China, IT development is a complete disaster in Germany. All car so called German car manufacturers UX/UI is horrible to say the least. Dieter Rams is the only UX/UI designer, who became famous - outside of Germany. Hartmut Esslinger kind of popularized DR, what an irony, that two Germans made history, but of course not in Germany and even in Germany DR wasn't well known. Braun was a brand and statement, but…

In the defense of VW, their EVs launched with absolutely horrible software, but apparently its pretty good now, and its still the same indigenous platform.

And to join in the bashing - I once went to a tradeshow where a software company building infotainment for high end Mercedes cars told me the cars are running k8s clusters with multiple computers.

Not sure if that's the red flag I make it out to be, but it sure doesn't inspire confidence.

Re: Mercedes-Benz commits to bringing back physical buttons

#476

Post by 1vuio0pswjnm7 »

raxxorraxor wrote: post #381
_the_inflator wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Despite China, IT development is a complete disaster in Germany. All car so called German car manufacturers UX/UI is horrible to say the least. Dieter Rams is the only UX/UI designer, who became famous - outside of Germany. Hartmut Esslinger kind of popularized DR, what an irony, that two Germans made history, but of course not in Germany and even in Germany DR wasn't well known. Braun was a brand and statement, but…

Software in Germany is simply not highly regarded, on the contrary. It is seen as necessary evil at best. Ageing population that finds itself overwhelmed is my guess. There are exceptions, but they are far and few between.

Silicon Valley VC once wrote, "Software is eating the world"

Re: Mercedes-Benz commits to bringing back physical buttons

#477

Post by ted537 »

beachy wrote: post #242
teo_zero wrote: post #26

And for those commands that do not deserve a physical button and are only accessible via touch, please adhere to a few simple rules. 1. Put them always in the same place. Especially the "back" or "exit" button! 2. Each button should do one thing, not switch between 3 or more modes that you should look to understand which one you've just activated. Negative example: one button to cycle from cuise control, to drive ass…

Also - move the tech forwards! Buttons can be cool. Software controlled detents for rotary encoder knobs, back lit stream deck style buttons, cool knobs that combine twisting and pulling in/out.

Twist it! Bop it!

Re: Mercedes-Benz commits to bringing back physical buttons

#478

Post by torginus »

joe_mamba wrote: post #106
Archelaos wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And to the haters: Show me any company or product from Germany in IT that is Top 100 globally. Also I wouldn’t want to disagree with you outright, there are still a few important German companies in the IT sector (or related): Siemens, Infineon, Deutsche Telekom, Bechtle, TeamViewer come to my mind. What Siemens exemplifies is that the strength of German industry is not pure software, but high-tech machinery. While…

>a few important German companies in the IT sector (or related): Siemens, Infineon, Deutsche Telekom, Bechtle, TeamViewer come to my mind. None of them famous or being praised by customers for having amazing UI/UX though, because they're not consumer products, they're targeting engineers who either don't care about UX, or don't have a choice in the matter because their company is buying it, not them. Cars on the othe…

>and outsource everything they perceive ads no value.

In their defense, if they know they have no inhouse competence and their existing org structure is not good for building software, then doesn't it make sense to contract people who do and can?

Also, if Germans admittedly are not great at building good UX, and/or software, there are countries/companies who definitely don't suffer from that shortcoming.

And I'm not sure why German cars suck == Europe is doomed, what about the infotainment on Renaults?

Re: Mercedes-Benz commits to bringing back physical buttons

#479

Post by joe_mamba »

torginus wrote: post #478
joe_mamba wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>a few important German companies in the IT sector (or related): Siemens, Infineon, Deutsche Telekom, Bechtle, TeamViewer come to my mind. None of them famous or being praised by customers for having amazing UI/UX though, because they're not consumer products, they're targeting engineers who either don't care about UX, or don't have a choice in the matter because their company is buying it, not them. Cars on the othe…

>and outsource everything they perceive ads no value. In their defense, if they know they have no inhouse competence and their existing org structure is not good for building software, then doesn't it make sense to contract people who do and can? Also, if Germans admittedly are not great at building good UX, and/or software, there are countries/companies who definitely don't suffer from that shortcoming. And I'm not…

> then doesn't it make sense to contract people who do and can?

Except they don't. They contract it out to the cheapest bidder because they optimize for cost over innovation.

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