One of the many patron saints of engineers!
If he so believed in it, may his arrow be pointing up! :)
James Moylan, engineer behind arrow signaling which side to refuel a car, dies
61–70 of 228 posts
Re: James Moylan, engineer behind arrow signaling which side to refuel a car, dies
#62Anybody else get confused by whether the arrow represents where the car should be or the pump?
I agree. As much as people appreciate the factoid, it's not an example of good design. I don't ever recall the arrow being paid attention to until listicles and other blog spam were born. It has all the elements of great clickbait.
It’s terrible design. Until I encountered one of these listicles I had no idea what that arrow was.
Re: James Moylan, engineer behind arrow signaling which side to refuel a car, dies
#63Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree. As much as people appreciate the factoid, it's not an example of good design. I don't ever recall the arrow being paid attention to until listicles and other blog spam were born. It has all the elements of great clickbait.
I actually use it all the time when driving a rental.
That isn’t in conflict with it being bad design.
Re: James Moylan, engineer behind arrow signaling which side to refuel a car, dies
#64Why would you not just always put it on the driver's side, since they're the most likely to be doing the refueling?
And which side is the driver side? Surprise, it depends on the country. And a Japanese car manufacturer will move the driver controls to sell cars in USA/Continental Europe, but flipping everything else will cost more. I've driven 2 models of an Italian brand, my previous car had the gas tank on the passenger side, and my current one has it on the driver side. I do wonder why they changed it. There's also the issue o…
I live in the UK (drive on the left) and my Honda had it on the passenger side while my VW has it on the driver's side.
Re: James Moylan, engineer behind arrow signaling which side to refuel a car, dies
#652020s UX "experts" would bury the entire instrument cluster under a hamburger menu if they could get away with it. The fuel gauge would be moved three menus deep and thus impossible to find, then removed in subsequent model years when their telemetry data "proved" no one used it anymore.
It drives usage up! Seriously, I wonder whether this “Make things to annoy people” trend is a normal situation, or an emerging behavior due to our era, and whether it will be solved one day. Example: In 2003 all UX was abominable, programs were ugly and black and white and text and boring, then came the iPhone with the idea to hire designers for apps, it was entirely new and absolutely unseen before. It was necessary during the take off phase of our industry, but are we simply witnessing the regression to normal, with UX being driven by corporate suits?
Re: James Moylan, engineer behind arrow signaling which side to refuel a car, dies
#66Nobody getting gas at Costco cares.
Re: James Moylan, engineer behind arrow signaling which side to refuel a car, dies
#67I had no idea till this moment that’s what the arrow was for…
I didn’t know it was possible to not know this.
Nobody ever told me and I drove my first car for a long time, rarely drove other people’s cars, and did not have the kind of lifestyle that either supported or required rental cars.
I found out around age 35, I think. From reading it online. I’ve told a bunch of people who didn’t know.
Re: James Moylan, engineer behind arrow signaling which side to refuel a car, dies
#68My Dad explained to me what this symbol meant when I got my first car. We went to get gas, and I had no idea that I pulled up on the wrong side of the pump. He indicated that the symbol told you which side of the car the gas tank was on.
It was a 1994 Ford Taurus.
Re: James Moylan, engineer behind arrow signaling which side to refuel a car, dies
#69Why would you not just always put it on the driver's side, since they're the most likely to be doing the refueling?
What happens when they sell the car in a country that drives on the other side of the road? They would have to move everything around.
They don’t. It stays on the same side as it was. They don’t move the bonnet opening lever or the indicator stalk either.
Re: James Moylan, engineer behind arrow signaling which side to refuel a car, dies
#70Nobody getting gas at Costco cares.
Most people do, with the exception of the woman awkwardly stretching the long hose over the roof of her minivan, scratching it in the process.