Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles

Re:Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles by lloeki on Monday June 17, 2019 @06:36AM (#20201568)

My current and favorite car is a '08 Euro Civic (Type-R). The whole design and layout of things there is pure genius, thoroughly designed from first principles. It takes many people aback but the hierarchy of information is very well thought out: critical up the wheel†† that you can read without taking eyes off the road (speed, turn signals, RPM limit, live cam profile (from ECU cam phasing/VTEC as an eco progress bar† or VTEC led depending on engine)), secondary behind the wheel (RPM dial, fuel, cooling liquid temp), tertiary left/right hand side (depending if you're brit/jap or the rest of the world; clock, head unit AC) of the driver, all angled properly towards the driver and minimising glare, all knobs and buttons can be actioned upon either without leaving the hands off the wheel or only leaving them for the shorter amount of time, Fitt's law everywhere, with big knobs/buttons for big things, small ones for small things. No gorilla arm effect anywhere, even the window controls on door armrests fall naturally under the hand and "dangerous" things are purposely made easy-but-difficult to reach (VSA switch, dashboard backlight). Oh, and the UI of that little screen is so well thought out, well-laid-out information and navigation across various more detailed info, with a notification system that pops an (i) in the critical area and actual info front and center (low fuel, low oil pressure, freezing conditions...). Even the various beeps have sensible meaning conveyed.

It's so good I wanted to write an actual article just about it. Touchscreen dashboards just make zero sense when you thoughtfully experienced that.

(The same-year US market one (which is a completely different car) for that same generation is similar but really not as good. Sadly They later moved to a more traditional design on the new ones)

But it's unusual and scares people, like OMG there are so many buttons, this looks like an airplane cockpit.

https://s3.caradvice.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/Honda...

(if you get the GPS option the screen takes place of the clock/head unit display)

† not a gamified tally like they did with the Insight and CR-Z, but a real-time thing.

†† not a ridiculously small heads-up air fighter thing like Peugeot does that gets unreadable depending on light conditions

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Re:Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles by speeder on Monday June 17, 2019 @09:23AM (#20202627)

I am a designer, have a degree even... Yet you used lots of jargon I never saw before. Can you point me some books and reading? I really need to fix my sorry education...

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Re:Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles by lloeki on Monday June 17, 2019 @01:19PM (#20205185)

Not a designer by a long shot but I admit to be very interested in the matter. Here are a few books I found quite fascinating.

Designed for Use by Lukas Mathis

Design for Hackers by David Kadavy

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Re:Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles by sundvor on Monday June 17, 2019 @08:57AM (#20202415)

Nice! Honda have always put some great effort into their designs. I had an Accord Euro Luxury '05 some 14 years ago, and it was such a pleasure to drive around. Still regret selling it. It was the first semi affordable car on the Australian market to offer stability control and full set of airbags (as long as you got the luxury model).

I'd love to read that article you proposed. As much as I'd love a Tesla, my last #2 car (now sold) was a '14 Mazda 3 Astina and the rotary knob just worked so well - and so did the buttons, not to mention that simple heads up display, that I felt this is better than what the expensive cars are getting.

I have an eye for the new Civic Type R; it looks like the engineers had a field day designing that. For now, just riding a bike as health for this ageing office chair worker had to take priority.

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Re:Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles by mikelward on Monday June 17, 2019 @09:47AM (#20202867)

Not in the CR-V they didn't. The entertainment system is an underpowered Android tablet.

Lots of questionable decisions like the keyless lock system not locking if the tailgate was closing as you walk away, there being no way to turn the car off but leave the radio or AC on, and the engine cutting out as you try to drive off if you started it via remote start.

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Re:Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles by RankingMember on Monday June 17, 2019 @11:17AM (#20203792)

Your "no way to turn the car off but leave the radio or AC on" complaint doesn't make sense to me, as the AC compressor is powered by the engine's accessory drive belt, which won't turn if the engine's off.

Otherwise, those sound like fair complaints. I'd add that Honda tried to go to a touch-based volume control in 2015/2016 and it was universally panned for its poor responsiveness and requirement that users take their eyes off the road to adjust radio volume. Can't win'em all I guess.

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Re:Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles by mikelward on Monday June 17, 2019 @12:32PM (#20204635)

Yeah, I wasn't sure about the AC. My actual use case is it leave music playing over Bluetooth or Android Auto.

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Re:Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles by mikelward on Monday June 17, 2019 @12:34PM (#20204651)

The volume control is fairly good in the 2018 model. There's a dial on the head unit, and a strange-but-fairly-effective touch sensitive volume control on the steering wheel.

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Re:Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles by mikelward on Monday June 17, 2019 @06:46PM (#20208080)

I imagine the fan could still work?

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Re:Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles by RankingMember on Tuesday June 18, 2019 @12:43PM (#20215005)

Yep, the fan will work, but you won't get cold air.

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Re:Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles by briandear on Monday June 17, 2019 @11:54AM (#20204221)

That interior makes me think of a Cirrus airplane. Very cool. Cirrus has done some pretty amazing things with the button layout and overall UX for glass panel small aircraft.

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Re:Mazda is purging touchscreens from its vehicles by jamexcb on Monday June 17, 2019 @01:28PM (#20205292)

I have one! I love the interior desing and the rpm is like floating! And the AC control is just stupid easy because the auto works very well not like on a BMW were you need to set the speed of fan for auto?!? If is auto whay i need to do anything? That's why Civic was "red dot: best of the best".

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