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A comment on A New Concept for Usable Touch Interaction in Cars.

Re:A New Concept for Usable Touch Interaction in Cars by causality0 on Wednesday August 12, 2020 @07:50PM (#24138479)
I despise touch interfaces in cars and you should too. Every time you add a control that requires the driver take their eyes off the road, you kill people. Every time you have a control you can't touch without activating, you kill people. A completely blind passenger ought to be able to control the stereo and air conditioning.
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Re:A New Concept for Usable Touch Interaction in Cars by uniqueid on Wednesday August 12, 2020 @09:29PM (#24139098)
I despise touch UI everywhere (at least in its present incarnation). The only things it's good for is saving space on a small device, or simulating the experience of having no nerve-endings in your hands.

The industry could sell another trillion mobile phones, and it still wouldn't change reality: (a) it's uncomfortable to hold your hand hovering in midair for more than a few minutes (b) fingers are opaque and block screen real estate (c) to use a finger with precision requires tactile feedback (edges, textures, nubs) (d) a hand can't comfortably and quickly manipulate a screen larger than about 10 inches.

I look forward to the day when I can use a touch UI able to feel and sound like buttons, keys, sliders, etc. Until then, I will favor devices that don't use it.

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Re:A New Concept for Usable Touch Interaction in Cars by causality0 on Thursday August 13, 2020 @12:55PM (#24145455)
I just let out a wistful sigh at the thought of a smartphone with a big juicy d-pad below the screen. Imagine being able to scroll without your finger on the screen. I think we hit peak usability with the TH-55's rear-mounted scroll wheel and it's been downhill from there.
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Re:A New Concept for Usable Touch Interaction in Cars by caskes on Thursday August 13, 2020 @05:39AM (#24141520)
I agree! I did this project because car makers are addicted to touch screens. So if they are not going away soon, I wanted to see if I could design the least worst touch interface. In an ideal world the interaction is designed with a mix of physical controls, haptic touch interfaces, voice and more.
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