Oh tahnk Satan
this post was submitted on 04 Nov 2024
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No I wouldn't say touchscreens are out, I would say augmenting them with physical buttons is about to get popular.
I'm gonna buy a Garmin instinct because I realized I don't use 95% of my galaxy Watch's "smart" features.
Plotnick, an associate professor of cinema and media studies at Indiana University in Bloomington, is the leading expert on buttons and how people interact with them.
I like that being a leading expert on buttons is a profession that exists in this world. You go Rachel Plotnick.
Leading expert on buttons says to use buttons?
Mild shock
Seriously though they are needed for many features especially cars or eyes away
I didn't have a car for a few years and the one I had was 2003 (with a slight stint from a similarly-aged car during a couple-month time I had to drive). I now have a car again and I HATE that my heat/air and such are all flat against the panel (not a touch screen, though). I literally can't adjust anything without looking in my current car. Thankfully, I avoid driving it whenever possible.
The answer is tactile buttons with displays behind them. Not sure why nobody is doing this in cars...
Because they are expensive. More importantly, how often does the function of a button is changed? Top right corner button on android is usually a back button (arrow/ x) or a profile icon. How often does a bottom navigation in an app change? Dashboard is an app that rarely changes.
I will do you one better. The screen in the button goes out. If the button changes the display based on the context, what does the button do? Is software responsible to recognize it cannot display an action and do something? What does it do? Should the user be responsible to remember what does the button do based on the context? This article is about return to physical buttons because they are reliable. Do you see any button on your cars dashboard that is unlabeled? Do you remember looking up in a manual what a weirdly iconed button does? On any piece of hardware.
This is from users perspecrtive alone.
Lets do the manufacturer. Imagine that screen buttons have SKUs. Dashboards have SKUs. Screen buttons have versioned drivers. Screen buttons need power delivery. Data lanes on pcbs. And fuck else.
Now imagine that you have a physical button. It costs cents. It closes one lane. Maybe needs power for a led.
Who the fuck wants screen buttons?
Finally. What the fuck multiple screen buttons solve that a single screen that can be any number of any buttons couldnt?
Because sure as fuck they wont solve for context, clarity and reliablity.
Because touch screens are cheap and put the onus of design onto the programmers of apps.
I think we'll see multipurpose function buttons under the display, that change function programmatically depending on what the app is doing.
That's gonna mess with muscle memory.
Like a streamdeck essentially?
Touch screens are shit tor buttons. They can be hacked. They can be unresponsive.
There's a load of other reasons, but either or both are enough to realise that a physical button is much safer. Perfect example of safety being lost in technology. Just because we can, doesn't mean we should.
Thank god! Touch screens on the stuff in cars are a huge pain in the ass if you have hands as big as mine and the icons are all tiny
It's not that the icons are tiny, rather people driving usually operate by touch because their eyes need to be on the road.
They need a professor to tell them what Liz Lemon did in one lunchtime https://youtu.be/vyZkHjgzGRM?t=83
I just want to say that I think this is the dash from my old car a Toyota Yaris.
I miss you ole' buddy. I'm sorry you got rear ended and totaled. You were a great car.
You know there is still time to snatch up a fantastic Toyota GR Yaris and elevate your life!
My first car was a 2001 Yaris. Lovely car until the timing chain broke and destroyed all four cylinder heads at once!
Four cylinder heads in a Yaris! That's a hell of an engine!
I'll pour one out for the Yaris.
Touchscreens can stay, but only for non-essential tasks like changing settings or entering addresses. Climate, media, and all other controls you usually use while driving should be tactile by mandate.
Here's my rule: Anything in my Chevy S10 that you control by turning a knob, moving a lever, or momentarily push a button? That needs to be a physical control in a car. Anything where you push and hold a button, or mash a button multiple times (like setting the clock or turning off the DRLs respectively) can be moved to a settings menu in a touch screen. These things shouldn't be done while moving.
And no, touch sensitive single-function panels like the climate controls in my father's Avalon are not good enough, it needs to be a mechanical control that you can feel for without activating.
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