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Summary:
The design of automotive interior controls does not have a strong enough basis in usability. This can result in error-filled and effortful operation. Most problems are due to a lack of companies' devoting the necessarily large effort to the usability side of design.
The auto show: The 2002 North American International Auto Show (NAIAS, or "the Detroit auto show," as we know it around Ohio).
Important gear: 1. My brother-in-law, Scott (he is a certifiable car encyclopedia) and 2. a digital camera
The mission: To evaluate the ease-of-use of new automobile interiors.
A little background...
This was my first trip to a large auto show (the NAIAS is the largest in North America). There were a lot of cars and there was a lot of "show." Most importantly, the show put practically every car from super-luxury to super-economy into one building and let us fiddle with the knobs.
The average automobile consumer has a far different mindset than automobile designers/enthusiasts. Luckily, the auto show has an audience of both industry insiders and average consumers, so I was not dumbing-down any "insider" concepts.
I was neither an enthusiast nor a designer. I had no more than a peripheral interest in the horsepower, torque, wheelbases (etc.) of these vehicles. I was more interested to see if I could operate the heater without reading the manual. Although enthusiasts may even enjoy learning about how to use a car's heater, the average consumer does not.
This evaluation is not meant to be a comprehensive review of all vehicles, but rather a concentrated display of their many different bad and good features.
It was eye-opening to see how poor design finds its way into automobiles and is justified by "it's in the manual" or the afterthought of a poorly-written sticker. This is the subject of the next page.
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