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Comment by mrtksn | Hacker News Reader

It definitely happens(I know from experience).

The thing is, it's actually really hard to judge quality of a design(takes a bachelor degree in Industrial Design and masters in related field and a few studies like the one in question to objectively evaluate a design). Most people like the new trendy one and unfortunately in cars that's a large touchscreen.

Don't think of car enthusiast, think people who like the car because of the shade of its color and feel of the leather - which is most people.

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>The thing is, it's actually really hard to judge quality of a design(takes a bachelor degree in Industrial Design and masters in related field and a few studies like the one in question to objectively evaluate a design).

Horse hockey. Spend a couple years in Quality Assurance with your eyes open. It:s trivial to seperate wheat from chaff. The key that your Industrial Design might give you insight on is the fact that Industry has decided unilaterally that cost to produce > joy of end user in use. I.e. if it's cheaper to make and sell, it's higher Quality, rather than it's damn good, now lets streamline it.

Yes, your process weighs into it, but I assure you, the cognitive load of a haptic interface vs a touchscreen is so much lower it's absurd to even try to compare. If you really care about the end user, you take the time to get them buttons, and don't distract them with touchscreen finicky BS.

Don't think of car enthusiast, think people who like the car because of the shade of its color and feel of the leather - which is most people.

Those are exactly the people I'm talking about though. I'm in the UK - maybe the current culture is different here to some other places?

Of course it's also possible that my own experience hasn't been representative but I've heard the same story so many times for so long now that it's hard to believe I've encountered some freak sample of outliers.

I don't know for sure but on most brands you literally have to pay more to get the large touchscreen. Don't you think that the car manufacturers would put desirable features to convince the customer for an upsell?

Put in cheap features and then try to make them desirable definitely seems to be closer to the reality. Bonus sized cheap features definitely goes into that.

Also, chalk me up as someone who has never heard a positive thing about car touch screens after a week or so of interaction.

> Don't think of car enthusiast, think people who like the car because of the shade of its color and feel of the leather - which is most people.

Precisely. Millions of people (intelligent, rational, highly-educated) still buy cars with specific color/trim as their primary motivator. Until the trend reverses, a screen will continue to be a value-add to any vehicle because of the "modern" association.

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