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Comment by xp84 | Hacker News Reader

UI designers who were trained in the currently-popular paradigm would be at a complete loss to design such things. "Swipe left from the home screen, tap the nothingness on the screen to reveal the controls overlay, find the ••• in one corner of the screen, tap "More" in the 3-item menu, and then tap 'Bond Quote' in the modal dialog that takes over the entire screen." Keyboard shortcuts? "Hmm... interesting idea. Never thought of that. We might add those in a V2."

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We already see this in car interfaces. Clearly designed by people that don't drive, or at the very least have not tested it themselves while driving.

I got a rental the other day and while driving could not find the clock! I had to hit TWO BUTTONS on the infotainment touchscreen panel to get back to "home" and see the gd time. I was driving on curvy roads in Yosemite too. Truly abhorrent.

Also bad: When a software update moves essential elements around.

For the last three years I've looked at a particular location in my car for the clock. Then a software update moved it not just to a different location on the screen, but to an entirely different screen.

Three years of muscle memory is probably going to take another three years to un-do.

(For those of you who don't understand why a clock is an essential part of driving, it's so I know if I can park in a 9a-4p zone, or if it's the time of day when I can use the reversible lanes in my direction of travel, or if I can use the lanes that are HOV sometimes and HOT at other times, or a hundred other things.)

The same software update moved the wiper locking controls (for car washes) from a button on the left steering column stalk to a menu option four levels deep on the center screen.

Oh wow. This would make me lose it. I've been increasingly angry lately with enshittification. It's so frustrating and unfair.

I got a rental car recently and discovered there is no way to change the speedometer into kph

That's definitely surprising in this age. Could you change the air conditioner ui to celsius? But changing to kph is not something I expect by default in _every_ car. I do expect a visible clock in every car though.

Actually yes I did notice that was an option, changing the units for the temperature was there.

> have not tested it themselves while driving.

I don't think the driver is supposed to use the touch screen while the vehicle is in motion

The corollary of which is that no function the driver might sensibly need while underway should be presented or accessed through a touch screen.

So physical levers and buttons. With some tactile feedback, such as raised lips or centre bumps or distinct shapes, so without looking the user knows which one their finger is on (third from left in the Aircon group). Displays can be present multiple items (don't need physical dials) but changing that display when driving comes back to buttons.

The grenadier interior is supposed to be great in this respect. Sort of looks like a cockpit

https://www.caranddriver.com/photos/g63743843/2023-ineos-gre...

Apart from the aesthetic style, that's just what cars used to look like. A bunch of buttons for various things in the middle.

Wow. Except for what appears to be a stateless gearshift (Not that that isn’t standard-issue these days), A+. Look at all those physical switches and knobs, whose location I would learn to use with zero looking away from the road needed in a few weeks.

Which is the problem, yes. It was perfectly fine to use physical buttons while driving because you don't have to look at them.

The law in the UK appears to be that is is perfectly OK to use a touch screen so long as you "stay in full control" and aren't holding the device:

https://www.gov.uk/using-mobile-phones-when-driving-the-law

NB My car has loads of features that I would expect to use while driving that can only be accessed through the touch screen.

If that's correct, why is it there at all?

(increasingly everyone including the safety wonks are realizing why this is a bad idea)

My car has user interface elements that you would want to use while driving (e.g. to cancel the navigation guidance) that only become visible if you hold your hand in front of the screen....

My car display has NO WAY to cancel navigation guidance from the GPS screen. You can pause guidance, but when you turn the car on again, it tries to resume.

You have to go back from the guidance screen to cancel. So, I never use it.

My god have you ever had those people try to add keyboard shortcuts? You start to question if they have ever used a keyboard at all.

Saw this post today about ceiling fans.

what is going on with ceiling fans: https://mcmansionhell.com/post/829127919552151552/what-is-go...

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49917536

Because Bloomberg Terminals are specialist devices for power users and most apps/web sites are consumer products.

Don’t get me wrong, I get the complaint. But it’s not like the designers are unaware of more information dense alternatives.

> But it’s not like the designers are unaware of more information dense alternatives.

Strong disagree. I have been in UX reviews for products like Bloomberg terminals as the intended user. I specifically asked for information density and the designer looked at me like I was from the moon. Their counter offer was a permanent floating chatbot that covered the small amount of information still on the page. No joke. Information density is something those web designers genuinely could not comprehend.

“ You can remove the drawn-in borders just by adding a little visual space, and use subtle color differences to separate rows if needed” ———> “Let’s make it 10 rows per screen (and somehow still with low-legibility font choices and low-readability text design)! Make the design breathe, you know, white space!” ———> Me, having an aneurysm

I described it as being lost in an ocean of white pixels. Then they added padding and broke hyperlinks. I know it was incompetence but it started to feel malicious.

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