Rethinking Physical Car Controls —
Project
Exploring ways to reintroduce physical controls to the touchscreen interactions which currently dominate the vehicle dashboard landscape
Info
- Automotive UX
- 2 Weeks
- October 2023
- Solo Project
Tools
- ProCreate
- Figma
Outcome & Learnings
- Its entirely possible, today, to reintroduce physical controls to improve user satisfaction by offering the tactile feedback that’s been removed by the dominance of touchscreens.
- The prototype demonstrates that we can consolidate multiple physical controls into singular, multifunctional knobs to reduce manufacturing costs while maintaining user-friendly interactions.
Core focus
Explore ways that physical controls can be combined with touchscreens to consolidate and centralize interactions
Unifying Screens with Physical Controls
The prototype and interaction I ended up with is a combination of 2 physical knobs with integrated touchscreens that can work together with the IVI system to control multiple aspects at once.
Concept & Feedback
Prototyping
Final Thoughts & Next Steps
Manufacturers seem to understand that drivers don’t like the reliance on touchscreens but aren’t very willing to work on more physical controls. There needs to be a medium between the two extremes. Ford, for instance, introduced this IVI system in the Mach E. It has a physical knob embedded near the bottom edge of the screen, which is similar to the solution I explored but with the added expenses of a massive, complex, custom-shaped touch screen with integrated knob and additional, small screen.
This entire project got me extremely intrigued by automotive UX and I would be very happy to continue exploring the industry.
