Quote:
Originally Posted by EvoFire
Disagree with some points. iDrive was one of the best infotainment systems until the recent buttonless iteration. The Tesla all on the screen implementation isn't the worst out there, but it certainly isn't the best.
The argument that you don't need buttons is wrong, as it has been echoed by many UX/UI professionals. In the case of the cars, marketing won out. Marketing and sales wins over common sense in a lot of places, not just cars. It shows as BMW and VW are both showing signs are backtracking on their recent buttonless designs.
I do agree with some consumers not knowing what they want, and sometimes iterative designs have to be done in market to see what works and what doesn't. The gas vs horse thing isn't a great comparison as gas engines had a long way to go whereas a button for signals is.... a button for signals. The potential iterations would be to put the button on the dash board, or *gasp* put it on a stick somewhere. Control stalks have been a staple interactive piece in cars for a reason. Buttons on the dashboard and on the steering wheel for these functions have been tried and discard many times. Look at the Tesla yolk, it's a failed iteration and imo the stalkless design would fall in the same bucket. I mean, if you did this on a BMW it wouldn't matter since BMW drivers don't use signals anyways 
I still lament the loss of the 3.5mm audio jack on phones. From a cost perspective, removing it is a significant saving as it removes one complexity for software and hardware design, it's probably 10 or so parts less than before to source or R&D on, and it's a huge win for IP ratings, so the value of it from a manufacturer's perspective is huge. As an audiophile consumer, BT headphones a few years ago was nowhere near the quality, nor was battery tech there. We've seen improvements in both, and in terms of the trade off between ease of use and quality the gap and tradeoffs have narrowed significantly. Now that I have kids and can't really enjoy music the way I used to, the tradeoff for BT has finally won out and I will no longer search for a phone with 3.5mm jack for the next replacement, but I was a hold out for a long time. |
I get that some would prefer it one way or the other. But the point still remains. Just because the majority do/think in any particular way doesn't mean that's THE way to do it.
We are simply not presented with an alternative.
I dunno which i-Drive version you tried, but I've had from 2006 all the way to 2017 in various BMWs and Mini. And they are just shit. Even if you are talking about today's i-Drive... it still begs the question, WTF is the wheel knob still there?! It could totally have migrated to a full touchscreen system and developed without buttons.
The only reason I can think of was to not alter the experience that loyalty BMW drivers have become accustomed to. But it was shit. You can pour whatever amount of cologne on it and it wouldn't stop stinking. As soon as it was offered with Apple CarPlay, we moved to that immediately and use that almost exclusively when we are in the car even we paid for $$$ nav system and whatever.
And Carplay wasn't all that amazing when it first became available for BMW IIRC. But it was miles ahead of i-Drive.