Baffling dashboard decisions by Ford

[Woeo]

Exactly. I’m currently leading the interactive design for an app to be used by med schools. We’re not only interviewing the students that will use it, but also the professors. Their insights will be critical to designing an interface that is not only easy-to-use, but one that also fills their needs.

Get ready. When you set up a forum there will be complaints.

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[Woeo]

The defrost button? I used it once.

Humble brag Hawaii man.

 

[buzznwood]

Good point though I guess it just shifts the point of failure from a physical switch to a software glitch. Maybe the latter is less expensive to fix? Then again Ford pays for all the software fixes but I would imagine we would have to pay to replace a switch that fails if it’s not under warranty. That said I can’t say I’ve had switches fail on me.

Screens have a place for a lot of things but putting everything on there is just asking for trouble as if the screen fails or the software glitches to the point the screen becomes unusable then you can potentially loose a lot of features vs a single physical switch going bad. Sticking everything on the screen is just nice and cheap for the manufactures that's about it.

The other advantage of physical switches is they tend to work straight away no waiting around for things to wake up or the required screen to appear, before you can access things. When its faster for me to open the door and pull the frunk latch to open it than it takes using the button on the screen it is not a sign of quality .

After a few months of using the mach-e any future vehicles that do not have physical HVAC controls will simply not get purchased by me I have no problem poking the screen for navigation, entertainment and one and done setup but soft versions of HVAC are utter garbage IMO, if your the developer sitting at your desk using a static unit then great no problem but on the road when your on the move they are just the worst thing ever, not sure who the idiot was that thinks slim vertical sliders are a good idea with small targets at the top and bottom FYI they are not.

I have no problem with a climate screen like previous syncs where it can be used to represent it all in a more pleasing graphical manor but as the primary interface the luddite in me wants physical dials / buttons. With the amount of space they take up at the bottom of the screen they could have just ditched the volume knob (as volume is on the steering wheel) and the whole area could have been made physical controls, or they could have at least used the volume knob push functionality to cycle through the hvac operations rather than just wasting it on calm screen activation. Still at least with it being software there are ways to improve it as it sure needs it.

 

[Kamuelaflyer]

Humble brag Hawaii man.

The weather turned cool in early November. I was on my way to the airport on a 2 lane country road and everything fogged up. I had no idea where defogger was in the climate menu, so I just pushed buttons.

 

[Maquis]

If you are pressing the accelerator you are using energy.

That’s not exactly correct when using 1PD.

 

[shadowsjc]

Screens have a place for a lot of things but putting everything on there is just asking for trouble as if the screen fails or the software glitches to the point the screen becomes unusable then you can potentially loose a lot of features vs a single physical switch going bad. Sticking everything on the screen is just nice and cheap for the manufactures that's about it.

The other advantage of physical switches is they tend to work straight away no waiting around for things to wake up or the required screen to appear, before you can access things. When its faster for me to open the door and pull the frunk latch to open it than it takes using the button on the screen it is not a sign of quality .

After a few months of using the mach-e any future vehicles that do not have physical HVAC controls will simply not get purchased by me I have no problem poking the screen for navigation, entertainment and one and done setup but soft versions of HVAC are utter garbage IMO, if your the developer sitting at your desk using a static unit then great no problem but on the road when your on the move they are just the worst thing ever, not sure who the idiot was that thinks slim vertical sliders are a good idea with small targets at the top and bottom FYI they are not.

I have no problem with a climate screen like previous syncs where it can be used to represent it all in a more pleasing graphical manor but as the primary interface the luddite in me wants physical dials / buttons. With the amount of space they take up at the bottom of the screen they could have just ditched the volume knob (as volume is on the steering wheel) and the whole area could have been made physical controls, or they could have at least used the volume knob push functionality to cycle through the hvac operations rather than just wasting it on calm screen activation. Still at least with it being software there are ways to improve it as it sure needs it.

That's the point of using the "auto" button on the screen. Presumably you set the temperature to something comfortable for you once, and then anytime in the future just tap the "auto" button on the screen to change how fast you want to warm (or cool) your car up/down.

In the winter so far I've gotten by with 66 F and 1 bar on the auto button. If that's too cold i can fiddle with the temperature slider, but usually it's fine.

 

[SnowBunnE]

I like most aspects of the dash after considering a Model 3. I would love a hard push button to open the trunk.

There is a physical button to open the trunk….or do you mean a hard push button on the Dash/IPad?

 

[generaltso]

There is a physical button to open the trunk….or do you mean a hard push button on the Dash/IPad?

Yes, a hard button on the dash.

 

[Jimrpa]

Exactly. I’m currently leading the interactive design for an app to be used by med schools. We’re not only interviewing the students that will use it, but also the professors. Their insights will be critical to designing an interface that is not only easy-to-use, but one that also fills their needs.

Oh god no! Please NO! Don’t do that! I beg of you! Consider the poor IT department that your app is going to be foisted upon with demands that it be supported. You have absolutely NO idea of what a nightmare you’re going to unfurl within the organization internally (I work for a major academic research medical center) Sigh… Sorry for going OT everyone. The posters point is generically correct - you have to consider all constituencies in design. For example, as the Mustang Mach E is beginning to be adopted by non-consumers (taxi fleets, LEO), their needs should be considered in UI designs as well. Maybe this leads to different UIs for different classes of customers? I don’t know?

 

[Jimrpa]

That's the point of using the "auto" button on the screen. Presumably you set the temperature to something comfortable for you once, and then anytime in the future just tap the "auto" button on the screen to change how fast you want to warm (or cool) your car up/down.

In the winter so far I've gotten by with 66 F and 1 bar on the auto button. If that's too cold i can fiddle with the temperature slider, but usually it's fine.

Personally, I just use the “auto” button and voice commands to adjust the temperature as required. I would prefer it If the seat warmers “cycled”, but since I’ve discovered the “Auto” setting for those, that’s not even a major peeve any more.

 

[skiingj]

I do really like the Auto button with three fan speeds. Most of the other buttons/sliders are not very intuitive.

My wish would be a heated seat button like the Auto. On/Off button right on top.

 

[oadesign]

Oh god no! Please NO! Don’t do that! I beg of you! Consider the poor IT department that your app is going to be foisted upon with demands that it be supported. You have absolutely NO idea of what a nightmare you’re going to unfurl within the organization internally (I work for a major academic research medical center) Sigh… Sorry for going OT everyone. The posters point is generically correct - you have to consider all constituencies in design. For example, as the Mustang Mach E is beginning to be adopted by non-consumers (taxi fleets, LEO), their needs should be considered in UI designs as well. Maybe this leads to different UIs for different classes of customers? I don’t know?

You're correct...we most definitely do not take all of their feedback into account! We have been able to mine some helpful information though; it just has to be fully evaluated before adding to our implementation!

 

[bbachrac]

My first extended weekend trip of driving has brought out a lot of minor interface annoyances for me:

Why does each driving mode have a different driver's dashboard screen with different levels of information? For example, Engage is the only one that appears to show Brake Coach even though it has its own toggle in Settings.

Why can't you get mi/kWH on the screen with the battery level and distance to empty? Why do I have to open up the Trip app from the center screen, which can't even correctly end a prior trip when I turn the car back on?

Why can't I see the kWH rate of charging on the dash so I can compare it to what the charging station is saying?

Why can't I choose a Calm Screen design of my own liking instead of having to look at a Kia EV6 ad?

The good thing is software can be fixed, which is lucky because there are many aspects of the current interface that are a dog's breakfast.

The Mustang Mach-E driver controls are a nightmare. The Sync-4 touch control display is poorly organized, often difficult to actuate, and an embarrassment for whomever designed it. Accomplishing almost anything is an awkward sequence of actuations. The bottom slider across the bottom of the screen requires looking away from the road

For example, just adjusting the air handling system requires a major driving distraction. Just try turning the defroster on and off ! Doing almost any air control requires reaching for the system button to the right of the volume control. The system will not stay in the air recirculation mode which wastes energy.

 

[KevinS]

Under your theory one would only need one mode—everything on the screen all the time.

You know how to access the coach. Practice with it as long as you like or for just a bit. It isn’t meant to help you achieve 100% energy recovery every stop. It is there for the uninitiated to learn to start breaking sooner and smoother. Turn old habits into EV habits. Getting recovery from ~40% to ~90% is enough. Turn on Whisper and chill.

You're missing the point, which is consistency of interface experience.

If you don't want it, you disable it once in settings, and it doesn't show up in any driving mode.

Please read further in this thread to see where the desire for regen data is discussed as well. Again, if not interesting to you, it would ideally be disabled in settings.

 

[Frankie]

#1 Because it was designed be a select group a bunch of D- students in house at Ford and they didn't ask customers what they wanted or what would be useful.

#2 See #1
#3 See #1
#4 Did you read #1 yet?

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