A fresh take on the Mustang MachE instrument cluster

[TheSeg]

Posts like these are what I love about these forums! This is great work and like having these kinds of conversations. What follows are my notes, which obviously do as you will.

Turn Blinker
I love this! My note is the animation doesn't fit the car's blinker animation. Take a look at how the front headlights blinker and try to match.

Directions & Range Placement
The location of these two items need to be reversed. Directions (including compass) is as important as the ground speed and deserves to be center. Range isn't as critical while driving, making the extreme left or right appropriate. This is why I like the media section on the far left. In practice, media and range can be swapped to either far left or right, but adding a toggle would just complicate things.

Directions Widget
I'm concerned about the direction symbols being too small and/or not accommodating for the range of symbols. I would want to see some renders with roundabouts at different exit steps as I believe they are the most data heavy symbols for driving directions.

Media Widget
I'd like to a variation based on an active call with the current contact.

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[ihor]

Posts like these are what I love about these forums! This is great work and like having these kinds of conversations. What follows are my notes, which obviously do as you will.

Turn Blinker
I love this! My note is the animation doesn't fit the car's blinker animation. Take a look at how the front headlights blinker and try to match.

Directions & Range Placement
The location of these two items need to be reversed. Directions (including compass) is as important as the ground speed and deserves to be center. Range isn't as critical while driving, making the extreme left or right appropriate. This is why I like the media section on the far left. In practice, media and range can be swapped to either far left or right, but adding a toggle would just complicate things.

Directions Widget
I'm concerned about the direction symbols being too small and/or not accommodating for the range of symbols. I would want to see some renders with roundabouts at different exit steps as I believe they are the most data heavy symbols for driving directions.

Media Widget
I'd like to a variation based on an active call with the current contact.

Great suggestions, thank you!

 

[Gullwingdmc]

I’ll just throw it out there, I love the current instrument cluster. Empty space does not always need to be filled.

 

[jbirdzee]

Do we think we'll ever get to a point where someone will "jailbreak" (or similar) Sync4 so that talented individuals like @ihor can actually implement this in their own car? This is awesome!

Note that for cruising speeds of 117MPH as in your second image, consider @Mach-Lee 's side mirror wind noise fix.

 

[Neil4Real]

Holy cow, I love this! Amazing work. I’m now just sad that it will never be a reality.

 

[AliRafiee]

I posted this idea with a much inferior execution than your and everyone shit on it. ?

https://www.macheforum.com/site/threads/can-i-have-these-features.27699/

 

[MW1515]

I like your designs a lot but I think the whisper/engaged/unbridled graphics should be more prominent (one thing I really like about the current design) and, maybe it's a bit of OCD, but I like the speedometer in the center unless there is a very good reason to not have it there (like when using Bluecruise). I don't use the lane centering feature or cruise control much, partly bc I want the speedometer in the center. ?

 

[Keeperofthe7keys]

I like the clean look and better use of space you have, but a few points of criticism, still no power meter?, Ford putting the miles until destination directly under the remaining range makes sense, don't move it to the opposite side. You forgot space at the bottom for 1pd/service indicators. There is no reason my music needs to be competing for screen space on the cluster, that's going too far on the opposite direction on usage of space and I have a giant tablet to my right for that.

Not necessarily in the scope of what you've done here but adding KW rate while charging is also something missing from the current design. You could do what the Bolt does and have the power meter do double duty with an actual number attached to the usage/regen.

 

[Bonehead]

It's a stab in the right direction. And I disagree with previous reply - I'd prefer having the media info right in front of me, since there's room for it.

Only suggestion: lose the words "ground speed" -it's unnecessary clutter (and dumb).

 

[JohnFoxeSheets]

Overall I really like your design, @ihor. Thank you for taking the time to create such a thoughtful post with excellent concepts. Way to come out of the chute strong!

On the feedback side of things, if you want to iterate on the design, I suggest you find some older people to review the design. The demographic of the Mach E skews more Boomer and Gen X than Millennials. We Boomers can struggle a bit with smaller fonts and low contrast type (e.g., the album name for your media widget).

I love the blinker concept, but agree that it would be ideal if it mirrored the front blinker of the Mach E - serves both form and function!

There's lot of space on the IPC so there's no reason in my book why the external temperature couldn't be displayed in addition to the compass direction.

I like the idea of displaying a visual for your follow distance, but I don't think you need to devote so much space to the lane-keeping indicator.

I find the big circle surrounding the Hands-free indicator to be a bit odd. It seems out of step with the rest of your excellent design.

I love the battery level on arrival estimate. (I never use the built-in Nav, so I don't even know if this is an existing feature!)

I really like your placement of the transmission mode - the current far-right-side IPC placement makes it difficult for me to see, especially when I need it most.

I like having the speed limit sign on the display, so that's something I miss in your current iteration.

I hope these suggestions/comments are useful.

 

[ihor]

Thank you for your feedback! Those are very good suggestions!
It didn’t take too much time-maybe three or four hours- and it definitely reflected on the quality. I just wanted to get rid of this brain worm, I guess. If I find time for another iteration, I will have so much feedback to consider.

I suggest you find some older people to review the design. The demographic of the Mach E skews more Boomer and Gen X than Millennials.

I don’t know why you think most designers are young. I’m 46 yo. But I hear you: there’s definitely room for improvements in terms of accessibility, too!

There's a lot of space on the IPC so there's no reason in my book why the external temperature couldn't be displayed in addition to the compass direction.
…
I really like your placement of the transmission mode - the current far-right-side IPC placement makes it difficult for me to see, especially when I need it most.

As an immigrant from Europe, I don’t fully understand many aspects of American cars. I assume these are cultural and habitual differences passed down from generation to generation, so I respect them and leave them unchanged. For example, I struggle to comprehend the need for a transmission mode indicator or compass – for me, they’re useless.

I like having the speed limit sign on the display, so that's something I miss in your current iteration.

You can see it in the very first picture. A speed limit is not always detected, so I tried to show different states of the UI (speed limit is available or unavailable, whether cruise control is turned on or off, and whether the navigation system is being used, etc.)

 

[JohnFoxeSheets]

Thank you for your feedback! Those are very good suggestions!
It didn’t take too much time-maybe three or four hours- and it definitely reflected on the quality. I just wanted to get rid of this brain worm, I guess. If I find time for another iteration, I will have so much feedback to consider.

I'm very impressed with your results - especially so since you only took a handful of hours to produce them!

I don’t know why you think most designers are young. I’m 46 yo. But I hear you: there’s definitely room for improvements in terms of accessibility, too!

Well, I'll just put it this way: I don't think I needed reading glasses when I was 46... And I've been helping my octogenarian neighbors a lot recently with computer issues so I've become a lot more attuned to the challenges of the elderly (I'm a senior, not an elder yet).

As an immigrant from Europe, I don’t fully understand many aspects of American cars. I assume these are cultural and habitual differences passed down from generation to generation, so I respect them and leave them unchanged. For example, I struggle to comprehend the need for a transmission mode indicator or compass – for me, they’re useless.

I tend to agree with you on the compass, though once in awhile it can be useful. As for the transmission mode, all I can say is that the Mach E is the first car I've owned where it is at times necessary. The stupidity of a freely spinning dial to change "gears" is mind-boggling. I (and from other threads I know I'm not alone) have at times spun the dial two click "past" Drive when I intended to spin it in the other direction. Having an easy to see indication on the IPC would be greatly helpful. (Better yet would be fixing the damn transmission dial, but that's outside the scope of your efforts.)

You can see it in the very first picture. A speed limit is not always detected, so I tried to show different states of the UI (speed limit is available or unavailable, whether cruise control is turned on or off, and whether the navigation system is being used, etc.)

Sorry, my bad; I forgot it was in the first picture.

But seriously dude, I gotta say, kudos to you. Ford should give you a call and offer you a job!

 

[SashaLondon]

Love it, the only thing I would change would be to put the speed in the middle.

 

[Shayne]

I’ll just throw it out there, I love the current instrument cluster. Empty space does not always need to be filled.

Me I would like getting the cruise information out from in behind my steering wheel (way over in the top right corner) and more to the center of the screen where I do not need to crank my neck to see it. That is the only thing I have against the current display. Do not see cruise info location in the OP proposal.

 

[llinthicum1]

All good suggestions, particular power consumption. I would go as far as to change layout of the instrument and info screens to be like the screens in the 2024 Mustang. Will probably have to wait until the next generation Mach-e.

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