I’m just going to say it. The 4.1.2 interface is ugly!

[phil]

I'm just gonna say it:

The aesthetic characteristics of a touchscreen display are not among the top 1,000 things I care about in a car.

There. I said it.

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[KevinS]

I’ve never wanted a camera button. I’m not sure what’s wrong with everyone else’s cars, but my cameras come on automagically, whenever they’re needed. About the only time I need to fire them up manually is to show someone why it’s impossible to develop a practical Tesla-style monitoring system with the current cameras and configuration (amazing how many people forget that our mirrors retract when parked )

I use it when going through one of those godawful ATM lanes where you have only a few inches of clearance on each side. I also use it sometimes when checking my parking space clearance if I'm questioning it. I know that I can do the latter by going in reverse but there are times (late at night) when the reverse beep isn't much appreciated.

 

[DYohn]

I like the icons.

 

[SashaLondon]

It looks like the initial design was done by a design team that spent a lot of time on it. The issue is that they either didn't use that design team or have just gone very generic with the design language as they spread the UI over many different cars and uses.
Either way, it is going downhill. I for one do care about these things quite a bit.

 

[Logal727]

I think 95% of the update is really slick, but those icons... it's like someone took a shit in the punchbowl at the world's best party

 

[MarkP213]

When I saw the design I actually sent an email to some people at Ford... This is what I said (in part because there were other things discussed as well):

Team,

... some of the basic UI blunders in the recent 4.1.2 release.

In the below image you’ll notice the following:

• The 3 leftmost icons on the top bar are not the same color as the 2 rightmost icons. They should all be the same color. They should be colored in accordance with the drive mode and light/dark settings, just like the other icons within the UI. They should not be white when using dark mode.
• The home and settings icons are solid fill icons, meaning the icon is colored throughout. The camera icon, and by nature the Ford logo, are outline icons. There should be consistency here.
• The home icon takes you to an app tray, there’s nothing “home” about this location. The home icon is supposed to be used to return “home” where you would normally keep the screen for viewing. This should be an app tray icon.
• Using a switch icon (double toggle) for settings is a strange choice as well. Maybe a cogwheel would be better, just like all modern devices use.
• Putting the profile button on the furthest right corner is not what anyone expects. The clock should be moved back to the far right corner, just like Android, iPhones, Tablets, TVs, Windows, MacOS and every other device with a UI

In the below imagine you’ll notice that the volume label is on the power button. In UI design you NEVER put 2 different call to actions on a singular button. This is a power button, it is not a volume button. While I understand that “volume” is likely referencing the wheel, this is not the place to put it, since this is actually on top of a button that serves another purpose. Put the volume label to the upper right above the wheel where there’s no button.

Sincerely,
Todd"

I received a response from the Sr. Product Manager:

"...Thank you very much for sending us very detailed feedback on some of the UI changes that were implemented recently. The Team has sent your feedback to the appropriate parties here at Ford and they are investigating."

The same physical analog button operates the similarly on other Fords. I get what you’re saying, but I’ve never seen this as odd, bad, confusing, or wrong.

Update: just got done looking at other manufacturers. Most have duel purpose volume/power buttons in their vehicles.

 

[DevSecOps]

The same physical analog button operates the similarly on other Fords. I get what you’re saying, but I’ve never seen this as odd, bad, confusing, or wrong.

Update: just got done looking at other manufacturers. Most have duel purpose volume/power buttons in their vehicles.

I get that as intelligent humans we are smart enough to figure it out. But it's just bad practice to label a button as something that it doesn't do, or label it as doing two things, one of which it doesn't do.

Think about cell phones, they could have made a long press on vol-down as a power button and remove the physical button used to power on/off the device, but they haven't.

Also, I know that Ford released 4.1.2 as a half baked version of what they wanted. I've been told that there's more tweaking in process. I'm not sure that I would have made the call to release it like that if I were in charge, but they did. So there should be more refinement coming soon.

 

[Logal727]

I get that as intelligent humans we are smart enough to figure it out. But it's just bad practice to label a button as something that it doesn't do, or label it as doing two things, one of which it doesn't do.

Think about cell phones, they could have made a long press on vol-down as a power button and remove the physical button used to power on/off the device, but they haven't.

Also, I know that Ford released 4.1.2 as a half baked version of what they wanted. I've been told that there's more tweaking in process. I'm not sure that I would have made the call to release it like that if I were in charge, but they did. So there should be more refinement coming soon.

Sounds like what I thought actually happened, they shipped temp placeholder icons just to get it out. I'd seen these icons before a long time ago in a demo video as well and thought they were placeholder at the time, was super surprised when they ended up in production!

 

[eleven24]

Where is the inspiration from? Windows 95?! The skeuomorphic design of the buttons isn’t bringing back retro vibes for me. It’s just ugly.

Perhaps the UI/UX designers are Ford just got the newest version of Photoshop 4 with the new Emboss tool, thus the highlight/shadow circle buttons.

As bad as it does look, I'd still prefer being able to read/see everything as opposed to my Tesla MY and the super small fonts used for critical messages.

 

[DevSecOps]

Sounds like what I thought actually happened, they shipped temp placeholder icons just to get it out. I'd seen these icons before a long time ago in a demo video as well and thought they were placeholder at the time, was super surprised when they ended up in production!

The crazy thing is that they had these icons in mock-ups over a year ago! When I saw those at the time I was like, okay that will change before release. This was over a year ago and no one changed it...

They also thought about going like this with buttons, which I'm glad they didn't:

 

[breeves002]

While I will praise it for some added functionality and better response there are a lot of negatives. Camera button is my favorite new addition. The settings menu is improved greatly too.

-Visually displeasing design
-I miss the large tiles
-Why is there no tile for CarPlay now? Now you can never see the song title unless you have CarPlay front and center
-The volume knob being used for temp, etc is dumb and not necessary. I don't ever use it. It's faster for me to tap a few times. Waste of engineering time IMO.
-Also why the hell is the home button not a Home Screen but a menu? I wish they had a Home Screen that had split screen options. Like 12" Sync 4 has split screen. It shouldn't be the icon of a house though. So silly.

 

[acosmichippo]

Fantastic @DevSecOps! And thank you (I agree with everything you pointed out). Baffles me that a billion dollar corp like Ford is not capable of hiring competent software engineers or people capable of discerning who is a competent software engineer.

I've said it before but perhaps Ford should just hand all of this over to Google. Google is not perfect but it is more nimble when it comes to correcting issues.

or apple?

*ducks*

 

[Logal727]

The crazy thing is that they had these icons in mock-ups over a year ago! When I saw those at the time I was like, okay that will change before release. This was over a year ago and no one changed it...

They also thought about going like this with buttons, which I'm glad they didn't:

What I'm gleaning from this is that Sync 4A is not much of a priority at the moment, guessing everyone is on the Android platform builds which makes sense. At least we have the possibility of getting this changed (eventually), unlike 2 years ago my Sonata and my Honda Odyssey, we just have to live with what we bought.

 

[ChargedCheese]

In fact, I'm not sure how the volume level display is even useful. Displaying that number seems only to invite criticism, such as when Ioniq 5 drivers question why the first 70% of their digital volume display is nearly inaudible. Call me old school, but CCW->quiet, CW->loud is good enough for me. Thank goodness we have that dial to begin with.

I think this brings up a good point that I didn't really put together until now. I almost never use the dial (I like the design, but I never use it). I exclusively use the steering wheel volume control - I'm guessing you (and others) do not. As I sit here thinking about it, there is no good way to display the volume unless it is displayed in both areas.

For steering wheel control, the display at the top of the screen was in line of sight when adjusting that way - the knob indicator is blocked by my right arm doing the adjusting.

For knob control, the current location makes more sense as this is where your attention has been shifted - it feels intuitive when using the knob.

Perhaps we need a setting toggle for driver preference?

 

[khbkhb]

I guess I'm an outlier, on the whole I like the newer interface better. Easier to control the temp (reusing the volume button). I agree it could be better, but allowing for a lot of customization makes for potential safety hazards (any emacs user who has started typing in someone else's configured emacs knows just how hazardous this can be ;>). No doubt there will be future changes, hopefully each improving ;>

I still wish the camera could be enabled while moving. That's one thing I liked better about the Tesla Y.

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