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I even see a large dropoff in usability between my commuter vehicle, which has knobs and levers, and my spouse's vehicle, which has buttons. What makes it worse is that they are unlit buttons. I can quite easily adjust the environmental controls in my vehicle without looking at them, or with a brief glance. In the other car, which I generally only drive at night anyway, I have to at minimum turn on the map light, and sometimes have to stop the car and look down at the mess of 20 identical-feel buttons to push the correct one. The button I really hate is the "mode" button. It is furthest from the driver's seat, and switches between defrost, defrost + low vents, high vents, high vents + low vents, low vents. It doesn't click or beep or give any kind of audio signal. You can't tell by feel. You can either look down at the LCD display to see what it's doing, or you can wait a few seconds for the actuators to adjust the airflow, and then hit the button again if it wasn't what you wanted. This button's function is fulfilled by a knob in my car, and I prefer it that way. I can't even imagine a touchscreen that doesn't even have the tactile-kinesthetic advantage of the fixed-position buttons. How many seconds will I need to look away from the road in order to turn on the AC and blow it at the inside of the windshield if the glass starts to fog up on a hot, humid night? |