| > Maybe that came out wrong. No worries! What matters is that we can discuss it and figure things out eventually. What i can totaly agree with you is that correct design is critical, and blaming individuals for their failings is not the way forward if we want to make an activity safer. I think this is the gist of what you wrote and it is absolutely correct. The only thing i bristled at is that it is not a new insight and widely accepted tenet in aviation. > For example I'd be that a UX designer with empathy for the user would not put a touchscreen focused control into a car. Yeah. I agree with that point. I think modern cars have touchscreens for two reasons: It is cheaper for the manufacturers, (Less parts to assemble, and less parts to keep in stock) and it is slightly prefered by the costumers due to the showroom appeal. (As you also mention.) It is kind of like candy in that regard. Not good for people but they still want it. In other words it is not the empathy and the understanding what is lacking. Just that the cost savings combine with the consumer appeal in such a way that they overpowered the UX considerations. Sad thing. But sadly not a situation where people reading a design book will change the incentive structure. In fact I bet that if we dug into it we would find internal memos written by UX engineers pointing out exactly what you wrote, and other engineers in response pointing out that all those functions on the touch screens are “non safety critical”. I have seen those arguments often. |
This is kind of the point I wanted to get at though, I've been in a few such meetings, and a lot of clever engineers will rubberstamp things that are outside their area because it's technically safe, but ignoring the human element. Even bringing up the human element often gets scoffed at, because "that's not what we do here".
I feel like the lack of a broad view on things is what bothers me the most about it. If more people had a broader view, these meetings might go differently.