| I am fond of the controls in my car. Pretty much everything is done through a simple knob with a label above it. On the far left, a knob for lights. Pull out one click to turn on parking lights, all the way out for headlights. Twist left and right to adjust dashboard brightness. Next to that, fan control. One click out for slow, all the way for fast. Just to the left of the steering wheel is the heater control. Pull it out for low->high heat on a sliding scale, rotate it to control the defrost. Immediately to the right of the steering wheel is the cigarette lighter. To the right of that is the wiper control. One click for slow, all the way out for fast. Center of the dash is the radio. One knob to turn it on and control volume, one to tune. You might have guessed that this isn't a modern car. It's a 1962 Studebaker. The controls are simple, clearly labeled, and do everything you need. You don't even have to look down to find the right control, you can just count the knobs from one side to find the right one. You can easily tell the state of the heater or lights because you can see and feel the state of the control. You don't really even need fine motor control except for tuning the radio, and that's pretty forgiving too. Were I designing a car interface, I'd consider the lessons presented there. |