Sometimes, real buttons are better than the best touchscreen

[sekker]

I miss my buttons from my pebble on my Apple Watch. A couple real buttons would have been far better than whatever it is Apple has.

And I ALWAYS thought the Palm PDAs with a few front-facing buttons were far better than a single 'home' button on an iPhone. And not sure FaceID is better than TouchID during COVID, so going to 'no buttons' is not always a step back (though I'm ok with FaceID).

But the latest Fitbit? Well, you guessed it - no more buttons! And how did it do? Read for yourself!

https://www.theverge.com/22680300/fitbit...ss-tracker

[Speedy]

I thought this was going to be about cars. In my old cars I could do everything I wanted without taking my eyes off the road. Not anymore. Sucks.

[kj]

If someone could make a layer for lcd screens that could shape shift into buttons and ridges, that would be cool. You could also separate the big screen into several smaller screens, like a strip for Hot/Cold, fan speed, etc. I'm pretty sure most of the advantage of lcd screens is cost, not human factors.

[testcase]

I have to agree with you re the Apple Watch and the Palm PDAs.

I also agree with Speedy. The 11" touch screen on my Prius is a DOG. Just a little bit of sunlight on the screen and said screen becomes unreadable. 99% of the time, I'm solo in said Prius. The touch screen is pretty much USELESS then unless I pull over in a shady spot. :villagers:

PS: I've checked with at least THREE Toyota dealers hoping a "screen cover" or liquid application would make the screen readable in sunlight. NO joy.

[NewtonMP2100]

......what about a button nose......???

[SDGuy]

Speedy wrote:
I thought this was going to be about cars. In my old cars I could do everything I wanted without taking my eyes off the road. Not anymore. Sucks.

haha - yup, I remember when I bought a new HR-V right around three years ago, and purposely stuck to the base model, because the sound system and climate controls are all still done via...round knobs and physical buttons. The salesman made a point of noting that I'd be stuck with just a "basic" interface screen, without touch controls, and have to use...gasp...knobs to control things. He thought the touch-screen interface on the higher end models would be a selling point, as if I was missing out in a big way.

[SDGuy]

kj wrote:
If someone could make a layer for lcd screens that could shape shift into buttons and ridges, that would be cool. You could also separate the big screen into several smaller screens, like a strip for Hot/Cold, fan speed, etc. I'm pretty sure most of the advantage of lcd screens is cost, not human factors.

well...the patent is out there - now just need someone to actually start building them...

[sekker]

Our touchscreen on our Tesla is fine.

But I think the touchscreen on our Volt is pretty poor by comparison. And don’t get me started on the crappy Bluetooth.

[Speedy]

sekker wrote:
Our touchscreen on our Tesla is fine.

But I think the touchscreen on our Volt is pretty poor by comparison. And don’t get me started on the crappy Bluetooth.

Interesting. I’ve never ridden in a Tesla but I can make do fairly well with the touchscreen in our 2013 Volt. I guess after five years I just need to glance at it to know what it is showing. Plus there are a fair number of capacitive buttons on the center console to control climate and radio. Bluetooth is fine, too. So I look forward to something even better when we get a Tesla.

[cbelt3]

Touchscreens in vehicles for the driver to operate are an accident waiting to happen. We called it "Pilot Workload" when developing the F-5 radar interface. And we were talking about highly trained young men and women with phenomenal vision and reflexes.

Too many damn video game designers are developing stuff for vehicles.