Welcome to Tesla Motors Club
Discuss Tesla's Model S, Model 3, Model X, Model Y, Cybertruck, Roadster and More.
Register

A Plea from an Old Guy - Larger FONTS!

This site may earn commission on affiliate links.
There is an urgent need for review of the UI by a human machine interface expert. I have my doubts that this has been done - many of the changes are the exact opposite of what am HMI expert would suggest.
It's not just bigger fonts - it's about easier to absorb information (or in the case of v7, harder to absorb information). Just one example: the relationship of speed limit, current speed and TACC set speed is trivial to grasp in v6. It takes a lot more effort to figure this out in v7.

Agree 100%. My car has autopilot hardware but I don't have autopilot enabled. So I now have a giant area right in front of my vision that contains no useful information - everything is pushed to the edges. The speedo is at the top and now mostly hidden by the steering wheel. The power meter (to me a very useful display) has been banished to the sides. Same with rated range remaining (which I want front and center for road trips). Instead of one quick occasional glance to take all this info in, I'm now forced to physically move my head (to even see the speedo) and then scan a much larger area to take all this info in.
 
I certainly agree the new UI could use improvement. I find much of it very hard to read with my old eyes. For some fields this could be due to font size being too small, for others it may be choosing wrong colors (and shades of those colors) for text and background. and perhaps the font has also been changed, such as from Calibri to Times New Roman, in some cases. I have found adjusting brightness has helped a little, but not enough.

At any rate i found everything in version 6 eminently readable. So, if they can just revise v7.0 with those v6 approaches i think we all would be happy!
 
+1 !!
Also the move of Miles to Go from center under MPH to small font in the left corner is a big step backwards. I now need reading glasses to read Miles to Go .. the new 7.0 UI is pretty.. but a very bad UX move.
Out of sight out of mind .. With 6.X I was always aware of my miles to go .. now I will likely to not charge when i would have before.
Please fix..
 
I am an old guy having trouble reading some of the data on the new V7 UI. The font size needs to be enlarged, especially for the Trips app, as well as the newly redesigned Energy display (which I really don't like). Tesla, hope you're listening to your customers.

Add me to the list of supporters! My vision is not actually that bad except that the dash is on the edge of my no-glasses reading distance.... for now!

Please.... larger fonts. :)
 
Larger fonts on the Nav would be great. Also the photo map is unusable because the text isn't readable. It blends into the background. And lastly in v7 the numbers around the dial are too dim. They used to be just right.
 
Just in case new folks aren't aware -- posting to this forum is not providing feedback directly to Tesla.

Please email your feedback/concerns to [email protected] where someone at Tesla Motors will receive it.

Good suggestion, so I did exactly that. Was very surprised to receive an automated response that this email address is no longer monitored? So how are we supposed to contact the company?

Tesla.png
 
Good suggestion, so I did exactly that. Was very surprised to receive an automated response that this email address is no longer monitored? So how are we supposed to contact the company?

View attachment 98481

Errr, using the email address that the email told you to use in the line after it told you that email address was no longer monitored?
There are two addresses:
- Before you have your vehicle
- After you have your vehicle.
 
I actually really love the way the fonts look now. Small and clean has a beautiful aesthetic to it that does not look cartoonish. At the same time, I agree that this is a reasonable request for anyone who has vision issues. Fortunately, I still don't need corrective lenses, but this decade, I've found myself sheepishly increasing the size of fonts on my browser.

Tesla is meant to make the EV driving experience available to everyone so we should be inclusive. Maybe there can be a big font/small font option one day.

- K
 
Well, sorry about that folks -- last time I emailed ownership@ it worked.

So the new email address is: [email protected]

And yes this does reach real people...I sent two emails to them on separate topics on Friday (one with a question about Slacker and another with a suggestion for a way to bring back the old speedometer / power meter on AP cars) and both got responses from human beings within 24 hours. The former question was answered immediately, the latter suggestion was promised to be forwarded to an appropriate group within Tesla.
 
And yes this does reach real people...I sent two emails to them on separate topics on Friday (one with a question about Slacker and another with a suggestion for a way to bring back the old speedometer / power meter on AP cars) and both got responses from human beings within 24 hours. The former question was answered immediately, the latter suggestion was promised to be forwarded to an appropriate group within Tesla.

I also received a reply back within 24 hours. Here's what I sent them, and their reply is below:
To: Tesla <[email protected]>
Subject: Request for v7 UI Improvements

I want to share my observations with the new v7 UI. First, I spent 30 years of my working career "managing change" with various user groups using high tech systems, so I know what a challenge large scale changes can be. I’m a senior citizen (meaning - I have old eyes). Here are are my reasoned thoughts & suggestions on the new Tesla interface. I hope you’ll pass them along to the design team and senior management:

Pros:
1) the brake light display. I’ve always wanted to know when regen was turning on the brake lights when slowing down at a stoplight.

2) the new unlock button on the 17” screen is a plus.

3) the new center AP display provides useful information on what the car is sensing around it.

4) individual tire pressure info is nice.

Needs attention:
1) the use of gray fonts on a black background is hard to see. Fonts in general need to be BIGGER, PLEASE, along with the graphic displays.

2) need more contrast throughout the displays. This is a readability issue caused in part by flattening icons and the new overall look-and-feel. There is a lack of color vs v6, especially on the touchscreen (Climate, Media, etc.). All of the gray tones are pretty boring, visually, for such a high tech car.

3) speedometer numbers around the dial are simply too dark. I can hardly see them.

4) the headlight (especially high beam) and battery charge indicators on the left are in a bad spot. When a trip map appears, it bleeds right into the light/battery indicators. Then it’s very hard to tell if high beams are on or off.

5) while I like the new speed sign showing up more often, it is simply too small. Please enlarge it.

6) date shown in the calendar app needs more contrast to make it easier to read.

7) please bring back the A/B trip meters.

8) the new clock/temp app is pretty useless.

9) the TACC speed setting is too small; it was far better and more useful when it was integrated into the speedometer.

Here’s a suggestion I hope will be given serious consideration:
Use the now available push button on the cruise control stick to toggle the main dash display between the new AP sensor view and the old Power/Speed/Regen gauge view. There are times when it’s important to pay attention to energy use, and the new smaller, harder to read/understand energy display is a step backwards.

Thank you for the time and consideration.

---------------------------------------------------
From: Tesla <[email protected]>
Date: October 20, 2015 at 2:29:52 AM EDT
Subject: RE: Request for v7 UI Improvements


Thank you for contacting Technical Support with your feedback.

We really appreciate your feedback on our new firmware version 7.0. From your feedback we have submitted a feature request on your behalf for features that we currently don't offer. We truly can see you have a keen eye and great ideas on which we can use to improve our ever changing firmware.

We are always striving to improve our products and appreciate all of your feedback. Please email us back if you discover anything else that might improve our firmware.

Best regards,

Hassan Ali |Technical Support Specialist
45500 Fremont Blvd | Fremont, CA 94538
24/7 Support 1-877-79-TESLA
[email protected]
 
I love the new analog clock! So easy to see compared to the tiny font on the center display.

No need to remove ... if you don't like it, just don't use it.

And, yes, the fonts ... we need to be able to enlarge them, especially the top row center console, ...

What would be incredible ... would be a map overlay of the weather.
 
Best part of the thread is a working email address and someone thanking you for your suggestions.
I agree on the fact that a user option to increase font size and background colors is essential for older eyes.
The ability to also see information clearly during the day when wearing sun glasses is paramount.
The car icon is also in need of change. When the users car is the same color, Multi-Red, you can not see the brake lights as they bleed in with the color of the car.
The Headlights need to be turned down on the car icon at night as well to see the surrounding icons and text. Make information simple,easy and useful to read.
When I went to college I did Beta testing for apple. They had different user groups that included older users. I think this should also apply to Tesla. The finished product may have been different. I hope that an update addresses these issues.
 
I love the new analog clock! So easy to see compared to the tiny font on the center display.
No need to remove ... if you don't like it, just don't use it.
And, yes, the fonts ... we need to be able to enlarge them, especially the top row center console, ...
What would be incredible ... would be a map overlay of the weather.

I think the point here is why did Tesla spend time and man-hours on something that turned out as mundane as the new clock, while overlooking the degradation they introduced with the new 'look and feel' of the 7.0 UI.