Looking for UI feedback

[John_Faig]

I'm looking for some feedback. I'm doing a design project for a class and the goal is to improve the Tesla UI. I'd love to get some feedback on the good, the bad, and the ugly with respect to the UI. Thanks!

 

[MaskedRacerX]

Are you going to post up your own designs/prototypes for a revised UI? And then people here will provide input?

Hahaha, otherwise it sounds like we're doing your homework for you

 

[John_Faig]

Ha. I can post our designs next week. The first step in product management is finding problems to solve. It is important for a product to reflect the target audience and not what the designer or developers think.

 

[MaskedRacerX]

Ha. I can post our designs next week. The first step in product management is finding problems to solve. It is important for a product to reflect the target audience and not what the designer or developers think.

To a point.

There's some common design patterns, there are established rules for information presentment, specific guidelines for touch target sizing, typography, color, contrast, etc. Plus, everyone has a different priority, i.e., viz vs. nav vs. audio vs. car instrumentation, you have to be careful to avoid a "design by committee" product, especially in the aesthetics (which are so highly subjective, aforementioned "rules" notwithstanding ...)

But at any rate, one of the difficulties is balancing a decent information density for a vehicle - while providing sort of visual compartmentalization / some layout "breathing room" and usable-while-drive controls. Oh, and consistency, i.e., don't have touchable icons, but sometimes labels, but sometimes buttons - since you're dealing with a lot of information, that needs to be easily parsed while operating a vehicle.

(FWIW, I'm a dev/architect going on, well probably more years than you are old Oh yeah AND GET OFF MY LAWN! )

 

[John_Faig]

To a point.

There's some common design patterns, there are established rules for information presentment, specific guidelines for touch target sizing, typography, color, contrast, etc. Plus, everyone has a different priority, i.e., viz vs. nav vs. audio vs. car instrumentation, you have to be careful to avoid a "design by committee" product, especially in the aesthetics (which are so highly subjective, aforementioned "rules" notwithstanding ...)

But at any rate, one of the difficulties is balancing a decent information density for a vehicle - while providing sort of visual compartmentalization / some layout "breathing room" and usable-while-drive controls. Oh, and consistency, i.e., don't have touchable icons, but sometimes labels, but sometimes buttons - since you're dealing with a lot of information, that needs to be easily parsed while operating a vehicle.

(FWIW, I'm a dev/architect going on, well probably more years than you are old Oh yeah AND GET OFF MY LAWN! )

So, are you saying that you have issues with the consistency of different screens? Or, are you saying that you don't love the screen layout? Would it be better to allow users to pick "widgets" to appear on a screen and their size?
p.s. I just did donuts on your lawn with my gas guzzler

 

[Gratulin]

It would be good to take into account Righthand drive use. I have always wondered why the only change to RHD cars was to swap the “car info” panel. This makes the left hand menu list in the car controls screen a real stretch for the driver. Also the “X” to close windows is on the far left making it very awkward to reach and press while driving in a RHD car. This is an interesting design challenge. Is it acceptable for a selection menu to be on the Right side of the window? Would it look weird even though it would work better.

 

[John_Faig]

It would be good to take into account Righthand drive use. I have always wondered why the only change to RHD cars was to swap the “car info” panel. This makes the left hand menu list in the car controls screen a real stretch for the driver. Also the “X” to close windows is on the far left making it very awkward to reach and press while driving in a RHD car. This is an interesting design challenge. Is it acceptable for a selection menu to be on the Right side of the window? Would it look weird even though it would work better.

Great point. I've had some suggestions that the display be accessible from controls on the "steerling wheel", which would be a workaround.

 

[smogne41]

A good way to integrate persistent manual wiper controls onto the screen, at least when the wipers are active.
A user selectable car/environment visualization size (probably options for: none, tiny, regular, large). May of us would prefer to have mostly map and no car model at all.
Higher contrast/better visibility for some information elements (regen bar, spedo, etc).

The last two are particularly frustrating since the previous UI (that was replaced last December) was far better in that regard.