On these forums, I'm not so sure it's that easy to be a critic. But to answer question in a way that I anticipate won't satisfy you: I'd make it effortless and effective.
Thing is, I'm not Tesla's design team. They're a company with a $1T market cap. They can afford to invest in the UI, just like they invest in good battery or motor design.
Again, how is it
not effortless and effective ? What specific things do you think need to change?
The fact is, posts saying "the UI is terrible" without specifics are just useless rants. If you cannot articulate specific issues that need to be addressed, then what use is your post? If Tesla contacted you tomorrow and asked for your feedback, what could/would you tell them? "You need to make it effortless and effective" is meaningless, you might as well say "You need to make it better".
I happen to think there
are areas they can improve, but it's worthwhile to keep a perspective on what they do
right (and I'm not being a fanboy here):
-- The UI is coherent and consistent. A single high-readability font is used throughout. Layout is accurate, aligned, and professional.
-- Clear textual information. Control labels and explanatory text is clear, accurate and concise.
-- Low-density layout. Controls are (mostly) large buttons with easy to read text, which is important on a touch screen used on a car in motion.
-- Logical organization. There are a lot of controls, but (in most cases) controls are logically organized making it easy to find the right screen.
-- Restrained color use. Blue is used consistently to mean "on" or "active", with almost no other use of color, except red for emergency notifications.
-- Restrained animation use. Screens roll up, making it clear that they are an overlay, but useless decorative animations are avoided.
-- Automatic map view changes. The map view changes zoom level and angle appropriately for the current activity and car location/mode.
What could be better imho (on Model 3/Y)?
-- Some use of reduced contrast and/or point sizes could be better (e.g. the PRNDL indicator is too dim/small).
-- On some screens it is not cleat that scrolling up will show more controls (some form of down-arrow icon would help).
-- Some screens are getting quite dense as new options are added (e.g. Autopilot), and probably need some cleanup.
-- Some buttons are unnecessarily prominent (e.g. the huge "Navigate on Autopilot" toggle button on the map screen).
-- The "button bar" along the bottom edge mixes up sub-screen buttons (e.g. Driving) with single-use buttons (e.g. heated seats).
-- A few buttons are in odd locations, e.g. Glovebox open probably belongs on the button bar (near the passenger side)?.
-- Lack of a "high contrast" option for those with vision issues (though presumably this would be mainly for the passenger).
-- Some controls are still not accessible via voice commands.
-- Right-hand drive arrangement is not as well done (e.g. "X" close screen button is far away from driver).
-- Lack of horizontal text scrolling in the media screens makes it hard to see long track names.
Overall, I'd give the UI about 8/10. Hardly "terrible" or "the worst in the industry" as others have suggested (without giving any specifics).
After the holiday refresh a bunch of people were saying the Ui should be updated to make it look more modern (whatever that means). I think they missed the point. Good UI is about
functionality and
clarity, not how "pretty" is looks according to some ephemeral aesthetic. And this is especially important when dealing with the UI in a car, since this can impact safety.
Remember,
changing something is easy, making it
better is much, much harder.