Mercedes brought their new AMG CL65 Coupe to the show and gave anyone the opportunity to sit in the cockpit of the $207,000 machine.
I jumped in the drivers seat and was immediately overwhelmed with the gadgets I had at my fingertips. It was almost interaction overload, but don't get me wrong- it was awesome! Compared to the Jeep I roll around town in this car felt like a luxury rocket ship. Buttons, dials, and knobs were everywhere, each with a very specific role in making the drivers ride the experience of a lifetime. At first glance the door panel featured too many buttons to even count. However, what was immediately identifiable was the seat controls located on that same door panel.
I thought this was a great place to put the seat controls. In most automobiles offering multi-directional power seats the control is usually on the side of the seat, not readily visible to the person sitting in the seat. Companies have done a good job mapping each button to the corresponding seat sections and movements, making it easier to intuitively adjust the seat. However, as the seat adjustment capabilities have become more advanced it is not as easy to adjust the seat without seeing the buttons. This design takes the seat mapping and puts it on the door panel to help adjust a very advanced powered seating system. As I pushed every button in front of me, just like the 10 year old kid was doing in the passenger seat next to me, it was very easy to see and feel the connection between the button arrangement and movement in correlation to how the seat reacted. (Shout out to Jisi for making me think about this interaction)
Great find for mental models. Although, I wonder if the increase number of buttons adds to the complexity, thus taking away the ease of use they were hoping to achieve.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the shoutout! Yeah I saw that car too, it had the coolest matte paint on it. There looks to be a lot different functions on this model. From the picture I can see there seems to be 3 buttons to save settings, and one M button to set the settings. Not sure what the first button is for. Looks like 2 separate seat warmer buttons. And then the seat is separated into 4 different sections. Definitely lots of buttons, but the mapping does make it more intuitive!
ReplyDeleteI agree, it is more intuitive, I wonder why this isn't the standard way of setting up the seat controls. It's probably more expensive with the wiring and all, and I don't know much about cars but I'd also figure that it would make the door more expensive to replace and doors would get damaged more often than the underside of a seat.
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