ILLUSTRATION: PAUL RYDING
Here we go again. I’m sitting with a car interface designer and being told that I’m too old, and that what I want isn’t what customers want. This time it’s a BMW engineer, and it’s the new operating system being rolled out on the iX and i4. Today’s customers, she tells me, want everything to be on the screen. It’s only a few old buffers like me who want physical switches for the climate controls or stereo or driver assist.
With a weary sigh, I ask why. Like I always ask why.
Because, comes the answer, as the answer always comes, because customers use tablets and phones and they like it and they’re good at it. At which point, once again, my voice rises to a near-hysterical scream. What is good for an iPad, I plead, is not what is good for a car.