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WebWord Weblog Posting Posting Date: November 02, 2002 Testing the BMW iDrive system -- "BMW's iDrive cockpit-of-the-future concept has taken some heat since the 745i debuted. We rode shotgun with an interface design expert to see what works, what doesn't." (MadMan comments: Jef Raskin gives the iDrive system a good whipping. I can only imagine the number accidents that may be caused by people looking away from the road to a menu screen. It is in systems like these that interface design can actually mean the difference between life and death. You may find the printable version of this article easier to read. Also read: When Interfaces Kill)
Reader Comments...
I found this bit interesting, and intriguing: Why not simply make the iDrive system simpler? Does a driver really need 700 computer-controlled functions? Kuenzner laughs. "The people who designed the interface, we didn't need 700 functions. We always discussed whether we need this function or that function, because it would have made it for us much easier to build a simpler system. But OK, if our marketing department says we need it, we design it in." Sure, marketing comes up with ideas, but shouldn't the design department advise them of the impact that feature creep will have? Posted by: MadMan on November 2, 2002 12:16 AM
There is a classic disconnect between marketing and engineering. It causes reaching for "new stuff" without the intuitive insight needed to determine what serves user needs and wants. The tools exist but are not employed as much as they could be. iDrive doesn't sound like a coherent interface design, but a list of feature requests culled from user polls. Should this be the case, there is a likely next stage which should be even worse than iDrive. That would be the "skinable" dash interface. Posted by: (the other)JS on November 2, 2002 07:44 AM
Yup, I posted about my personal iDrive experiences back in August.
MadMan says "Sure, marketing comes up with ideas, but shouldn't the design department advise them of the impact that feature creep will have?" MM, I laughed out loud at reading that, and had to make a dumb excuse to the people sitting around me. Where have you worked where what the dev team said ever had an impact on marketing? I'd like to see that. Just today I had to say through gritted teeth that if they put that thing there, it could completely ruin the consistent nagivation that was set up for the site. "But it looks good and brands us better," was the response (it does neither, actually). Argh. Posted by: Lydia on November 6, 2002 04:36 PM
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