Mini Cooper Dashboard Design
I am a big fan of cars. I love many different types of cars, Jeep Wranglers, Infinitis, Lamborghinis… But one car that has always caught my eye and kept my attention was the Mini Cooper. For some reason, they sparked my curiousity and left a mark on my mind. Not only is there exterior interesting, but their interior is. I haven’t been in a car that is as unique, original, and has as much character as the Mini Cooper. When my mother first got inside my car, she said, “How do you drive this thing?”, that’s when her point made me stop and rethink my love for my car, (but only for a second). She explained her point of view that the inside dashboard of my car was “too confusing to understand”. She had some truth to this. The Mini Cooper dashboard takes some getting used to. It’s much different than other cars, and drivers either love that aspect of it, or hate it. The interior is designed as bubbly and circular as the exterior is. It has a vintage-esque aesthetic to it, with it’s giant speedometer in the middle. I personally love this about my car, it makes driving ten times more fun for me to watch the speedometer. For others, this is confusing because it is just too big, and perhaps excessive. Some may think, “What is the true purpose of the large size of the speedometer? Is it necessary? It takes up too much space.”
As you can see, the speedometer is almost half the size of the wheel itself. From a more logistical standpoint, I can understand how this may be poorly designed because it is not very realistic and as helpful as it could be. It is definitely cool and crazy, but perhaps too cool and crazy. Most drivers are used to the speedometer at a smaller scale, similar to the scale of the gas. The speedometer on the Mini Cooper may come off across as too “distracting” to some drivers, creating a sense that the car seems unsafe. The one thing I am not too fond about in the design of this dashboard is the placement of the window buttons. Every window button is placed in the same area, under the speedometer next to the cup holders on the dashboard. They are all laid out in a row. This can get very confusing, and I would’ve preferred for these buttons to have been designed on each of the 4 car doors, where most window buttons on cars are placed. When I first got into my car, I was surprised to find out that the window buttons were not on each door. If they were, this would make it easier for passengers who aren’t too familiar with the Mini Cooper to easily put their windows up or down. Also, when I am using the window buttons, I sometimes forget which are which. Are the front windows on the outside of the 4 buttons, or are those the back windows? Even though I drive this car daily, I find myself still forgetting which is which, I believe this is an example of bad design. If I were to change anything on the design of this car, that would be the first to go.
In all, I am still a huge fan of Mini Coopers, and I hope I didn’t change your mind about them! They are awesome cars, and even though they are small in size, they’re still very safe.
