It’s 2016, and my (new) car user-experience still sucks
Few days ago the yellow alert above appeared on on my car dashboard. Initially I had no clue so I had to carefully look at the icon shape and describe it to Google to understand what is wrong.
Once I discovered that it meant low tire pressure (system called TPMS) I was relieved and somewhat even delighted to know that the car actually monitors its tires pressure.
I drove to a gas station to fill the tires and after few attempts the light did not turn off even though the tires seemed to be full. I tried to turn off and on the car engine but it did not matter.
I drove away disappointed. Few minutes later the alert light suddenly disappeared.
Delightful concept, upsetting user-experience
Honda could have taken a feature and made it delightful but instead they implemented it in a way that stresses the user on the first encounter, waste him/her time researching what it means and often will lead to calling for advice (I’m pretty sure Googling a visual icon will not be straight forward for many).
This is even more upsetting when you zoom out a little.
if the same alert would have also appeared on one of the right side screens together with an explanation does not seem like rocket science and would change the entire experience. Hell, even adding a an easily accessible menu option with a map of the dashboard icons together with a short explanation would have been extremely useful.
Further more, wherever the text would have appeared an additional sentence explaining that it takes few minutes for the system to update once the pressure is correct would have been a huge time saver.
Would we see car manufacturers evolve their thinking and creating a delightful user experience anytime soon?
