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Kale
Nobel Prize Winner
Canada
795 Posts |
 Posted - Nov 05 2003 : 2:51:31 PM
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Just wanted to create a topic to discuss design layouts in vehicles.
For instance I noticed in another topic that someone wants to convert all the analog displays in a car to digital.
A lot of cars in the 80s had digital displays, but then they went back to analog. Why? Analog displays are easier to read with a quick glance. Apparently the brain is better at proportions then decoding digits: a needle that is halfway between two points is easier for your brain to interpret than a display of 50%.
Does anyone have an interesting story about something unique they've seen or put in a vehicle?
One of my favorite stories is something that happened to a relative. This was some time ago, when digital displays were hip (80s!). Her van had a display that you could push a button and toggle back and forth from km/hr to mi/h. It had somehow been toggled to mi/h and she didn't notice. So there she was barreling down the highway at 100 MILES per hour when she thought she was doing 100 KILOMETERS per hour which is only 60 mi/hr. She isn't very good at judging speed so she only figured it out when my very nervous uncle finally spoke up and said "Uh... you're goin' a little fast..."
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BEatonNo1
Nobel Prize Winner
USA
1133 Posts |
Posted - Nov 05 2003 : 5:57:27 PM
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lol thats pretty funny, good thing she didnt get pulled over.
Yeah I agree on the ease of analog, but I like the look of the digital. Personally I would go with both.
one thing I remember was the check engine lights up on the hood in those buicks. I guess they figured that people would notice them better up there or something.
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cirvin
Nobel Prize Winner
USA
1542 Posts |
Posted - Nov 05 2003 : 8:31:37 PM
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what would be cool is replace the gages with screens so you can switch displays and stuff or play a vid on your tach!
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Aaron Cake
Administrator
Canada
6718 Posts |
Posted - Nov 06 2003 : 09:54:42 AM
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My Insight has a fully digital dash. Everything is a vacuum fluorescent display. However, while the speed displays in numbers, the tach and everything else are graphs (sort of semicircle). Actually, I have a picture:
I don't find it hard to read at all, but maybe that's just me. The 300ZXs I have driven with digital displays didn't bother me either, except that the tach graph was a straight line, not circular. That took some thought.
Now, all RX-7s have regular analog gauges, which are perfectly laid out (big tach in the middle where it should be, speedometer off to the side as an afterthought). I do find it slightly easier to read then the Insight, but only marginally so.
However, displaying numbers directly is probably a bad idea since it takes brain power to interpret them...Graphs are almost instantly recognizable.
I really do like the idea of the "universal dash" with just an LCD or plasma screen. You could "skin" it to suite your tastes, whether it be a representation of digital or analog. I have actually planned for some time to install this in my (future) DeLorean.
Edited by - Aaron Cake on Nov 06 2003 09:56:04 AM |
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Visual Ergonomics
