If there is an electronic device that tells us about “how we are” it is the mobile phone. And if there is a brand that gives us an idea of market trends, it is Apple. Not in vain, it is the company that places the most smartphones on the market each year.
It is not strange that some experts use the design decisions from the apple company to understand market trends and understand how the user behaves. These same experts are clear that the iPhone captures the turning points in our relationship with screens very well.
And those trends say we want more physical buttons.
Also in cars.
The tip of the iceberg
The debate about the use of physical buttons has grown in recent months after confirming that Apple is betting on their return in a device that would be expected to eliminate them completely.
After the presentation of the iPhone 16 and the incorporation of its controversial camera button, the voices that defend a physical button turn They have more reasons to confirm their trends for the future. The company led by Tim Cook has already replaced the silence tab on the iPhone 15 Pro with a new button to incorporate new functions.
The design idea is clear: use these new buttons as a shortcut instead of going through the phone screen. A decision that clashes head-on with the presentation of the first iPhone, which broke with any physical keyboard, and with the elimination of the center button starting with the iPhone X.
This is what Chrystopher Mims points out in The Wall Street Journal who assures that these changes are being felt far beyond mobile phones. He gives cooking or video games as examples, with a Playdate that clearly relies on the sensations provided by levers and buttons. And, of course, what concerns us here: the automotive industry.
Sam Calisch, CEO of Copper (a company specialized in glass-ceramics) points out that the commitment to using touch buttons has a clear intention of saving costs. “Now that touch screens are the cheapest option, they are being implemented everywhere, even in places where they don’t make sense“says Calisch.
These places are, among others, the cabins of our cars. Manufacturers have embraced this trend by trying to reduce interactions with physical buttons as much as possible. And that has had its consequences on the usability of depending on which functions.
In recent years we have seen Tesla eliminate the turn signal or transmission lever in favor of a haptic button on the steering wheel or a scroll on the screen, respectively. Also how Volkswagen bet everything on touch buttons. Or how BMW is one of the brands that is pushing the most to bring all air conditioning functions to its screens. Physical buttons on Chinese electric cars are a rare review.
The industry, despite this, seems to be putting on the handbrake. And it does it in all segments. Matthias Junghanns, the head of interior design for BMW’s electric range, said two years ago that “personally, I am convinced that these black glass surfaces in car interiors we will leave it behind sooner or later“. The brand, in fact, seems to be focusing on head-up displays that cross the entire width of the car, so interactions with the central screen could be reduced in the future.
Conny Blommé, head of interiors at Polestar, shared Junghanns’ point of view at the same event: “everything has its peak, and probably the screens too. Most of the time, you travel in a car and enjoy the view more than the screens,” said the head of the electrical firm.
Achim Anscheidt, Bugatti’s design director, went so far as to say that he was scared of the path the industry was taking. “What is happening in the interiors of cars is, in a way, logical that it should happen (…) But what will happen to all those devices when the operating systems do not work one day? What will happen in 10 years, even? Are you still interested in the iPhone 3?” Anscheidt explained.
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Mims’ view is more practical: removing physical buttons from a car’s interior is dangerous. “The problem with touch interfaces is that they are not based exclusively on touch because they require us to look when we use them,” he points out in his article.
The problem is so obvious that Euro NCAP has implemented some modifications to its rules when it comes to delivering the stars with which it scores. the safety of your cars if they do not maintain basic controls. All in all, it is a not very daring decision because it focuses on maintaining physical buttons for the following functions:
- Turn signal selection
- Button Activation warning
- Sound the horn
- Activate the windshield wipers
- Activation of the eCall emergency button
We must keep in mind that distracting ourselves for 45 seconds by looking at another place other than the windshield of our car is equivalent to driving more than a kilometer completely blind… if we move at 100 km/h. A warning that has been repeated for more than a decade, as this article from WorldOfSoftware in 2013.
Rachel Plotnick, an expert on the use of physical buttons and the interaction we have with them, points out that “screen fatigue” is spreading and that “people seem to be hungry for physical buttons, both because you don’t always have to look at them because they offer a greater range of touch and feedback.”
And he reiterates that “it doesn’t mean that physical buttons don’t work well with screens, they are often partners. But in a way, it is deprioritizing sight as senserecognizing that a screen is not always the best way to interact with something.” That “something,” without a doubt, can be a car.
In fact, this is what the studies defend. One from the Swedish magazine Vi Bilägare demonstrated that a 2005 Volvo V70 is much safer than a current vehicle thanks to its physical controls. Even when users were given enough time to familiarize themselves with the screens and menus, the saloon offered fewer distractions.
In the tests, drivers were asked to perform a series of simple tasks while driving. On average, participants took between 20 and 30 seconds longer to complete all the tasks than with the Volvo, which means hundreds of meters of driving blindly in a real environment.
Little by little, manufacturers they seem to be backing down in their movements. It is increasingly common in the launch of new models to keep the physical buttons for tasks such as defogging the windows. Volkswagen gave up on its idea of putting touch buttons on the steering wheel, although it is not the worst of its decisions. And companies like Renault or Mazda maintain physical buttons to quickly eliminate speeding warnings and other aid required by the European Union.
Photo | Volkswagen
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