In recent years, we have seen a trend where car manufacturers are placing most of the controls in touchscreens. The solution, which brings a cleaner cabin, simplifies production and reduces the cost of designing and producing buttons, has its downsides, however. You have to search for a lot of control elements in a complicated way, which distracts from driving and spoils the driving experience.
However, when Aston Martin introduced the new Vantage model, it surprised everyone with its center console, which has over twenty physical controls. Among them are media volume control, ventilation temperature, fan speed, etc. The buttons complement the new modern infotainment display.
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The presence of an unusually large number of buttons in the cabin was explained by Miles Nurnberger, head of the design department of the Aston Martin car company, during an interview with the Australian website CarExpert. The so-called “annoyance factor” decided which functions would have their own button.
His search was conducted by having a small group of workers get behind the wheel of various cars, driving them and taking notes on how they felt if any of the desired features were not immediately available. After that, the group shared their knowledge with the wider team of the car company, which adapted the design of the cabin.
As an example, we can cite, for example, classic physical controls for adjusting the seats. Many drivers have told the automaker that they routinely adjust their seat settings according to their current driving style. That is, for example, if they enjoy a scenic drive or drive sporty.
Photo: Aston Martin
“That’s the anger factor. When you want it, you want it now,” Nurnberger said. “If you want to increase and decrease the volume or the temperature – the moment you have to go to the screen and tap the temperature, you’ve lost the customer. You missed out on the experience,” he added.
It was experience that became the key word for the car company and its designers. “In the last five years, we started designing an experience for the user, for the customer. It wasn’t like that before, we put buttons in the car because it needed them,” concluded the brand’s design director.
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