We have bought a new car recently, a Renault Scenic, and we’ve been pretty impressed by it. And there are a couple of things that might give interaction designers pause to think. One of them is about the lights, and what happens if you forget to turn them off when you get out.
Its quite simple, actually, what happens is that the car turns the lights off for you.
“A no brainer!” … shout the usability gurus in unison … “that’s what we’d do, without doubt!”. Are you sure? Or would you do what my old car would do? My old car used to beep, loudly and horribly when I left the lights on and got out. It was as if it telling me “You daft sod … you left the lights on … what were you thinking, stupid?”
I like my new car. It forgives me. It just does the right thing without a fuss. It doesn’t shout when I get things a bit wrong, it’s happy not to nag. OK, usability gurus, which interaction style would you really have designed? “Without a fuss”, or “What were you thinking?”!
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Well, it’s great so long as you want to turn the lights off. . .
Agreed, this is probably what you’ll want to do most of the time, but just yesterday I was recycling in a dark supermarket car park, and wanted to leave my lights on (pointing at the bottle banks) so that I could see what colours my bottles were. My car also turns the lights off automatically, and to do so takes:
1. Turning the engine (and lights) off.
2. Turning the ignition back on without starting the engine.
Which is also OK . . but could we do better? Press a button as you turn the engine off to leave the lights on?
Comment by Chris Collingridge — November 25, 2005 @ 3:56 pm
I take your point about recycling, however I do find myself forgetting to turn lights off more than I find myself recycling. Indeed, we have a pick up service in Manchester, but thats a tangent.
I’ve always been struck by a UCD mantra that I picked up somewhere that stated ‘Simple things simple, complex things possible’. I think the simple thing here is the ‘Do the Right Thing’, non scolding behaviour, but I accept that some mechanism might be needed for the edge cases. But … isn’t that where our designs often go wrong? Trying to accomodate everybody all the time in all ways? Extra Button Creep?
In fact I was tripped up on a related matter the other day which is revealing. Having ‘assumed’ this magic functionality, I set off in the dark without turning the lights on. As it happened I hadn’t parked in the dark, so my lights weren’t already switched on, but not illuminated as I expected. Nearly crashed as it happens…
So, that experience tells us that when we design this clever stuff, we also need to design to meet the new assumptions - the next generation clever car needs to turn lights on when we set off in the dark.
Comment by DavidHawdale — November 30, 2005 @ 1:09 pm
I also live in Manchester, and if you live in flats you’ll still find yourself standing in cold car parks in the dark…
Agreed on the automatic lights though - my mother’s Fiat Stilo has exactly this functionality:
Daylight - lights off
Darkness - lights on
.. although for some reason the designer has decided that if you have the lights on automatic, you can’t turn them onto full beam without turning automatic off. Maybe this is for safety, so full beam lights don’t accidentally come on without user input - but about 2 minutes driving on a country road and you’re already swearing at the inconvenience.
Comment by Chris Collingridge — November 30, 2005 @ 6:38 pm
My car whistles at me if I leave my lights on and open the driver door. If I want the lights on, I leave them on, if I want them off, I turn them off. I have never left them on by accident, except when I was recycling, turned the engine off, lights on, 5 minutes later, battery wouldn’t start car. Groan. But it was my choice and I learnt a lesson.
Comment by gW — January 5, 2006 @ 12:58 pm
What about when u need your lights on for saftey, does the car have parking lights? Unless I’m very much mistaken if you have to leave your car at the side of a road with the limit above 30mph you must leave your “side/parking lights” on. Probably woth it just to see your car in one peice again in many scinaros too.
Comment by John — January 13, 2007 @ 7:02 pm