

The Lamborghini Aventador: A case study in poor dashboard design - robbiehudson
http://blog.geckoboard.com/the-lamborghini-aventador-a-case-study-in-poo

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angdis
The author fails to realize that except for a few thrilling seconds a year (if
that) the typical Lambo owner drives no faster than any other car. "Supercars"
are actually toys. Nobody really cares about the dashboard on those things.
The owners care about the latent power in the engine and, as Top Gear once
mentioned about the Murcielago, "[whether or not] the car pushes all your
'caveman' buttons" . They deliberately overlook UX considerations, comfort,
ergonomics, mileage, maintenance schedule and trunk space. If you're driving a
Lamborghini, you're not doing it for practical reasons.

~~~
kls
Also the author leaves out the golden rule of UX and that is user
demographics. Who is using it and what attracts them. What if the majority of
your customers though jet fighter cockpits where cool, what if it made them
feel cooler to have a complex machine that appears to require expertise. What
is the personality type that buy the product, do they buy it because they feel
it will make them cooler. Put a single little cute character on the dash
display with a single push button and see what happens to their sales. They
are targeting a demographic that likes buttons and gadgets, they want it to
look complex as it is about an experience and the drivers of those cars want
to feel like they are in a complex highly advanced machine. Some of the Rube
goldberg'ing is intentional to create the allure that their demographic is
after.

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cargo8
Also worth noting that a comparison to an M5's dashboard isn't particularly
relevant. When driving exotic cars, the RPMs are significantly more important
to the driving experience and performance than the actual speed. That's why
the tachometer is so massive and speed is relegated to a simple small number

~~~
angdis
Indeed, one would expect to drive to work in an M5 or pick-up groceries
without making a scene. The M5 is a very expensive "everyday" car albeit with
7 speeds. People purchase it because they're optimizing for a "total
experience" and will seriously think twice if the dashboard (or any other
component) makes them say "WTF!".

On the other hand, Lamborghini knows it isn't going to lose significant sales
because Dolce and Gabana (or whoever) did the UX for the dashboard!

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geon
What really surprises me is how UGLY that dashboard is. (I'm a professional
designer, so I'm licensed to say that.)

The exterior is sleek and beautiful, so it's like there has been no common
goal or oversight when designing the car as a whole.

