Physical Knobs and Switches, Please

[jyl]

I wonder if industrial design will ever rediscover the simplicity of physical knobs and switches.

Like many of you, I play music on my computer while working, which requires me to increase and decrease the volume, as the tracks change and the phone rings, jerking me out of my total concentration on PPOT to scramble for the volume controls.

At first I would steer a tiny cursor to the tiny volume icon on my screen and execute a tricky sequence of clicks and drags, which I often got wrong, resulting in unwanted displays of my clock or DropBox folder or WiFi connections, or my volume flipping to max loud or being silenced entirely.

That sucked, so I remapped some keys on my keyboard so that Shift+PrtScrn is volume up and Ctrl+PrtScrn is volume down. That was better, but each volume changes still required a rapid-fire series of keypresses and usually ended in overshooting or undershooting the desired level, which invariably lies halfway between the two closest achievable levels.

Finally I gave in and sent Jeff Bezos $17, and he took time from exploring low earth orbit to send me a shiny physical dial on a little box. Plug a USB cord into the computer, and now all I do is move my left hand four inches and turn a knob without even looking.

What an innovation! How did people ever think of such a simple, intuitive, interface? It must be patented, no?

I get that modern stuff is very complicated and requires four layers of nested on-screen menus to control all the parameters and preferences, which while detestable are arguably preferable to hundreds of tiny buttons, sliders and dials. However, I think that when we operate most devices, 95% of our time is spent doing three or four things.

Which can be done with actual knobs and switches placed to fall naturally to hand and fingers.

I see expensive high-end cameras starting to move in this direction, but most consumer devices remain all about pecking at tiny buttons to cycle between modes and menus. Such as, ahem, car stereo head units.

What are you seeing? Are designers rediscovering the humble KNOB and forgotten SWITCH?

[cabmandone]

F1 on my board is mute. F2 volume down. F3 volume up.

[Tervuren]

I've not been without a volume knob.
I do have a set of speakers I got recently without them, but my KB on that station has a knob.

[jyl]

Originally Posted by cabmando

F1 on my board is mute. F2 volume down. F3 volume up.

My K/B doesn't have any of that media stuff, it was made in 1986.

[cabmandone]

1986!? Sweet mother of pearl! The thing is only 15 years younger than I am!

[Tervuren]

Originally Posted by jyl

My K/B doesn't have any of that media stuff, it was made in 1986.

Your keyboard is in the age range of the millenial generation then.

[red-beard]

A touch screen is the worst way to control systems in a vehicle.

[Tervuren]

My Jaguar is a hybrid.
I agree on the touchscreen is fundamentally dangerous as you don't have the feel of being in the right place.
Which requires looking.

Probably one of the reasons I got a C5 Corvette instead of the new at the time C7.
The C7, too much behind the touch screen.
Haven't experienced the C8.

[Jeff Higgins]

The newest car I have ever owned is my 1993 Land Cruiser, which I have owned for about ten years. Prior to that my 1972 911 was the newest car I had ever owned. My wife gets the new stuff, most recently Subarus. We are ready to get her a new one, as a matter of fact. The current one is just old enough to have analog gauges and tactile knobs and buttons.

Test driving the new ones, and any new car for that matter, has been a bit of a culture shock. With all of the emphasis on safety in new cars, I'm left gobsmacked by these touch screens. There is absolutely no way to perform even the most rudimentary of task, from adjusting the heat to tuning the radio without taking one's eyes off of the road, and for quite a long period of time while scrolling through the menus. Are you kidding me? How is it even legal to sell these things?

The hunt is now on for a new car with knobs and buttons. I'm getting afraid that we will not be able to find one.

[jyl]

If they are going all Star Trek - wait, even the Enterprise had plenty of physical controls. When Sulu was firing photon torpedoes, he wasn’t like “menu, torpedos, status, arm, no wait, go back, select bay, okay, now menu up scroll menu down, arm, what, not arm all, clear all, select bay to arm, yes arm now!, spinning wheel, no no no not spinning wheel” “Lieutenant, fire or take evasive action!” “yes Captain, menu up, up, scroll, down, down, evade mode on, schedule evasive maneuver, select evasive maneuver, menu, oh f—k it”.

So, if they are going all Star Trek minus the physical controls, then they need to get the voice activation thing figured out. If Alexa can order our toilet paper and play our music, she should be able to change cabin environment, plot course to Costco, and connect Bluetooth. That would leave our eyes and hands free to actually drive the car.

[red-beard]

Imagine trying to DRIVE a car using a touch screen...No steering wheel, no pedals...

[red-beard]

Back around 1987, I drove a rental car with a digital speedometer. Horrible. And at the time, I was designing power plant operator interfaces for a computer control system. The only "analog" we had was a bar graph. It was better than nothing. Number and bar graph.

When I was in India doing the final checkout of one of the control systems, I worked with an old-time plant operator and we re-designed the displays to make it easier for a regular operator to use. Quick visual to see if everything is OK. In the old days, they would put pencil marks on the meters to show "nominal". I built those into the displays.

I sent the as built displays back to "Headquarters" to be used around the world. A couple of years later, I was over at the physical plant at Stanford U, and I re-worked a lot of the displays.

[island911]

The infamous ubiquitous multifunction button. Those things have gotten ridiculous. - press press long-press, press long-press, press, press.... like sending Morse code.

[Bill Douglas]

I bought a new Bosch oven for a rental but after I looked at the electronic menu system - just to use the ferkin oven, I got rid of it and bought one with knobs. I didn't want tenants, or friends of tenants, phoning me and asking me how to work the oven.

[wdfifteen]

When I read the OP I immediately thought of motor vehicles. Computer controls are annoying, but touch screens in cars and trucks are dangerous. I had a BMW with an early version of iCrash and it was the worst control system I’ve ever used. My Volt isn’t a lot better.

[Bill Douglas]

Probably the most annoying one for me was a rental car where I had to do something electronic to dim the rear view mirror. My Corolla I just twist it.

And yes everything came from the touch screen menu.

[ckelly78z]

Originally Posted by Jeff Higgins

My wife gets the new stuff, most recently Subarus. We are ready to get her a new one, as a matter of fact. The current one is just old enough to have analog gauges and tactile knobs and buttons.

Test driving the new ones, and any new car for that matter, has been a bit of a culture shock. With all of the emphasis on safety in new cars, I'm left gobsmacked by these touch screens. .

We just bought my wife a 2016 Subaru Outback with all of the bells/whistles, and it annoys me to drive it...adoptive cruise control, LDP, and the only knob is for the *temp control. I'm still trying to figure out where everything is. My 78 f150, and my 2013 Mustang are very simple in comparison.

[flatbutt]

I too miss good old buttons. I also dislike the "soft touch" buttons. I would like the return of buttons like we used to have on touch tone phones. Remember those?

[GH85Carrera]

One of the things I love about my new Blaupunkt radio for my 911 is a physical knob to adjust bass and treble. One simple button to go into random play mode, and a large analog rocker switch to skip the song and go to the next song.

Everything else on my 911 is analog and easy to figure out. OK, a beginner may never figure out the fresh air controls on the dash, but it is the exact same as my 914 that I bought in 1974, so after 47 years I don't have to think about how to adjust the fresh air or heat output.

[Mike Andrew]

Originally Posted by ckelly78z

We just bought my wife a 2016 Subaru Outback with all of the bells/whistles, and it annoys me to drive it...adoptive cruise control, LDP, and the only knob is for the *temp control. I'm still trying to figure out where everything is. My 78 f150, and my 2013 Mustang are very simple in comparison.

+1

Bought a 2020 Forester and the nanny crap is beyond annoying. Adaptive cruise, lane departure, crash avoidance, auto stop. Auto stop has to be switched off every time you start the car * Aargh! When you turn off any of the nannies, there are warning icons to look at constantly.
Cripes, the manual is the size of a phone book, plus the Eyesight manual, plus the sound system manual. It's like an encyclopedia in the glove box and no room for gloves.

It does have some knobs for climate control and radio.

Suppose if you grew up with all the digital stuff, it's easy peasy. That said, my 18 yo nephew cannot readily look at an analog timepiece and give you the time but knows every function on his Apple watch.

Some of us used to look at old farts as anachronisms; now we're the old farts.

Makes me even happier to drive the 911, especially since the buzzer has finally died.