The Hidden Cost of Touchscreens
I sometimes feel I am in a minority of one these days.Just about every car I've owned, I develop a muscle memory of where all the important switches are, and how far to turn to "hot enough" or "cool enough" etc. Same for most things around - I know fairly well how far to turn the oven for 180 +-10, no need to look. I might check if it's something especially sensitive (rare).Thanks to iPhone (I have one, and like it) touch has become the answer to everything and that muscle memory doesn't work any more.My current car is a pain in the arse as despite a dozen switches on the steering wheel they've forced simple functionality into the centre touch screen with awful UI where a simple switch would have worked fine.Only Apple and a handful of others have any idea of usable UI - and even they aren't as hot as they once were. Anyone making appliances or cars is especially bad at UI. Worse if they decide to add helpful beeps. I don't want to be looking at anything in the car except the idiots outside it and the speedo. Nothing. Ever. Give me the damn switches back!Heck even smart phones are a step back for use as a camera or phone. Old Sony-Ericssons had the ergonomics of a camera as well, including button and lens cover. Every feature phone could be answered (and most of a text written) without looking even once.I really would like my stuff to move beyond this cargo cult of touch and keep it just for the iPhone.