Saturday June 09, 2007

The above is a control on the dashboard of the 2007 BMW X3. Left for cooler? Right for cooler? What were they thinking??

I wouldn't be complaining if this were the only bad interface in this vehicle. But it isn't. The menu hierarchy and controls for the GPS system are a travesty of user interface design. I won't bore you with the details, but it has one of the worst interfaces I've used in a long time.

And then there's the control for the panoramic sunroof. I'm pretty sure I need to draw out the state diagram for that control to figure out exactly how it works.

Two words, BMW: USABILITY TESTING.