Why Are All Car Radios Ugly and Confusing?
by on December 29, 2008
Even after 14 hours driving along the icy interstates over the holidays, I never quite figured out the car radio in minivan we borrowed from my in-laws.
As far as I could tell, the main features were an annoying display of animated graphics, bright neon lights that made it impossible to read the labels of the buttons and no off button.
It took me about two hours to figure out how to switch stations, then I decided to play a CD (yes, I still own CDs) and all hell broke loose. By the end of my trip, I still didn’t know what 80% of the controls did.
Is this the best we can do? Is anyone designing car radios that don’t look like navigation controls for a spaceship?
Austin Dec 29
They always look cool at first, but the animated graphics aren’t ever really functional or useful, and you’re right – these things seem to be designed to keep people from using them. what ever happened to usability?
Roy Jul 26
After-market car radios seem to be designed to appeal to the crass and jaded tastes of pubescent OPEC princelings. Gaudiness attracts more footfalls in a showroom than a big volume knob (one you can find and use by feel, while you are peering into a pitch-dark rainy night looking for other road users). Margin on sales is probably another factor; it is instructive to look at all the clean, usable, good quaility radios Blaupunkt build for car manufacturers, and compare them with the tinsel-and-neon crusted models they think the after-market wants.