Thomas OtterA few weeks ago I posted about GUIs and steering wheels, and before that on the designer of the Nissan GT-R’s relentless focus on detail. Another thing struck me about the GT-R – the dashboard design.
At the Tokyo Auto Show, Nissan honcho Carlos Ghosn unveiled the GT-R. The car, which hits the US next Spring, features a multifunction dash display that was developed in conjunction with Gran Turismo Polyphony Digital. The display can monitor oil pressure, oil temp, engine coolant temp, transmission oil pressure, turbocharger boost pressure, throttle position, torque split, steering angle and lateral G-force. The Polyphony Digital display can also log data that helps improve driving technique and can help with fuel economy. (Thanks to Brian for the image and the text)
There some other video over on the Gizmodo site.
A car dashboard has many constraints and demands. It needs to inform, warn, and often entertain, but not distract. It needs to work well with peripheral vision. A badly designed dashboard can kill people.
A couple of things impressed me about what Nissan has done.
1. Looking to non-traditional sources for design innovation.
2. Virtual world designs impacting real world product.
3. Real and virtual world symbiosis. (A win win for Nissan and Polyphony)
4. Persona driven design. With the GT-R Nissan and Polyphony knew exactly what sort of user they are building the car for. Not just someone who drives a car, but a particular persona.
Enterprise software and the Wii.
This got me thinking about enterprise software. Perhaps it is high time we let the folks who design compelling user experiences in the gaming world loose on the enterprise application user experience. I’ve written about experiments such as Wii-hands before, but I’m not aware of anything like what Nissan have done here, bringing in gaming experts to work on a key component of a flagship product. If anyone is, I would love to know more. My wife and I recently got a Wii for our birthdays (thanks gang), and I’ve been amazed how simple it has been to configure and learn. The designers of the Wii have nailed pretty much every single core design principle. it is a lot of fun to play, but I’m in awe of its design.
Category: UI software industry usability visualization Tags: GUI Design Usability
1 response so far ↓
1 Lydia Leong December 30, 2008 at 3:18 pm
You might like this book: Changing the Game: How Video Games are Transforming the Future of Business. Lots of case studies, across a broad spectrum of uses.