Dash Design

[geoffbland]

My work often involves me designing or improving user interfaces (UIs) such as on web pages, something I've done for years and so am a bit passionate about well-designed UIs.

So just a shout out to whoever at Lotus designed the main driver display - it's really very good.

The main driver display is very classy - especially compared to Ferrari's and Porsches that look like something out of a '90s video game.
It's very clear and I can see lots of nice little touches in there (such as the graduations changing on Tour, Sport and Track mode) that all together make it great.
It's not perfect but I have few gripes so who ever put this together deserves some credit.

The mid-car media/info display is decent too - difficult to keep this coherent when it has to display so many different pages though.

 

[RoryBellows]

My biggest gripe is that there's no dedicated next and previous keys on the steering wheel for media. It forces you to go through menus to hit next on the song with the wheel or keep up media on the center screen. Its extra sucky because all US models have 2 wasted buttons on the left side of the wheel that don't do anything. I'm hoping that Lotus or someone will figure out to remap those buttons. Other than that a minor gripe is that the odometer is in a menu as well. I wont care so much when I'm out of break in but it seems oddly out of the way for a normally prominent thing.

 

[Raymond]

My biggest gripe is that there's no dedicated next and previous keys on the steering wheel for media. It forces you to go through menus to hit next on the song with the wheel or keep up media on the center screen. Its extra sucky because all US models have 2 wasted buttons on the left side of the wheel that don't do anything. I'm hoping that Lotus or someone will figure out to remap those buttons. Other than that a minor gripe is that the odometer is in a menu as well. I wont care so much when I'm out of break in but it seems oddly out of the way for a normally prominent thing.

Theres an odometer at the bottom of the dash screen when you get in the car.. before you start the engine. First saw it when someone at the dealership was checking mileage quickly

 

[Raymond]

My work often involves me designing or improving user interfaces (UIs) such as on web pages, something I've done for years and so am a bit passionate about well-designed UIs.

So just a shout out to whoever at Lotus designed the main driver display - it's really very good.

The main driver display is very classy - especially compared to Ferrari's and Porsches that look like something out of a '90s video game.
It's very clear and I can see lots of nice little touches in there (such as the graduations changing on Tour, Sport and Track mode) that all together make it great.
It's not perfect but I have few gripes so who ever put this together deserves some credit.

The mid-car media/info display is decent too - difficult to keep this coherent when it has to display so many different pages though.

Agreed. Clarity over visual noise and everything where you want it

 

[SJM]

I like Emira’s info screens also, although no oil pressure gauge is a mistake.
911’s have pressure and temperature for oil, as it should be.

 

[chirowolf]

My work often involves me designing or improving user interfaces (UIs) such as on web pages, something I've done for years and so am a bit passionate about well-designed UIs.

So just a shout out to whoever at Lotus designed the main driver display - it's really very good.

The main driver display is very classy - especially compared to Ferrari's and Porsches that look like something out of a '90s video game.
It's very clear and I can see lots of nice little touches in there (such as the graduations changing on Tour, Sport and Track mode) that all together make it great.
It's not perfect but I have few gripes so who ever put this together deserves some credit.

The mid-car media/info display is decent too - difficult to keep this coherent when it has to display so many different pages though.

My wife does UX (user experience) for IT systems and frontends. She agrees

 

[cwfg]

I head up product development for an international tech company and as such have given the Emira UX a lot of attention. I’d agree that on the whole it’s been well designed but there are some seemingly obvious own goals from a “user” perspective which you could assume were overlooked when being tested. With the infotainment, the media player is not good and quite confusing, especially when on the move. I doubt this received much testing by people who didn’t design it. The touch sensitive controls are widely accepted as a poor UX choice too which should have been tested alongside any onboard software in real life scenarios. It was most likely tested while the car was stationary, again by the people who built/designed it.

The modularised nature of the system is quite nice, allowing some customisation of what’s on screen but it still baffles me why car companies don’t invest more in enabling users the ability to customise the driver display. It seems to me like such an obvious thing to have on a roadmap but so few invest in it. Maybe there are reliability constraints that would make such features less viable but this stuff is not rocket science and would add a degree of flare to a car that would significantly improve the experience - at least in my opinion.

So, whilst I agree that the Emira is good on this front, it still missed the mark for me on a few things. Cars are no longer vehicles with computers on board, they are computers on wheels. Tech needs to be invested in more now than ever.