Bringing an infotainment system to market requires a complex development process. Electronics development and design are closely intertwined. The user interface design is developed in iterations whilst functionality and interaction design are validated with mini-prototypes and models.
Details often govern the acceptance and the resulting success of a product. Small hurdles and obstacles in the usage of a product may not be apparent at the start, but once detected and solved, the system can be a lot more convenient to use. For example: Using the parameterisable mini-prototype we were able to simulate the listing behaviour of the navitainment system. How do you animate the cursor in a list? When are new list entries displayed? Is there a continuous scroll or is a slight progression preferable? The mini-prototype helped us find potential user obstacles early on in the design process and enabled us to test, refine and finalise our screen design.
Onscreen font legibility proved another vital detail. Here, we had to adapt the typography to the display. Which grey scales will be lost and which colours break up? What about the luminance of colours and contrast? Once we were in possession of the actual display, all the graphics and anti aliasing of the screen fonts were optimised. To finally achieve maximum display quality, the user interface implementation was specified to pixel perfection.
The end-user may not realise this, but good teamwork and time management is key when bringing a product to market. Thanks to efficient co-operation between Panasonic and Intuity, the manufacturer saved an enormous amount of costs and time – and the resulting intuitive user concept adds to the enjoyment of the sports car experience.
