I had the pleasure of speaking with Matt Taylor, a former product designer on the Jaguar Land Rover digital development team. He worked on the design system and architecture for the new vehicle dashboards, which smartly combine both physical and touch-based interactions. Familiar elements like the transmission lever and climate knobs retain their familiar physicality, but with digital elements added, like the convenient display of the set temperature right on the climate knobs. Meanwhile, newer elements like navigation and streaming music controls are implemented on the accompanying touchscreen.
I love how this facilitates an easier adjustment from traditional car consoles, without compromise on the inclusion of useful new technology. This kind of intuitiveness became an important design goal for my project as well.
I also recently took a trip up to the Land Rover Experience Center in Vermont, where I was able to test-drive a Defender on the center’s custom off-road course. I saw firsthand how the touchscreen can provide useful information about the vehicle’s current tilt, drivetrain, tire pressure, and more, to help the driver smoothly navigate difficult terrain.
The detailed yet clean visibility of this information simply wasn’t possible with analog controls and indicators of yesteryear. It’s a great example of how giving the driver more technology to utilize can actually improve performance and safety.