The UX of Lego Interface Panels (2020)
559 points by rcdemski 6 days ago | 47 comments
  • pvg 6 days ago |
    A thread at the time https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24035866 and a little one a bit later https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29502811 both with some author comments
  • nom 6 days ago |
    The best interface bricks are these ones that actually work:

    https://youtube.com/watch?v=0pUV_3qeHog

    They even put an accelerometer in it, so it can show a working horizon!

    The console bricks were so special back then. When you got one in a set it was like finding a rare specimen. Bricks look all alike, but those were different!

  • Rygian 6 days ago |
    The analysis of real-life interfaces is quite interesting, and as a novice in the field I had never reflected much on the by-feature / by-operation / by-technology / by-use case distinction.
  • istrice 5 days ago |
    This kind of post makes me tingle with joy
    • sghiassy 5 days ago |
      It’s like a Christmas ornament. Unnecessary in utility, and yet so fun to enjoy
  • soulofmischief 5 days ago |
    I wish my phone was more like a bop-it.
    • hennell 5 days ago |
      You're only a tube of glue and a bad decision away
    • Cthulhu_ 5 days ago |
      I wish I had a use case for a cyberdeck.
  • jddj 5 days ago |
    I'd like it if I could zoom on my phone on a site about ui/ux with small pictures.
    • ndjdjddjsjj 5 days ago |
      My Samsung phone on Chrome lets me.
    • iamjackg 5 days ago |
      If you're on Android, there's an accessibility option in Firefox and Chrome that allows you to always zoom on any page, even if the website normally prevents it. On Firefox it's under Settings -> Accessibility -> Zoom on all websites.
      • jddj 5 days ago |
        That's better, thanks
    • george_cave 5 days ago |
      Hey, I'm the author of this site! You're on Android I think, based on the other comments here? I only have an iPhone to test, but I can pinch+expand the site on my phone no problem. Was not intentional to have blocked it! Sorry, I'll see if I can work out why.
      • sira04 5 days ago |
        It's this in the <head>

          <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, maximum-scale=1.0">
        Remove the maximum-scale property.
        • george_cave 5 days ago |
          Thanks! Will try shortly. I guess iOS/Safari just ignores this property then.
      • jddj 5 days ago |
        Firefox Android, yep.

        That makes some sense actually if iOS ignores it. Whenever I come across the behaviour I wonder why, but if it's just a copy/paste magic meta tag which goes unnoticed by most browsers then I can see how that could proliferate.

        • george_cave 5 days ago |
          Ok, this should be fixed now, let me know if you still can't zoom!
          • jddj 5 days ago |
            Works, thanks
          • tda 5 days ago |
            Works for me!
  • mlsu 5 days ago |
    Hah! Awesome post. I have to say my favorite as a kid was the white radar screen with the "38" on it. Maybe I should have gone into UX?
  • seumars 5 days ago |
    That's the UI. There's no actual interaction with the screens.
    • eru 5 days ago |
      UX stands for user experience, not for interaction?
      • mulmen 5 days ago |
        How do you experience an interactive system without… interaction?
        • edent 5 days ago |
          Imagine you go to a foreign country. You want to buy a train ticket. You walk to the station and go to the ticket machine. You see a dizzying array of levers, buttons, sliders, and dials. Each labelled with diagrams which don't make sense to you.

          You back away slowly from the machine and try to find a human ticket seller.

          Have you experienced the machine?

          • mulmen 4 days ago |
            No.
        • eru 4 days ago |
          How do you interface with an interactive system without interaction?
    • chefandy 5 days ago |
      Even if they were talking about interaction design (sometimes called IX) specifically, rather than experience design, the interaction is in handling, moving, and combining them. They don’t need to have a dynamic electronic interaction to be interactive. I’m not sure a toy with absolutely no interaction would still be a toy.
      • seumars 5 days ago |
        Yes, but in this specific case the focus is on the design elements labeled onto the lego blocks.
    • carlosjobim 5 days ago |
      You can interact with them for example by licking them, or stepping on them.
  • curtisf 5 days ago |
    Only tangentially related, but just yesterday I learned of Lego's defunct "Modulex" brand, and the serious and apparently widely popular Lego-brick-based project management display boards from the '60s to the '90s.

    The small size and comforting pastel colors seemed especially inviting to me.

    It makes me yearn for more tactile and actually pleasant-to-work-with computer UIs.

  • eru 5 days ago |
    The link to the Audi examples is dead, but you can find an archived version at https://web.archive.org/web/20211126012727/https://deeptread...
    • xorcist 5 days ago |
      This is a lovely example of great design. Beautiful, too. I'm sad to see it didn't catch on.

      On a related note, I would like to own an EV -- but a touchscreen operated car is out of the question. Where did all those competent designers go and why didn't they design an electric car?

      • Cthulhu_ 5 days ago |
        Thankfully it looks/sounds like they're moving away again from touchscreen-only operation. It's probably an Apple effect where the established brands follow the innovator, without actually confirming what the innovator did was good.
      • awinter-py 5 days ago |
        you and the us navy

        https://news.usni.org/2019/08/09/navy-reverting-ddgs-back-to...

        they ripped out the GUI-based controls after a bad crash

        (actual story is more complicated though -- they transferred partial control of the helm to another station, instead of transferring full control, leading the new operator to think they had lost control of the boat. similar thing happened with air france 447 where a single pilot panicked and the others couldn't observe their control input)

        • eternityforest 2 days ago |
          UX for control from multiple places is just really hard:

          * How do you know what you have control of

          * How do you take/give control

          * When you release control, does the other guy's input instantly take over?

          * Or does it only take effect when the other guy makes a change something?

          * Do you need to be able to see the specific inputs the other guy is giving?

          * Do you need to see the actual outputs if the result is actually some merged combination of inputs?

          * Under what circumstances should the computer skip scheduled automated tasks due to manual action being taken(See the Gare de Lyon rail disaster)

          * Do users need to know about the presence of absence of an automated control input that could, but has not yet taken effect?

          * Does anything special need to happen when nobody at all is controlling it?

          In home automation, the usual solution is basically just a mutable global, anything can change it, when you're not actively changing it, leave it alone so someone else can... But if you need more than that it gets complicated in a hurry.

    • george_cave 5 days ago |
      Oh good catch, I'll update it in the article.
    • hawski 5 days ago |
      I don't like this design all that much. It makes sense, but it is too spaced out for me.

      I love the design I have in my current car - Renault Laguna 3. The HVAC control panel is between air vents and on the top it has three buttons: Soft, Auto and Fast. I like how it uses words with no negative connotations (it could be Slow and Hard). Soft is for it to be quiet, Auto is the most common setting for me and Fast is self-explanatory, though also recommended if you have passengers on the backseat. Then there is the current temperature (and other HVAC settings) display and finally very comfortable and big up/down rocker switches to change the temperature with a 0.5°C resolution. I usually do not change the temperature much. A knob seems to invite changes for people who do not understand a concept of a thermostat.

      Then there is AC off, closed circulation, fan speed and air distribution buttons. Right below this are buttons for quick defogging (I don't know how to call it) and the back window heating. Buttons that do not change the state shown on the LCD display have their little LEDs to signify their state.

      You can see it in action here: https://youtu.be/oNHvtI_8A5w?t=12

  • CarVac 5 days ago |
    Wow, that Lincoln MKC was unfortunate.

    https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/news/2015/05/recalled-li...

    Seems like they moved the power button to the top of the column.

    • stavros 5 days ago |
      Does that button really start and stop the engine? In other cars I've seen, the start/stop button (with similar iconography) toggles the start/stop system, which shuts off the engine when the car is stationary to avoid pollution.
    • RedShift1 5 days ago |
      In my car (BMW from 2012), the engine does not shut off when you press the start/stop button when you're driving. It only shuts off the engine when you press it AND you're stationary. This seems like a totally obvious interlock to me, it puzzles me that Ford didn't think of this and as a solution moved the button instead.
  • DonHopkins 5 days ago |
    Somebody posted some beautiful and inspired Lego renderings of their red science pack factory, created in Bricklink Studio 2.0, to the Factorio Facebook group.

    https://www.facebook.com/groups/factoriogroup/posts/24121149...

  • awinter-py 5 days ago |
    'organized -- chaotic' and 'all screen -- no screen' are truly the main axes of UI design
  • adolph 4 days ago |
    Techno-optimism assumptions in the wild:

    Most interfaces in our world contain a blend of digital screens and analog inputs like switches and dials.