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Comment by hunter2_ | Hacker News Reader

You turn the physical dial, and regardless of the outcome, you know that your input was received by the HCI, so you don't need to wonder if you should try again.

If it worked, great; if not, oh well; no need to look at it and try again though. That's the benefit.

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The issue is, how far to turn it?

My Android phone has a similar issue while operating over Bluetooth. While holding "volume up", it takes several seconds for the volume change to register. So I have no feedback for how long I need to hold "volume up". If I wait until the volume is loud enough -- it keeps going up for another two seconds, to the point that it is painful and possibly damaging my hearing.

There’s tactile feedback for that too. You learn how many “clicks” of the knob you need.

Most rotary encoders are programmed to have "acceleration", so it's not quite that simple. And the amount you need to turn it may vary nonlinearly based on the volume and ambient conditions (sound perception is complex!).

Rapid feedback is important.

True, but dealing with the consequences of laggy response even in this case does not result in taking your eyes off the road. Rather, the troubleshooting feedback loop can happen entirely using your hand and ears.

When using a touch screen, if you don't know whether the lack of feedback is due to its lag or your bad aim, you would likely take your eyes off the road in order to aim better, given that bad aim is a likely culprit.

What if I'm switching air vent direction? There's only 5 positions in most cars.

I know the one it was on, and I know how far to turn it to get to the one I want. This removes the necessity of looking at it.

Same for steering wheel buttons (e.g. Up - next track, down - previous track, same for volume)

Same for wipers - only 3 positions and you can tell by their speed which position it's in.

The problem is when manufacturers take existing solved problems and move it to a strictly worse system like touchscreen. That's an inexcusable regression.

I’ve used car stereos where the physical volume knob was so laggy and buggy that sometimes it would misread its own input and change the volume in the wrong direction unless you turned it very slowly while watching the display to see if it was registering. People will absolutely find a way to fuck it up.

Why would you need to look at a screen? Surely the feedback from a volume knob is the volume changing?

If it doesn't change -> change it more

It it changes too much -> change it less

If you realise it needs to be moved slowly -> move it slowly

Yeah it's less bad, but it's still an inferior UX to pretty much everything that came before bloated infotainment systems. Both factors are important, an intuitive physical control and responsive feedback.

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