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Comment by exogen | Hacker News Reader

To your two points: you'll see that there is a blue (sometimes yellow?) ring around the number that presumably serves the same purpose as the speedometer needle – position & movement at a glance. And the volume is controlled by a physical turning dial (in the shot with the "hard buttons" label).

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Yes, you might be right about the volume. I was looking at the buttons here [1] but the volume one looked more like a round push button than a dial. I guess it could be a dial

As to the ring around the number, well I'm more confused going back and looking at it again. Sometimes, like [2] it's a single colour, and others, like [3] it's divided into multiple segments. 12/14mph is slow, so I'd expect to see the ring extend not as far as it does. I'd expect it to extend that far around for speeds like 70mph

Another thought - the little mpg/regen graph is prominent but largely useless. However, if speed and acceleration were added it could be a very useful tool in working out which driving conditions give best economy

[1] http://www.minimallyminimal.com/storage/post-images/doko/d13...

[2] http://www.minimallyminimal.com/storage/post-images/doko/f07...

[3] http://www.minimallyminimal.com/storage/post-images/doko/d10...

I also had problems with the speedo ring. The number is more informative, but analogue gauges are faster to read and interpret, which is important when driving. I'd prefer a design which emphasised the gauge and deemphasised the number. I'm also not a big fan of putting primary driving information at a sideways angle from the driver.

Interesting point from ye olde days when they had banks of gauges, such as you might find measuring pressure in a power plant: the gauges were generally calibrated such that the 'normal' value had the needle pointing straight up. That way you can have an entire bank of gauges monitored with little more than a glance - a needle out of alignment is quickly obvious. By comparison, if they were number readouts, you'd need to individually focus on each one.

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