Apple recently added a new action button to the iPhone and it made news not only
because oh look Apple did something but because it marked a departure from the
trend toward having as few physical buttons on phones as possible but why
exactly have phone and car manufacturers been trying to get away from buttons in
favor of doing everything through a touchscreen is it just a desire to have
our products be as sleek and sexy as possible or is there more to it than
that well it's true true that there is indeed a perception that having fewer
buttons is a more slick design Choice
the bigger consideration for phone makers is actually the old adage that
form follows function regardless of whether this means more or fewer buttons
for example power and volume buttons have stuck around on phones because
consumers expect them to be there and they serve commonly used essential
functions Apple's action button as well as a new camera control button are also
changes that are reflective of how most people use phones the camera is now a
core selling point and there are a huge number of functions people might want to
access quickly with a dedicated button everything from the flashlight to silent
mode to song recognition now of course we went a long time without having
dedicated buttons for features like these so they're not strictly necessary
I mean even the screen unlock button probably isn't necessary but because we
use some of these functions so frequently an easy to access button
makes some sense on the on the other hand there is clearly a limit with how
many buttons you can put on what's supposed to be a very general purpose
device without complicating the user experience not only that but having more
buttons is actually technically challenging perhaps surprisingly the
cutouts for the buttons in the frame of the phone can interfere with the phone's
antenna metal buttons can actually weaken your signal and although this
problem can be somewhat alleviated by using plastic buttons some phone makers
will insist on using metal buttons in order to deliver for a more premium
product now this doesn't mean there are no phones out there with additional
buttons think trigger buttons on gaming phones or rugged phones on construction
sites with dedicated buttons for the infrared camera but for Consumer grade
phones even though Apple just added a couple of new buttons people in the
industry expect the trend to continue to be towards a limited number of buttons
especially as touchscreen and voice recognition technology continue to
improve so don't expect phones of the future to once again look like
blackberries okay but what about the other prominent space that the
touchscreen has invaded the car we'll
tell you whether buttons are going to keep disappearing in vehicles right
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get 20% off a delete me data removal plan today similarly to phones there's
definitely design pressure on cars to look Sleek especially if we're talking
about electric vehicles even though EVS are pretty much just normal cars that
run on batteries and instead of gas there's a consumer perception of EVS as
a tech platform that needs to look Advanced due in large part to companies
like Tesla and rivan but even with this design pressure there have been plenty
of complaints from drivers about how touch controls are harder to navigate
without taking their eyes off the road you can always reach down and feel a
physical button or dial without looking at it but how exactly are you supposed
to do that with a big flat touch screen where every part of it feels the same
calling Dave no don't call no I wanted the wipers this is partly why some
automakers like Toyota have kept multimedia and climate controls as
physical buttons as they're two of the things we interact with most while
driving in fact there's a conception among some in the Auto industry that the
likes of Tesla and rivan have overshot The Sweet Spot of looking sleek and have
moved into intimidating territory where the inside of the car is so minimalist
with so few buttons that drivers may not want to deal with the learning curve so
for now many car makers appear to be adopting a middle ground approach with
keeping frequently touched controls as physical switches while continuing to
move other functionality onto screens think for example about how radio preset
buttons aren't much of a thing anymore because of how popular streaming music
has become but do keep in mind there is actually a cultural element in play when
it comes to design expectations for example there's actually less of an
emphasis on physical switches in China which for a long time did not have much
of a car buying middle class now they do and since many are buying cars for the
first time in the smartphone era they're more amable to having controls on a
phone like interface but regardless of exactly where you are in the world and
what you're driving keep your eyes on the road I want you to live to tune into
the next episode of Techquickie hey thanks for watching if you like this
video check out our other video on how they make smartphone glass tougher than
ordinary glass lots of punching I assume