Engineers at Aston Martin determined the layout of their center control stack with a method that more automakers should use
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- Aston Martin now uses something it calls the “Piss-Off Factor” to help it design cabin controls.
- In short, if a button, switch, knob, or touchscreen control is frustrating to use, it gets thrown out.
- The metric is something many other automakers could learn from.
Aston Martin’s latest center control stack design benefits from something it calls the “Piss-Off Factor”. Instead of simply baking all controls into a touchscreen to save weight it’s being more considerate. It designed its control interface to avoid pissing off drivers and its test program sounds like one other automakers should adopt.
According to a new interview with Miles Numburger, the director of design at Aston Martin, the “piss-off factor” started with a small group. That group went out and drove several cars and noted their experience surrounding the control interface. They developed a list of key features and how they felt when those features weren’t immediately available.
The ethos is clearly visible in the design of the Vantage control stack. It has over 20 physical controls including ones for the volume, the fan speed, and more. It gives the driver the opportunity to make a quick change while enjoying the car and that’s the key. Aston Martin doesn’t want that driving experience broken up by having to hunt for a setting in a touchscreen, all the while getting more pissed off in the process.
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“That’s the thing about the piss-off factor. When you want it, you want it instantly,” Nurnburger said to CarExpert. “If you want to turn the volume up and down, temperature absolutely – the minute you’ve got to go into a screen and tap for temperature, you’ve lost the customer. You’ve lost the experience,” he continued.
He also brings out a great point about the shift from buttons to touchscreens and now back again. “What’s happened in the last five years, is we’ve actually started designing the experience for the user, for the customer. In the past that wasn’t the case, we put buttons in a car because it needed the button.”
Evidently, the cabin team at Aston Martin, has ballooned from five people to around 20 since Lawrence Stroll took over. It sounds like the team there is making the right moves with regard to this aspect. How many of us have had to frustratingly fight through a series of touchscreen menus to find some simple control? It’s a problem that several automakers could solve by using the same mentality as Aston.
