UsabilityBlog - Latest Comments in I Can’t Believe My Car Radio Makes Me Press And Hold The Power Button While Driving

Re: I Can’t Believe My Car Radio Makes Me Press And Hold The Power Button While Driving

johan305 — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 05:38:18 -0000

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Re: I Can’t Believe My Car Radio Makes Me Press And Hold The Power Button While Driving

truck_body_parts — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 00:56:18 -0000

Maybe that's dangerous and not convenient though, users love the simplicity and the easy way to operate things, I think they need to redesign this one. The concept is good but the usage is not.

Re: I Can’t Believe My Car Radio Makes Me Press And Hold The Power Button While Driving

noroadzone — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 00:30:59 -0000

I had a similar case like yours in m car radio and since i was sooo pissed off i just replaced it with my ipod and bought an adapter so that i could use it in my car as a replacement to my radio.

Re: I Can’t Believe My Car Radio Makes Me Press And Hold The Power Button While Driving

Nikhil — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 12:13:42 -0000

Paul,

I've used a similar system which needed me to hold it down for 3 seconds. I think you've got a great point there, its not only inconvenient, but dangerous to an extent.

As a user of such a radio, and being a usability enthusiast, I didnot actually go ahead and find the mute button. Why? because the same button that shuts it off, had the volume control for me to turn down to zero. My point being, users are not involved in figuring out their car radio, god knows they've got enough appliances to get 'used to'. Make it as simple as possible, while trying to balance out aesthetics.

Re: I Can’t Believe My Car Radio Makes Me Press And Hold The Power Button While Driving

Paul Sherman — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 11:27:59 -0000

@koz, yeah, but...that's my whole point: why did the designers combine the power and mode button? It's not a good idea. If they had separated them, they wouldn't have had to make the power button a 3-second press and hold, and therefore wouldn't have caused a safety issue.

As for the mute button...point taken. But it's not really findable by touch. So it's not salient.

And I don't agree about pulling over to power off. I think that's an apologist position; a car radio should be designed to be powered off while driving. Make a phone call is a different matter. That should be done while stationary.

Re: I Can’t Believe My Car Radio Makes Me Press And Hold The Power Button While Driving

koz — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 18:45:53 -0000

In defense of this design:

This button also powers off the radio. It's designed so you don't accidently power off the stereo if you hit the button.

When do you power off your radio while driving? If you want to shut the thing up hit the mute button - it doesn't require holding down for 3 seconds. If you want to power off, pull over and take your time. While you're at it, you can use your cell phone.

Re: I Can’t Believe My Car Radio Makes Me Press And Hold The Power Button While Driving

Dave — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 16:36:18 -0000

Excellent point -- you could have an entire category of products like these that give the feeling that they were designed by people who never have to use them.