Ergonomy lessons learned : Ergonomy sells.

Ergonomy lessons learned: Ergonomy sells.

This week, the Montreal auto show is being held at the Palais des congrès. For many people, it’s their first peek at many of the cars they will be shopping for during the year.

While listening to the people voicing their opinions while trying out the different cars, it it obvious to the outside eye that a car’s interior design, it’s “ergonomics” could very well be the deal breaker for many potential customer.

If you go to any car show you will be able to see a pattern similar to this one :

1- Subject opens the door and sit down.
2- Subject looks around, commenting on the color, space and general feel the car gives them.
3- Subject starts fiddling around with the controls the seat adjustment, and the ever popular cup holders and i-Pod plugs.
4- Subject gives the exterior another look and either

A- gives the exterior another look

B- Gives the trunk or backseat a look

C- Gives the specs and pricing sheet a look

A small percentage only will go to C. Actually a lot of people won’t even go through with the all steps.

From simply sitting in the car, getting in and out and getting an overall “feel” on the car’s interior design, a lot of people either walked away from the car or stayed to look
further at the car’s spec sheet containing the pricing, the security options, the fuel consumption, etc. Features on which you would expect most rational people to base
their decision to make a 15K$ + investment upon. Yet the cup holders, the I-Pod plugs and the positioning of the defrost buttons all came into play prior to all of these costly
car features.

People will not care how well something is built if it is not appealing to them first and easy to use. Car designers and software designers alike are victim of this reality.
They say you do not judge a book by it’s cover. In Montreal that day, there sure was a lot of people judging a car by it’s interior.

-Nicholas Lemay