Seeing is Relieving

Casting a closer look at instrument displays

By Bill McLauchlan

Choosing a new car follows a predictable routine. Enjoyable? Yes, but still sticking to a time worn process. Probably suitable candidates get scoped out at an auto show or in a dealer’s showroom. Specs are checked, prices compared and a particular model’s styling wins you over. After sitting in it and checking out the interior a short road test usually follows, where performance, handling, braking, visibility, room and ride comfort are assessed.

Pretty standard stuff, right? Yup, but typically overlooked in the “buzz” one gets from a test drive is instrument panel legibility, an issue that should become a key focus as you approach the big 5-0 or have passed beyond.

Illustration: Newspress

Eyes start aging as mid-life sets in and glasses are the norm for many over-40 drivers as failing sight kicks in – usually long-sightedness, affecting our ability to see up close. Muscles become weaker, the eye’s ability to change focus quickly deteriorates and for many drivers it becomes harder to adjust from reading detail in traffic or street signs to a quick glance at the instrument display.

And let’s face it, the latest IP designs tend to have more in common with your iPhone than in uncle Buck’s old Ford. In today’s complex driving environment its vital to constantly monitor what’s going on outside and inside the car and react appropriately. As we get older, our ability to process information – and react to it – tends to slow down. Getting, and keeping, a clear picture of what’s going on is more important than ever. So, keeping an eye out for a legible, easy-to-read in the blink of an eye panel read-out should be added to the road-test checklist for the maturing motorist.

One feature to watch for is a good choice of font (type style) that optimizes visual information across all aspects of the vehicle interior, from instrument clusters (dials and gauges) to telematics displays, head-up displays, audio systems, mapping and diagnostic presentations.

While the link between font design and readability may be obvious on the face of it, it hasn’t always been so for automakers.

Photo: Newspress

Readability of instruments can be influenced by factors such as the shape of the numerals and letters, also known as glyphs. These include their height, width, weight (bold, regular, etc.) and whether or not they have serifs. Besides the shape of the characters themselves, text legibility may also be affected by other factors, so attributes you should be looking for include font size, contrast between type and background, font colour, and screen resolution. And don’t ignore lighting.

It’s one thing to have an instrument layout with good design elements but external issues, such as sun glare, can markedly impair your ability to see and make sense of the vehicle’s controls and panel displays, especially at sunrise and sunset when heightened glare is most prevalent. At least one automaker has seen the light and is working to minimize this problem.

Ford Motor Co. has set up a Visual Performance Evaluation Lab, or “lighting lab” as insiders call it, to replicate just about any combination of light and weather conditions you’re likely to run into on a daily drive.

Photo: Courtesy Ford Motor Co.

Not unlike a planetarium, the dome-shaped Lab can reproduce sunlight conditions from dawn to dusk and even recreate the effect of planet Earth’s phases as it revolves around the sun. There are also lights around the dome’s lip that can be adjusted to reproduce the effects of various weather conditions.

Photo: Courtesy Ford Motor Co.

Take a look at the 2015 Mustang if you want to see the benefits. It’s designers subjected the ‘Stang’s new aluminum dash panel to the Lab’s rigorous regime to make sure there’s no glare that might affect drivers under a variety of conditions, and that the instruments comprising the car’s optional gauge pack are always legible.

“The first time a buyer sits in the Mustang, that person will be able to see the interior as the designers originally envisioned it – in the best light possible,” claims Mahendra Dassanayake, a lighting technical specialist with Ford. “Whether the car is parked outside or (sitting in a dealer showroom), whether it is a bright, sunny day, or overcast and snowing, the materials and controls in the Mustang will be both visually satisfying and highly functional.”

To assess their clarity and legibility, gauge clusters, head-up displays, climate controls, nav systems, audio and infotainment systems, in the complete car or as individual design components, are placed centrally in the Lab’s circular confines. Then, a quartet of powerful 1,500-watt lights, mounted on a moveable steel arm, is switched on. By moving the arm to specific points on the circle’s rim, adjusting the spotlights and controlling floodlights in the ceiling, light conditions for any time of day can be simulated. Additionally, the dome-mounted lighting is employed to duplicate varied weather conditions from bright sun to complete cloud cover.

The job of good type design plus a good job in the way a car’s instrument panel is designed can help make it a lot easier for you to do a better job of processing, and acting on, vital visual information. And that can’t be bad. It’s worth a good, close look next time you take a new car out for a trial spin.