The best user experience isn’t on the web
By: Josh Nelson
Tags: UX, UX Design, UI, User Experience, Design

When you think user experience or UX, you think about the web. Whether it’s mobile, desktop, or tablet, the web is considered as being the house of all great UX.

But we’re wrong. And in my opinion, the best user experience is, wait for it…

…in the car.

What? The car? I know what you’re thinking, “My car’s dashboard is terrible, the interface experience is outdated!” And you’re right. But I’m getting more specific.

Enter Apple CarPlay. (Sorry, Android users)

The Problem

Before we get into CarPlay, let’s talk about the problem it solves.

Car dashboards & interfaces are beyond outdated. They are brutal. Navigating the radio, personal media, & navigation is confusing. You don’t know whether to use the buttons on the screen, or the physical buttons right below it.

There are so many things wrong with the standard car interface. And to make it worse, it is different in every car. Even in cars within the same brand.

This is a standard car interface. Nothing stands out, everything is cluttered. You don’t know whether to use the touch screen or the physical buttons. Some buttons lack signifiers, and some signifiers are too vague anyway.

There is no continuity, no similarity. The interface challenges your presumptions and makes you think to make decisions that should be simple.

This created a massive opportunity for someone to change something. And to no one’s surprise, Apple jumped in.

Why Apple?

Apple didn’t create CarPlay to change cars. They created CarPlay to give their users a better experience wherever they are and however they can.

They realized that people using an iPhone to play music and podcasts in the car didn’t have the best experience. So instead of ignoring that interaction, they made it as simple as using the iPhone. Apple doesn’t want its users to have a negative experience using their product, regardless of the use-case.

Apple also realized that people using iPhone’s while driving is a massive safety hazard. Not to mention, it has drawn tons of controversy. By making a simpler & safer interface built for the car, Apple is hoping to reduce distractions.

This is why they felt it was necessary to build CarPlay. And as with anything Apple, odds are they do it right — here’s how they did.

The Beauty of CarPlay

Here is the standard interface you’re greeted with on CarPlay. Instead of the ugly & not usable standard car interface, this looks great. The colors don’t contrast too much, and because you’re familiar with iOS, you know how things work.

This is one of the most important CarPlay features, and definitely one of the main reasons why people love using it. You know how things work.

You’re coming from using the iPhone, & now you have an even simpler version on your car’s dashboard. It’s seamless. You can respond to messages with your voice with two touches. Siri reads your messages aloud to avoid distractions, it is built for safety.

Apple designed this to be as simple and easy as possible. You can get almost anywhere, or do anything within two touches. Apple realized that when you are in the car you should be focusing on driving, not changing the music or responding to messages.

The first image of CarPlay houses the main dashboard. It has messages, phone, Spotify, Waze, or anything else that has a use case in the car.

Instead of using your phone to change between media or entertainment, you can now do this with two touches & a swipe, barely taking your eyes off of the road.