Poll - Physical Buttons vs Touch-based Screens: What Do You Prefer?

Automakers are nowadays introducing larger laptop-sized infotainment screens in cars of all sizes and segments thereby replacing the physical controls (which makes our life much easier). 

So are touchscreens just a gimmick and a modern-day trend, or do it add a premium feel inside the cabin? Do we really need these huge screens or should manufacturers go back to offering physical buttons? We decided to create a poll on our Instagram handle to see what our audience thinks and what they would prefer! Here are its results: 

Our Audience Likes…

A total of 321 people responded to the poll, out of which 114 votes (36 percent) were in favour of touchscreens, and the remaining 207 votes (64 percent) were cast in favour of physical buttons.  

The voting clearly indicated that buyers are still more in favour of the clicking sound and tactile buttons that make things less complicated. However, there is more to it! We believe that neither should be completely taken out of the picture, and the combination of both could do us buyers good. 

The Wrong Direction…

Car brands are heading in the wrong direction, mainly due to the competitive nature of every automaker wanting to offer larger screens! While it does entice buyers at first and is an attraction point, they eventually realize that day-to-day functionality is getting more and more complicated, and then understand that physical buttons could just solve unnecessary problems. 

About 5 years ago, 7-10 inch sizes for screens were considered large, but in recent years the “large” category starts from 12 inches and goes up all the way up to over 15 inches. These screens not only make usability more complicated but also come in the way of a creative dashboard design and layout! 

We Need Creativity! 

With the large-sized touchscreen taking up most of the space, the room for a unique interior design diminishes. If you look at some of the popular mass-market automakers like BYD and Tesla, most of the dashboards of their cars have been captured by these large screens! While their interiors still look very appealing and premium, there is no significant creativity or uniqueness in some of these modern-age cars. 

It’s Complicated

Yes, that sounds like something you would say in a modern-day relationship but so is our relationship with these massive screens. These touchscreens don’t give the sense of surety which we get with the tactile physical buttons. There is always a sense of not knowing if you have pressed the right button or not. A troubling concern is that more controls including basic functions like adjusting side mirrors, switching on lights, operation of your car’s sunroof, and ADAS features are all being included in the touchscreen instead of being offered as physical controls. 

Imagine your driver who is not used to operating large screens is trying to figure out how to switch on the light, or change the setting of the side mirrors. Imagine your special person is asking you to open the sunroof, and you are taking 2 minutes of your valuable time to just figure out where the setting is! Or simply think about driving your car and you want to change a necessary drive function, and instead of just pressing a button, you have to go through the various different sections of the infotainment. Just extra load, isn’t it? 

Finding The Right Balance! 

Yes, large touchscreens could be difficult to use at times, but they also add a premium feel inside the cabin. It is important that carmakers try to find the sweet spot and offer a mix of both physical buttons as well as touch-based controls. Let's not simply make these screens a villain here as large screens also give us a larger view of the parking camera, offer plenty of details of the song you are listening to and provide a large view of your maps as well! 

What automakers should try avoiding is that the mechanical and necessary functions of a car, for example, ADAS features, ORVM controls, indicator controls, AC controls, regenerative braking, sunroof and headlight controls should be offered as separate buttons. 

Parting Thoughts 

One cannot avoid the reality, and you have to eventually accept the fact these large screens are here to stay. However, we do not really have much to look forward to since the minimalist design approach featuring a large design has compromised design creativity. We can just hope that not everything gets integrated into the infotainment system, and we still get the old-school physical buttons, especially for the aircon controls, and volume and song operations. 

Eventually, as technology and design trends continue to progress, a balance between innovation and practicality is crucial. We can only hope that manufacturers recognize the importance of preserving essential physical controls for safety and convenience. Until then, all we can do is adapt and hope that functionality doesn’t get sacrificed entirely in the name of minimalism.

We would like to understand your thoughts as well on this topic!