Everyday Design: 4th Generation Volkswagon Jetta

Personally I am a bigger fan of BMW than Volkswagon, but my girlfriend has a VW right now so I’m becoming comfortable with this car. I’m really happy with how it drives and the interior looks nice. In most cases I was able to find the controls and functions I needed when I needed them, but these are a few of the cases where things went awry.

The Sideview Mirror Adjustment
This little knob eluded me at first, but I found it after a moment. You turn it to choose between controlling the left or right mirrors. Pushing it up down left or right tilts the mirror like using a joystick.

What’s wrong with it
It looks like a knob, but is extra long so you can push it around like a joystick. This was lost on me at first since I’m used to either a 4 way arrow pad or a slender rod with a nub on the end like a joystick. Because of this I glazed over it a few times before realizing what it’s for. Also it is positioned on the door just above the lock and window controls which just ‘seemed’ too far away from the driver’s sideview mirror to be associated with it. Lastly, the label is a bit confusing, since it looks very similar to the rear window defrost. As for using the control, it feels more uncomfortable for it to be oriented perpendicular to the mirror the way it is on the door. It would feel better on the dash facing the driver so that the left/right/up/down directions are naturally mapped to the direction the mirror moves.

The Lock/Unlock Door Toggle
This is the one that really got me. I was going through a security checkpoint when I needed to exit the car and open all the doors so they could inspect it. I was borrowing the car and I had never used the toggle before. I usually use the lock/unlock buttons on the car key and only needed to use it at that moment since the car was still running. I wasn’t really panicked per-se, but I was rushing and it just didn’t occur to me that this was it. Once I got out, the security guard pointed the button out, and I immediately commenced feeling like an idiot.

What’s wrong with it
The conventional symbol of an open or closed padlock is completely natural to me now, and anything else almost seems silly. The funny part of it is that the buttons on the car key happen to use the padlock symbol! This makes me think that the key design is naturalized to America, while the door ajar and key symbol is from the original design. I could be wrong here but it seems like the only explanation.

The Vents
In the front you can open and close the vents with a dial right next to each one. It’s pretty obvious what this does, and I didn’t have any trouble using it at all.

What’s wrong with it
There are two symbols to indicate the state of the vent, a circle to represent the closed state and a picture of the front seat with an arrow pointing at the head to represent the open state. First of all, circles tend to represent an open state while a line or the letter “I” represent closed, so this label doesn’t make any sense. Secondly, the symbol of the seat with an arrow at the head seems a little out of place. Yes, the vent will blow air at my head, but could it ever blow at my feet? No, because it’s mounted near my head. I know because of the position where it’s going to point. I can see also that the symbol is a direct copy of the symbol on the A/C selector knob in the center of the console.

This control just seems like it was labeled terribly. In the end I can not call it a bad control. The control is so intuitively placed you don’t even need the labeling to know what it’s for or how to use it. Super high points for intuitive here, but then vent dials have been mostly the same for decades.