Retro CC
With the growing popularity of small, minimalist vehicles like the Slate Truck, I thought designing a climate controls interface to match the minimalist aesthetic while preserving or enhancing the user experience would be a good challenge.
My research led me to conclude that a severely minimalist interface which maintains physical controls is also a much safer alternative to modern, cluttered layouts and to designs which do away with physical controls entirely in favor of touchscreens.
Simplicity
This interface embraces radical simplicity, assigning a distinct control interaction to each desired setting.
Temperature: Dials
Fan speed: Toggle
Vents: Mechanical slider
And that’s all
Example of overly dense CC interface in a 2025 Toyota Camry
Clutter
Current trends in automotive climate control interfaces lead manufacturers to include many similarly sized buttons and switches in a dense and unfriendly layout.
Cluttered consoles lead to distractions, confusion, frustration, and accidents.
My research showed that in some cases modern vehicles require the driver look away from the road for up to 3 seconds for each input to the climate controls interface
The Tesla Effect
Sure, Teslas can drive themselves, but their use of touchscreens and menu-based control systems are being increasingly adopted by other manufacturers.
