this post was submitted on 26 Oct 2023
40 points (91.7% liked)
Hacker News
3871 readers
3 users here now
This community serves to share top posts on Hacker News with the wider fediverse.
Rules
0. Keep it legal
- Keep it civil and SFW
- Keep it safe for members of marginalised groups
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
The problem is that people interpret minimalism to mean whatever they want. In Tesla’s case it means no buttons but tons of functions just hidden in sub-menus. In some it means an array of buttons each only doing one thing. There’s a good mix between them, but minimalism doesn’t mean removing everything or creating only one “thing” it means maximizing how little you actually need. Some buttons (like defrost, temp control, gear position, windshield wipers and others) are actually necessary and therefore removing them isn’t minimalism but simply just absence.
I'm aware of the ambiguity behind "minimalism". My point is that they likely didn't think on usage ("less clutter that requires your eyes to be off the road"), and instead were following the trend of minimalism being interpreted as removal for the sake of removal - that you see in other industries too.
They had no real consideration of minimalism. They had a big touch screen and didn't want to spend money on buttons. Minimalism was the justification as a matter of marketing.