The visual relationship of the steering wheel and the instrument panel has always been uneasy. As steering assemblies added more and more features they increased obstruction of the dashboard displays. Mixer was asked to study and reimagine the steering wheel assembly with particular attention to reduce visual occlusion of dashboard displays. This activity employed the expertise of our entire team.
Profiles in Form
After extensive study of existing and historical configurations, our designers explored a wide range of familiar and unfamiliar ergonomic form-factors. We also broke from the established locations of dashboard displays by experimenting with more visual information moved to the steering wheel assemblies.
Testing Theories
The best way to learn about our concepts’ success was to test them with actual drivers. It would not be safe to do this on the open road, so we engineered some of the more promising designs and installed them into room-sized digital driving simulators.
Reference Designs
The results were analyzed after testing numerous subjects. The information gleaned from our efforts were ranked and the most successful features were recorded to establish design guidelines for future vehicle developments.
