There are some oddities in the UI. Not really annoying buy odd that there are duplicate and triplicated ways to do things as well as where info is displayed.

For example, you can adjust volume with physical pop-out nob, one the steering wheel, in the touch screen. If you adjust volume using knob or touch screen, you will see the volume level in both the upper and lower screens. If you adjust from thumbwheel, you will see volume in 3 places, MID, touch and upper.

I kind of like the Shortcuts, but you would think that Shortcuts would stay on the touch screen once selected. Then you have one or 2 touches to get to a shortcut. However, the shortcut screen goes away after selecting shortcut or after a short time period if you did not select a shortcut. Thus, you have 2 to 3 touches to get to a shortcut. This is virtually the same as navigating without the shortcut.

I've already stated on another thread that if you display Audio in upper screen, 90% of the info is duplicated in upper and lower screens.

Anyway, they are just odd things that I bet that they improve over time.

 

Here's another thing I find odd (and annoying) about the UI.

On some screens, they let you scroll through a "list" using the jog shuttle wheel on the center console while the car is moving. However, on other screens, they force you to use the "next" voice command to scroll through a "list". Makes absolutely no sense. A list is a list is a list. Why on earth do they let you use the jog shuttle wheel for some, and not others?

This appears to me to be a bug in the "safety" mechanism they impose on the NAV system to force you to use voice input instead of tactile input while the car is moving.

 

The User Experience was designed in silos and approved by committee.

I copy & paste that to the post mortem of every client project I am engaged.

 

So, so true Tampa....unfortunately that is the way things get done.

 

yeah - they changed what is "allowed" while driving versus stopped from the RL to the RLX navi. Now you cannot enter addresses or find places (among other things) while driving. The "next" list is almost impossible to use

 

Excellent products are inversely proportional to the number of lawyers on the committee in the silo.

 

From Infinity Q50 review

Here, Infiniti seems to copy what Honda has done in the new Accord and Acura RLX by placing a color LCD at the top of the dashboard, and a touchscreen below, within easy reach of the driver. But where Honda made a mess of this type of interface, Infiniti gets it right.

http://www.cnet.com/products/2014-infiniti-q50-hybrid/

 

Just reading the small snippets he wrote around navigation and seeing some of those additional screens, they definitely got it right. Just the graphics looks much better. Less clutter, and more refined, minimal, UI elements and objects.

While I've learned to live with the UI in the RLX, it really could have been a lot better and feel they need to go back to the drawing board. Especially when I feel like the UI in the ILX is far better than their flagship sedan that costs $30k+ more than the ILX...

 

The good news is that the UI can be tweaked, this is all software and I would expect changes to the system over the years.

 

^ while I agree, I think the point here is it shouldn't take "over the years" to get it right...when they already have a more functional and useable system in their lower end vehicles.

IMO, the current RLX/MDX system is a sign of poor product management and/or planning...

 

After spending more time in the car on several trips, there are lots of weird aspects to the UI. Very inconsistent
Playing a CD, the touch screen shows only Song Title, no album name, no artist
Playing from HDD, touch screen shows album name and song title (no artist)
Playing radio, no song, no artist

 

If it's an HD FM station, I get format, song and artist on the top screen.

For whatever that's worth. It's not worth much to me because I'm seldom listening to the radio at all. :-)

Even though it doesn't sound quite as good, I'm usually on satellite in order to avoid DJ histrionics, politics and advertising.

iPod sometimes. That sounds pretty good.

Very rarely Pandora or Aha over Bluetooth.

I don't think I even *have* any CD to use. :-)

 

Anyone on board with Android based car systems? Why do they need to re-invent the wheel anyway?

 

"If it's an HD FM station, I get format, song and artist on the top screen."

yes- you get this in the top screen for radio, HDD, and CD, but why not lower? Plenty of space and I want Navi on Top.

 

This is a real pain...you cant even access your phonebook while moving. You're right, a list is a list...why allow recent calls/favorites to be accessed but not the phonebook?

Some of the other menus are understandable I guess, like car settings.

I wonder if there will be any 'patches' on existing vehicles?

 

causes me more distraction trying to figure out what happens "next" with the voice command. In some cases, its just stupid. You have to look at the list more with that option than just using the jog dial if it were available

 

I know they're working on iPhones.

 

Totally agree, worst of all I have to remember where the "voice" key is on the wheel which causes me to look down for a second or so. I've only had 5 days in the car so far still adjusting to the steering buttons, they're in a different spot than my old TL.

I met a sales rep from Acura (corp) today who has been driving the RLX since September and he claimed a lot of the locked out features were due to federal restrictions/pressures.