January 11, 2008
Cover Art by the Dashboard Light
Album cover art displays are coming to a car near you via agreement between Gracenote and Ford Motor Co.:
The new Ford navigation system, being previewed at the Consumer Electronics Show, incorporates a new user interface that combines Gracenote's voice control and cover art offerings as part of an enhanced music library navigation solution. Ford drivers will now be able to enjoy cover art from Gracenote's database of hundreds of thousands of licensed cover art scans, all on a high resolution eight-inch display.
"The combination of voice control to navigate the car's music library coupled with the cover art we are providing will bring ease of use and enjoyment of in-car entertainment to the next level." - Jim Hollingsworth, SVP sales and marketing, Gracenote.
photo credit: Ford
OPINION: When I first heard about this news I was thinking something more like Apple's Cover Flow, so it was pretty exciting... you know we love to see album art spread to display devices of all kinds. But after seeing the screenshot above, I can't help but be disappointed. The cover is tiny and tucked into an odd location. The design of the whole GUI is just plain uninspired.
I know there are considerations for touch screen displays, but those buttons are just plain ugly. They look like bad Flash buttons circa 1995. The font looks to be Eurostile, which actually matched well with tech design... in the mid 70s. The kerning is so tight that the letters almost mash together.
Some button text is center-left aligned, yet others are top-left aligned, so as to accommodate the single 2-line button for 'Music Library'. That's their design solution?!? Wow. I'm sure the voice activation is cool, but man... even if that's the night time view settings, it's just bad interface design.
OK, rant is over. If you squint, the cover art probably looks pretty good.
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