National Press Release

CHICAGO, Jan. 22 /PRNewswire/ -- The stylish and iconic Mini brand has experienced a revival in recent years that has brought two entrants to the US market, the Mini Cooper and the Mini Clubman. Thoughtful engineering and design have made Minis 'zippy' and fun to drive, roomier than expected and, let's face it, cool. Unfortunately, this same thoughtfulness does not carry over to the user interface (UI) of the car dashboard.

User Centric, Inc. (http://www.usercentric.com), a Chicago-based user experience research firm, evaluated the usability of the Mini Clubman dashboard. Based on extensive experience with in-vehicle systems and UI best practices, the team found the dashboard suffers from awkward relationships between buttons and the display, inefficient layout of controls, poor error recovery and some labeling issues.

Naseem Hasan, User Experience Specialist and Mini Clubman owner noted, "Drivers are going to have continual trouble in two ways. First, simply picking the button is hard because of the alignment. Second, since the mapping of the buttons is always changing, I constantly have to divert my attention from driving to the entertainment system; this creates a potential safety hazard."

In short, while Minis may be fun to drive, the dashboard UI diminishes the overall user experience. For the full evaluation, visit http://www.usercentric.com/news/mini.

About User Centric, Inc.

User Centric is a global consulting firm that focuses on improving user experience. We apply our expertise to projects involving handhelds, web sites, software, medical devices, print, packaging, and telephony services. Our services include user research, user interface design consulting, information architecture, usability testing, user interface evaluations, eye tracking, and online surveys. Learn more about us at http://www.UserCentric.com.

User Centric is a partner of the UXalliance (http://www.UXalliance.com). The UXalliance is the international network for user experience. Founded in 2005 by the leading usability companies in Europe, North America, and Asia, they are ideally placed to lead international user experience research. The UXalliance combines the resources of 14 companies, 220 user research professionals worldwide, and over 40 testing facilities.

SOURCE User Centric, Inc.