Fuel Level and Engines Temperature Indicators

[Hankster]

My 25 Lariat Hybrid has been very interesting getting used to. In particular the cluster display of engine temperature and Fuel level indicators are very difficult for me to pick up on, for a quick glance. The cluster on the 25 maverick is a big departure from the previous model years in appearance. The display of miles till empty is small in size and the visual "needle" used for Fuel Level being the same color as the basic gauge graphic is pathetic in design. At least fords engineers could have made a RED or Blue indicator that stood out if they didn't want to have a display of temperature or fuel level meters of a traditional nature. The rpm meter is a complete joke. Is this cluster a fixed design, or can it be changed in software?

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[bgn]

Nope. That's a hardware implementation. It's all the rage right now for cost cutting from Ford and Toyota.

 

[ZABSMAV]

My 25 Lariat Hybrid has been very interesting getting used to. In particular the cluster display of engine temperature and Fuel level indicators are very difficult for me to pick up on, for a quick glance. The cluster on the 25 maverick is a big departure from the previous model years in appearance. The display of miles till empty is small in size and the visual "needle" used for Fuel Level being the same color as the basic gauge graphic is pathetic in design. At least fords engineers could have made a RED or Blue indicator that stood out if they didn't want to have a display of temperature or fuel level meters of a traditional nature. The rpm meter is a complete joke. Is this cluster a fixed design, or can it be changed in software?

This is further evidence of the time wasting by Ford "engineers". Instead of getting caught up on engineering solutions for known problems in the Maverick and getting those recalled and fixed for current owners, they evidently spend all of their working hours dreaming up the next "big" thing (vehicle front ends, dashes, center displays, etc.). Guess there is more job satisfaction with showing each other "Look what I did today!" instead of the old mantra that "Quality is job one!".

 

[Fcnrwy]

This is further evidence of the time wasting by Ford "engineers". Instead of getting caught up on engineering solutions for known problems in the Maverick and getting those recalled and fixed for current owners, they evidently spend all of their working hours dreaming up the next "big" thing (vehicle front ends, dashes, center displays, etc.). Guess there is more job satisfaction with showing each other "Look what I did today!" instead of the old mantra that "Quality is job one!".

Surprisingly, this Philosophy has become prevalent in Model Railroading..
CLub members have issues with their "Digital" control units.
And instead of being simple 'Resets". I have to go through 12 steps, for what previously took only TWO..
Just because, "HEY, Look what I DID today.. Idiots designing these things...

Jerry

 

[Scott Asheville]

Mea culpa. I am a retired software engineer who specialized in GUI. We're fallible human beings. In particular, designers of all kinds just can't helping wanting to "improve things" early in their careers. With youth comes a tendency to aim for what you perceive as hip or cool or trendy. It's the role of seasoned supervisors to be the bad guy and hold back youthful excess.

It takes years to decades to mature as a designer and realize that sometimes the best change is no change, and that restraint is sometimes better than excess. There's a place for change. There's a place for excess. But with a lot of caution.

A lot of people making these designs have never been formally trained in designing for effective user interaction. It merits specialized post-graduate level of study to get really proficient, and to understand the theory behind the practice.

Good design also requires intensive study of your users, and many times organizations and managers just don't do that (it takes immense amounts of time and money). Said differently, if you don't intimately know your users, you will design for yourself. It takes humility and steady professionalism to design for others.

 

[ZABSMAV]

Mea culpa. I am a retired software engineer who specialized in GUI. We're fallible human beings. In particular, designers of all kinds just can't helping wanting to "improve things" early in their careers. With youth comes a tendency to aim for what you perceive as hip or cool or trendy. It's the role of seasoned supervisors to be the bad guy and hold back youthful excess.

It takes years to decades to mature as a designer and realize that sometimes the best change is no change, and that restraint is sometimes better than excess. There's a place for change. There's a place for excess. But with a lot of caution.

A lot of people making these designs have never been formally trained in designing for effective user interaction. It merits specialized post-graduate level of study to get really proficient, and to understand the theory behind the practice.

Good design also requires intensive study of your users, and many times organizations and managers just don't do that (it takes immense amounts of time and money). Said differently, if you don't intimately know your users, you will design for yourself. It takes humility and steady professionalism to design for others.

I couldn't agree with you more. I just retired after a 33 year career as a professional urban planner.

I originally started my education to become an architect and went through several years of design courses.

Became disallusioned with the prospect that the work on an individual building could be wiped away in the future, I switched majors to a new offering at my university. Graduated in their first year Urban Planning program. Helping a city to be built was thinking bigger, and while individual buildings may not, a city endures.

One thing that was critical was learning that I don't go in and tell a city or town how to plan for the future from what I want. My job was to help them decide as a whole both what they need as well as what they want their city or town to be in the future. Always told them you can either plan for that future and get close to what you wanted, or not plan and the future will still soon be there, but you may not like the future that you didn't plan for.

Like you said, sometimes not doing something radical is the right answer.

A famous quote in planning is: "there are no right answers, seek them diligently."

 

[dochawk]

It takes years to decades to mature as a designer and realize that sometimes the best change is no change, and that restraint is sometimes better than excess.

I'm not sure if it was Steve Jobs or another apple executive that got the bright idea to measure programmer productivity by lines of code produced, and required weekly (?) reports on it.

Bill Atkinson, the bit god who was responsible for much of the original Macintosh system code, responded by turning in huge negative numbers--reflecting the lines that he had deleted, improving performance and stability.

The executive caved.

 

[Cherokee]

This thread makes me even happier that I snagged a 2024 Lariat AWD Eco.

 

[RideSolo]

This thread makes me even happier that I snagged a 2024 Lariat AWD Eco.

Amen... except in my case a '24 Lariat hybrid.

And I can add that I had gotten to really love and appreciate the layout and functionality of the dash display on my '20 Escape Titanium hybrid and was slightly disappointed with the one on my '24 Lariat. Yes, it seemed slightly "budget" but more importantly, it wasn't an improvement of appearance or functionality in a four year newer vehicle. Since others on here have proven that very dash module will work perfectly in a Maverick, why create something completely new that isn't even an improvement? Those silly, less than $100 "smart" watches give you the choices of hundreds of different face options that are changeable at a whim, why can't they do that w/ one of these dash displays?

 

[Cherokee]

Ford should have out sourced the digital display interface to Apple or Tesla.

Boy I bet I get Gobsmacked for that comment :XD

 

[Shock96]

Mea culpa. I am a retired software engineer who specialized in GUI. We're fallible human beings. In particular, designers of all kinds just can't helping wanting to "improve things" early in their careers. With youth comes a tendency to aim for what you perceive as hip or cool or trendy. It's the role of seasoned supervisors to be the bad guy and hold back youthful excess.

It takes years to decades to mature as a designer and realize that sometimes the best change is no change, and that restraint is sometimes better than excess. There's a place for change. There's a place for excess. But with a lot of caution.

A lot of people making these designs have never been formally trained in designing for effective user interaction. It merits specialized post-graduate level of study to get really proficient, and to understand the theory behind the practice.

Good design also requires intensive study of your users, and many times organizations and managers just don't do that (it takes immense amounts of time and money). Said differently, if you don't intimately know your users, you will design for yourself. It takes humility and steady professionalism to design for others.

Amen. It is incredibly hard to design a decent UI. I had to design a fairly simple GUI for a hardware interface. It was for a free software piece we offered to small businesses to manage hardware level security and other hardware level stuff.

It took me forever to make it look decent and work just OK. I feel confident that I would have been laughed out of any UI group and I put a ton of time in. It ain't easy!

 

[Mikeske]

Personally I am not a big fan of the digital bar display of the fuel and temperature gauges on my my 2022 Maverick XLT with the FX4 package but that is because it is not as easy to decipher as a traditional needle gauge.

My thing is I am retired aviation/vehicle mechanic. I spent ten years as a heavy line mechanic and just over 35 years as a aviation mechanic and those years as a aviation mechanic made me know that the engineers in aircraft can either be the best friend of the mechanic or his bane.

One the things that I absolutely hated when I worked the interior of aircraft was various different ways the various aircraft had the sidewalls with the windows in them were installed and I blame that on engineers trying to make them visually pleasing as they should but man some of those sidewalls are so poorly designed and I can go on and on about them. I sat one time in a meeting and this design engineer was going on and on about the redesigned sidewalls in a Boeing 777 and yeah he the right idea about using the similar design to the 787 but then he came up about covering the gap between sidewalls and he said a small strip would snap over the gap. I said something about putting a bandage over a bullet wound as a drunk passenger would be able to yank that off in a New York minute as I seen it already on a flight in a 787. I suggested a similar strip but it be mounted on the frame of the aircraft between the panels. Then just wrap the edge of the panel and be done with it and no drunk passenger would be able to yank it off.

I was close to retirement and I knew that those young hot shot engineers would never listen to something that would be quicker and easier to assemble and would be easier to maintain and keep clean would never come to pass.

 

[JohnnyBravo]

Ford....you need to listen and take notes from your "constituents". You may have the engineers to dream up stuff, but we are the people that have to live with the end results. I too have issues with the 2025 display. In this time period we are in with technology, we should not be discussing sh!tty tech. At least give the end user better options to choose from. I worked at a truck plant in Pontiac, Michigan. I was lucky to see a lot of the "top secret" design process but couldn't understand why our designs and tech were so far behind europe. Stop trying to reinvent the wheel. For instance, why keep changing the way the EV coach works on hybrids? I shouldn't have to go back to college to learn that all over again. keep it more familiar than it is now. Do better.

 

[cwstnsko]

I looked at both the 2024 and the 2025 Lariat hybrid yesterday and ended up buying the 2025.
My other vehicle is a Lightning with Sync 4a and I felt like the 2025 sync screen was a lot more similar to the Lightning.
The AWD hybrid was also a bit of a factor for me.
I’m still figuring out my preferences as far as how the screen behind the wheel is set up. I found some options last night that I think I will like better.

 

[710-oil-614]

I don’t use the HVAC until the ICE engine reaches near operating temps as to not make it run unnecessarily. I don’t have an issue with locating the temp line.

Also you get in your vehicle and you notice the miles to empty when you start. Do you really need to glance down and see how many miles you have left? Seems like an insignificant thing to me.

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