There is a lot of talk across the design and motoring media about a return to physical switches. The battle lines have been drawn. But the real art to great HMI doesn’t lie in making a binary choice between screens or physical switches, It comes in designing these elements together as one complementary system.

It’s often the case that human beings want to make a simple choice: A or B, black or white, day or night. We strongly believe in one design team where the UXers, switchgear designers and interior team all create together. And that means negotiating friction and learning to understand each other. There is nothing wrong in respectful creative tension! Especially when it leads to better user-centred outcomes.

So to all those design teams out there, I recommend getting to know the teams within your team a bit better. Don’t see each other as competitors, see each other as collaborators. It's extremely rewarding to learn different design skills and it creates better products.

At Östra we are agnostic to the screen vs switch debate. We design what’s right for the brand and what’s right for the customer. And we appreciate both a great piece of motion design and a beautifully crafted physical switch.