back

by ColinWright·7mo ago·view on hn ↗
Not sure it's entirely relevant, but I'm pretty sure that research done for instrumentation in aeroplane flight decks shows that information is transferred faster and more reliably from the instruments to the pilots when it's analogue.

That's why even the modern glass/digital instrument panels have simulated "tape".

They also include digital readouts for added accuracy, but it's the analogue versions that transfer information "at a glance".

2 comments
I disagree here. I find it much faster to read the speed from a digital speedo than an analogue one (especially as most cars compress the road legal range into under half the dial).

Especially in a 20 zones, a few mph is just a tiny needle movement but you definitely can get a ticket for it.

Analogue is better when your want to see something moving through the range though.

Not sure about which one is faster to read for a static value - most analog simulated instruments are relative which means you still need to read a digital readout to get the absolute value.

One thing analog instruments/tapes do that a simple digital readout won’t is they easily communicate the rate of change of the value.