Pushing buttons

Modern day boating electronics are probably under utilised by the masses. A quality sounder or chart plotter provides access to a vast amount of information that is often taken for granted or is hidden in the menu never to be discovered by Joe Average who probably has an aversion to reading the manual.

There's probably an element of fear associated with experimentation also - If I play with the sensitivity levels, maybe I'll stuff the whole thing up?

Sound familiar?

I think sounders should have a comfort or panic button - hold down for a few seconds to save your current settings, press twice in quick succession to revert back to your saved settings. That would alleviate the experimentation anxiety and would encourage the masses to experiment and improve utilisation of their equipment.

Talking about buttons, how about a buttonless screen?

In fact my next sounder will be a touch screen Garmin unit with no buttons at all (well there's a power button but that doesn't count!). When I was trialling the unit I found myself flicking the screen and tapping away like I would my in-car GPS - a touch screen provides more viewing real estate (because you don't have a panel of buttons) and also feels more agile in navigation. Personally, I can't wait for the unit to arrive so that I can go through the menu items to learn what new and cool functions are available!

So why not embrace technology - read a few pages of the manual, surf the 'net for info and press some buttons or touch the screen a little more often next time you're out!

Are you a power user that cant stop fiddling with every button or are you an auto mode aficionado?