While driving I noticed that the gearbox is complicated for a first time users. I find it hard to tell which gear my car is in while driving.
Is there a reason for this design, and is there a better alternative that could be implemented? Personally, I like simple buttons to change the speed any time you want without any confusion.
Driving is complicated for any first timer. That is why you have driving schools teaching you how to do it. The most challenging thing there is not the gear shifting, but dealing with traffic.
The gear shifts you propose do exist. They originate from the racing world, and Top Gear's Jeremy Clarkson refers to them as "flappy paddle gearbox". They allow manual shifting using basically two handles behind the steering wheel that you can pull forward with your fingers to shift up or shift down. It is basically an automatic transmission with controls that allow manual timing on when to shift. That is faster to operate than the traditional stick.
However, this method is
An experienced driver can feel from the stick position what the current gear is. No additional (visual) feedback is really needed. For the flappy paddle gearbox type, you will need an additional visual feedback somewhere, probably a number on the dashboard somewhere. How is that more intuitive than operating a stick? On the other hand: while driving, you judge by the sound and feel of the car if you're in the right gear. About the only time you need explicit feedback is when standing still because you either want to start reversing, or you want to pull out.
In summary:
The interface for a manual transmission is somewhat complex because it's a historical design driven by technological limitations. The shifter in most cars with a stick is still a mechanical linkage pushing around bits of steel inside a very complex set of gears. The abstraction leaks, in sometimes annoying but also useful ways, and determines where and how the stick shifter can be set up, unless you want to go to a very expensive system.
It's also tradition, and car UIs move very slowly. The "H" pattern has been honed over the years, including the spacing of the notches, the angle between them, the length of the throw, how hard or easy it is to push the stick around, and so forth. Likewise the engagement throw of the clutch pedal is something that car manufacturers engineer very precisely (for cars where this is a selling point).
Finally, the interface is optimzied for experienced, rather than novice, users--as most of us will be experienced users of our own vehicle, as well as experienced users of cars in general. Once learned, the feel of the stick and the pedal give the driver a lot of information about the state of the car's engine and wheels and the interaction between them, information that is lacking in an automatic. Having driven both extensively, it's clear that it is much harder to understand what is going on with your tractive surfaces in an automatic.
Manual transmissions may not be "highly usable" but they are a "highly learnable" interaction. Once you learn a stick, all you have to do is rest your hand on it to know where it is. Also, you learn how a car "feels" so that if you're at 40 miles per hour, you know how the car feels in third and fourth gears respectively.
Learnability is better to design for than usability often times.
It's not just a matter of UX and simply changing the design. It's a technical implementation.
Check out this type of transmission: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multitronic
Of course, since this is a rather complicated design, it makes the car and its maintanance more expensive. I believe it also has its limitations towards torque it can process. So it is certainly not an option for every consumer. At some point, a balance needs to be made between ease of use and cost. In Europe, for most users the balance is biased towards the lower cost.
Great answers so far. Another thing is as a manual driver I know what gear I am in most the time just by the speed that I am driving and the sound of the engine. If the revs sound too high / low I know it's time to change. I don't remember the last time I looked at it whilst driving; It would be dangerous!
This is a question that's going to get different answers because of region. I recently went to USA on holiday and drove an automatic, and I prefer the control you get with a manual. I do lots of driving and don't see it as a hindrance.
I don't think the UX of a gearbox really matters that much because when you're using it, you're not supposed to look at it. Your eyes should be on the road. If anything, a dashboard could have a visual indication about which gear you're in.
They're designed to be operated without a need to look at them.
