It seems every time I rent a car I find something pretty offensive to report. Last weekend I rented a Toyota Corolla and was pretty befuddled by the windshield wiper control:

Not to be dramatic, but I could see a bad windshield wiper control design as being potentially dangerous; it would be terrible to be fumbling with one in a unfamiliar car after it suddenly begins to rain. Imagine trying to figure this out during a downpour:

I would suggest that the design should be standardized, in the same way turn indicators all function the same car to car, but that’s probably an impossible dream for a variety of reasons. It seems like most cars I’ve driven follow a similar pattern: push up to wipe once, push down incrementally to increase the speed, and pull forward to release washer fluid. After a cursory Google search, this is the best I could find:

Not sure why the mist functionality is duplicated; pushing up should run the wiper once. The fact that this design utilizes text makes me wonder if it’s even possible to have a clearly communicated windshield wiper control without text, by using icons only. Perhaps in car interface design, as in the Apple HIG, “a word is worth a thousand pictures.”

Edit: A reader pointed out that “mist” does in fact mean “one pass of the wipers,” used when the rain is “misting.” Anyone else confused by that? Why is the washer fluid icon repeated next to the “mist” indicator?