When I first moved out of home I had a microwave that I think must have been a prototype or something. It had a lever at the bottom which had three positions. The lever when moved, moved a triangular prism inside which had a number of foods written on it. Running perpandicular to the lever was a slider which ran up the side of the triangular prism. When moved up from it’s resting position it would turn the Microwave on and then slowly settle back down to the bottom.
The idea was that you would use the lever to find the power setting with your food on it, and then use the slider to select a time. It sounds complicated but it was far easier than the digital interface we have now. My Microwave is like MS-Word. Feature packed and underused.
I know I’m late to the party, but it’s worth mentioning that commercial microwaves still use this single-knob design, or, failing that, a simpler multi-button approach. You’ve seen the latter in 7-11.
Nice Jeff. However some microwaves will start with a single button push. ‘3’ for 3 minutes, etc. Mine does that for digits 1-6. It and the ‘add 30 seconds’ button are more convenient IMO. But then there’s nothing that instant for the in-betweens, which the dial could always hit, in case you know just that perfect setting for something you’re always cooking… I sometimes find myself entering it manually… ugh.
(PS. searching your comments so as not to repeat something someone already said sucks. But then we all know and encounter that…)
Actually, there do exist modern microwaves that have the simplicity of the older ones, even without sacrificing the features of their competitors. Mine, for example, has a simple dial you can turn that increments the time as you turn it clockwise and decrements it as you turn it counter-clockwise. End of story if that’s all you need. There are also lots of fancier settings in the form of buttons (with REAL tactile feedback, at that).
most of the time i just hit some absurd amount of time and hit start. and then stop it manually after a while.
the worst is the microwaves where you have to hit ‘cook’ before the time. of course i want to cook. if i hadn’t wanted to cook, i wouldn’t be messing around with the microwave. the best is the ones that have a big button up top for +1 minute, which turns it on for a minute more with each press. it still would be nice to set the power level so easily
Well the obvious solution to all UI issues, as several products have been showing us is the touch panel.
Then all you need is to be able to adjust the layout of your touchpanel. Of course no one would be using a stylus in the kitchen and touchpanels are bad at catching wethands, so that might be a slight issue.
Don’t you think there are users (buyers) out there who would just assume that if the microwaves have more buttons, they would offer more functionalities, and therefore ‘better’, worth more money, etc. Isn’t that the same thing with software some time?
I think it’s the ability to add in a ton of features with little extra cost to the machine these days. Manufacturers want to cover all possible uses that someone out there might have with just one model, which actually, isn’t a bad thing at all.
But that being said, my family used to have one of those digital ones with a gazillion keys on it, and we rarely use it at all because it was just too complex, having to set a dozen options to cook some instant noodles. We finally got rid of that and got the big knob model and everyone is happier.
Yes, contribute to the dumbing down of society by designing our products so that they can be operated by the lamest of cavemen. After all, interface is something which is there to prevent the user from understanding how the machine works.
… What I mean is that digital is by far, more complex than analog. And with the complexity comes more features naturally. We can interface the extra features but to do it as easily as ‘a dial’ would take extra interface that requires more. And it also seems archaic so That could be why it remains avoided by the engineers.
What bothers me is when I want to microwave something for less than a minute (which, admittedly, is not all that often, but enough). I used to be able to hit cook-3-0-start and it would go for 30 seconds. Then we got a new microwave. I would instinctively try to enter the time this way, but when I hit the 3 the timer would start for 3 minutes. It had a “add 30 seconds” button, but this didn’t work unless it was already going. Fortunately the one I have now allows me to start it at 30 sec.
I really haven’t paid enough attention to the presets to even think to use them most of the time. I know how much time I need, and I don’t necessarily trust that the slice of pizza the manufacturer had in mind requires exactly the same time that mine does.
@Joshua : make things unecessarily complex and even the brainiacs will cause accidents, because you’re not 100% of your time in “thinking mode”. Unecessarily complex interfaces don’t make anyone smarter. They’ll almost always frustrate and discourage.
You could reorder the interface a little bit and use a little more color - you’d make it twice as simple while still allowing users to use the complex options; without the manual, too.
Hey Now Jeff,
This post makes me think of the old KISS principle. Keep it simple stupid. I’ll keep the post in mind the next time I’m adding one more field or button. I love hot keys. On the microwave just press #1 it heats up my food, similar to a phone just one number pressed my favorite #'s are dialed. From Alt + tab to Ctrl + S we gotta love hotkeys.
Coding Horror Fan,
Catto
The vast majority of microwaves sold in Germany have two controls: a timer and a power regulator. The more expensive ones might have a button or two in addition. Nobody would buy a microwave like the one on the picture. At least I certainly wouldn’t, simply because the controls make the thing plain ugly.
But then we all know and encounter that…)