I saw a great blog post about microwave controls a few months ago but I can’t find it now. The gist of it was that they only used the “extra minute” button. Pressing it once turns on the microwave for a minute, with no other button presses required. This bloggers parent (or grandparent?) knew how to use it because it was easy. Press that button 4 times for popcorn. Twice for soup.
My work has a microwave that has a toaster built in. Both of them have separate controls on the control panel, including their own on/off and reset buttons. But, and this is my favorite part, you can’t use the microwave and the toaster simultaneously. So it’s really easy to try and stop the microwave but hit the stop button for the toaster.
Hi Jeff, if it’s not beyond the scope of your blog, could you do some sort of user interface analysis for Wikipedia. Because as far as I can tell, it’s not very accessible to the average user (sometimes I think that’s a good thing ;)). But I don’t just mean in editing, but also in viewing, searching and finding the information they need.
Actually, I prefer the digital controls over the knob. I cook with mine, so the ability to have it on for more than 10 minutes and at 50% power is useful. The beverage button works great for re-heating coffee. Press a keypad button, and the microwave turns on with 1 minute times the number pressed. The other buttons are useless. On yours the Dinner Plate struck me as odd, because it is the one non-food option, and a reheat of the contents of a plate would vary widely.
I just bought a new stove. There wasn’t a single frikkin’ model that had a knob for the oven temperature. So instead I have this piece of crap with 12 buttons for a bunch of features I doubt I’ll ever use. Worse, when it lets me know it’s warm, it shuts off the timer which I just spent 30 painful seconds setting through buttons (because there’s no knob for that, either).
Interesting post, Jeff. I think that you’re missing a key factor, though. The ‘high-tech’ microwave interface is designed to diffuse the ‘gunk’ delivered by mucky hands (think hygiene). Check out the single dial interface - it’s filthy. The keypad interface design, however, looks spotless, and that’s because it spreads hand movements across a larger surface area. Ingenious.
Are you serious? Most new microwaves sold in europe have power time knobs again. Here you don’t really see those ugly digital 90’s ovens anywhere anymore.
No I like the digital one better. In my office our digital one died and someone picked up a two knobber. At first it was neat and retro and now it just burns popcorn…I miss the popcorn button. My desk is 15 feet from the microwave and it seems like on one can make popcorn with out it burning.
I’d be very interested in surveys as to how many people actually use any of those extra features. I’d be surprised if it is over 1%. I can’t recall ever using, or even ever seeing anyone use anything over than “300[start]” with variations in the time with the possible exception of changing the power setting.
Too many designers fail to understand that sometimes adding a feature makes a product worse.
The fairly recent (digital timer and everything) microwave I have has a grand total of 5 controls (well maybe it has more, in fact I’m pretty sure it has like 4 or 5 more, but I never used them. One of them sets the clock, that’s about all I know), 3 of them I actually use often:
A start button, clearly labelled as such, at the bottom right of the microwave. This can start a heating, but if you just tap it it starts heating at max power for 30 seconds, and every subsequent tap bumps the count by 30 seconds
A stop button, clearly labelled as such, which… well… stops the microwave
At the top (right under the timer) is an unmarked knob. Turning it clockwise increases the timer, turning it CCW decreases it. I usually use it to fine-tune the heating time.
Under that is the grill on/grill off button, which I never came close to
And right under the grill button (about halfway between the start and the timer) is the power button, to cycle between the preset 150W, 200W, 300W, 450W, 550W, 650W and 800W (the maximum)
I usually just slam the start button and then turn the knob, if I want control over the power I tap the power button until I get the required power, then tap the start button. Or I select the power, then turn the knob until I reach the needed time (the knob starts at 0 in that case though, inefficient) and then I end the operation by tapping the start button.
5 controls I notice, 4 I use, 3 that are both completely clear and of utterly trivial use.
Bjarne Stroustrup may have said a very true thing about this :
“I have always wished for my computer to be as easy to use as my telephone; my wish has come true because I can no longer figure out how to use my telephone.”
“I cook with mine, so the ability to have it on for more than 10 minutes and at 50% power is useful.”
that’s the rub - most people don’t cook with theirs, they just heat stuff up. However these people (the majority i would say) have to be inconvenienced for the sake of those who want finer control over their microwaves.
There was a neat, tiny little controversy about this in the world of design / ui blogs a few months ago. Basically, a UI expert went to Korea, and found that car dashboards there are packed with controls. On one SUV dashboard he found three different switches to control the same light. His Korean hosts said Koreans were obsessed with new features, so the unnecessary switches were added as a marketing ploy. There were then blogs and comments saying this was definitely not just a Korean thing, and a very interesting point that users say they want simplicity but almost always buy gadgets with extra features. Dan Something, in his book “Stumbling On Happiness,” also points to research that retailers should put fewer gadgets on their shoproom floors, as there’s a ceiling on the number of options people will consider before giving up the whole process, and this probably creates lost sales for retailers.
Obviously I forgot the blogs and even the Harvard psych researcher’s last name, sorry about that, but there’s enough here for a good Google session.
Obviously also the iPod’s packaging and design versus the packaging and design of most MP3 players is also relevant. Users do in some cases pay for simplicity.
Thank you! I’m glad I’m not alone on this. Some food service industry microwaves use very simple interfaces with only a handful of preprogrammed times - minimal thinking involved, and very fast to use (over and over again).
@Bryan
Yuck, burned popcorn has to be the worst thing ever. Or maybe about as bad as not burned popcorn. I hate it when that smell permeates my work environment. Because then I have to go and get some myself.
I find it’s often interesting to compare consumer products to their industrial grad cousins. The business world tends to go for function over form.
For example, if you look at a microwave oven in Subway it just has a row of 10 buttons across the top, presumably for specifying 1-10 minutes, which also start the oven.
