Don’t you hate it when buttons in new microwaves stop working. After a few years of use, you have to push them very hard to get them to work, if they work at all. I’m sure that doesn’t happen with a single analog knob.
Two buttons are used the most at our house: [Popcorn] and [30 sec].
Our microwave was recently zapped by lightning and my wife son are suffering microwave withdrawal. I’ll be getting a new one tonight.
Recently, we seriously evaluated upgrading all our appliances and doing the whole kitchen make-over thing. Its actually hard to find a basic microwave. Now they want you to cook with microwaves, halogen lights and convection all at the same time. http://products.geappliances.com/ProdContent/Dispatcher?REQUEST=PHOTOGALLERYSKU=SCB2001KSSSITEID=GEA
You see less buttons now? They replaced them with a knob and a display. Turn the knob to go through the “menu.” Push the knob to go one level deeper. Its like a vi interpretation of fly-out menus! My new microwave? http://products.geappliances.com/ProdContent/Dispatcher?REQUEST=PHOTOGALLERYSKU=JE2160WFSITEID=GEA
Notice the [Popcorn] and [30 sec] buttons? Yeah, that’s all that matters.
Disclaimer: I am not curious orange.
A quick glance at the control panel reveals that the ‘start’ button also says ‘/speedy cook’- my guess, at it’s default state, with no prior input, pressing this button will set the microwave to ‘high’ power and increment the cook time by 30 seconds for each push, within a certain time limit. Pausing for that limit would then enable the button’s ‘start’ function.
My microwave has a separate button for that feature- a ‘quick-set’ button that increments time by 30 sec’s. This feature is (and has been) standard on microwaves for years now, at least on ‘better’ or more competitive models.
Thus, I think there is a parallel for software UI’s (which you’ve most likely already covered)- intuitive (or more so) hotkeys. Obviously, the most oft-used power setting on a microwave is ‘high’ or maximum, and the most common cook times have a GCD of 30 seconds. So, when designing a(n) UI for software, I would think having hotkeys for the most oft-used features is a necessity. Then the battle becomes making them intuitive. CTRL+s for ‘save’ is intuitive- CTRL+SHIFT+F9 is not.
TTFN,
Tarkin
I think the thing I find most amusing is that it seems as if the control layout for every microwave I see is different. I mean they crank these things off the assembly line by the millions, and yet, it seems as if no two are the same model.
Maybe it’s just me…
UI complexity is a timeless problem. On one hand, you want to be accessible to novice users. On the other, you want offer the capability to do complicated things. The challenge is to provide a tool that serves the needs of all kinds of users.
One solution is to offer two user interfaces. I’ve done this in Photoshop plug-ins I’ve written. The user is initially presented with a menu of simple processing choices. If they are more adventurous, they can switch to another tab which has an array of sliders and dials that provide fine control over the effect.
For the microwave situation, perhaps there could be a door concealing the advanced controls. I’ve seen some remote controls that do this.
jeff, you notice it because you are in the software biz, if you were in the microwave biz you would say the same thing about software…
2 2 2 start
I admit, my microwave is 7-8 years old. I wouldn’t consider it hard to use, though.
To use it, I just type in a time and hit Start. There is also a way to change the power level, but I never use it… everything I’ve ever run into says to Microwave on HIGH, and the microwave has a separate Defrost button.
The only other buttons on it that I ever use are the Popcorn, Defrost, and Clock buttons.
Nowadays it seems that the popcorn I buy has instructions on it that says: “Do NOT use the Popcorn button on your microwave”. WTF, that was the only convenience button I ever used. Now, I fear that button.
your post threatens my job security… if i ever do that type of programming.
the ONLY problem i have with new microwaves is when they have more action buttons than just a START and a STOP button. like i remember this one microwave that had a button that was called start, and all it did was start a timer counting down for the time amount you entered in.
but in a completely unintuitive place, there was a “bake” button, that actually did the cooking action for the specified time.
i was like “wtf?” and then i started just boiling water on the stove for my ramen. if i couldn’t figure out the oven, i was gonna get a can of chicken noodle soup and the blow torch.
Check out the book The Design of Everyday Things. It’s fairly old, but still very informative: http://www.amazon.com/Design-Everyday-Things-Donald-Norman/dp/0385267746
Here, here! The only control every microwave has ever needed is a knob that goes from “off” to “15 minutes”. No other buttons, not even a “door open” button, is needed.
One dial will do fine thank you.
OK, maybe two dials, one for power level, one for cook time.
My motto in life, if it doesn’t have a keyboard and a mouse I don’t buy it.
@Jeff “Quick! What do you press?”
Easy - the popcorn button. 
Seriously, the problem is that all these microwaves are slightly different - the one at my work has a +30 button on it that is pretty easy to use (once you know what to do). Hit it 3 times and your meal is hot and delicious. At home, the Quick button expects me to press a number afterward, to indicate how many minutes to cook. Neither of these, however requires me to hit the Start button.
Don’t ask me how to use the convection feature - my wife knows, but I’m clueless.
Some programs are that way too. My goal is to “iPod” my programs - easy interface with intuitive features with cluttered displays - sometimes easier said than done.
The microwave I had growing up (mid 80s) was not very easy to use
To cook something for 1:30
- Insert object into Microwave
- Press “Cycle 1”
- Use 4 buttons underneath the 4 digits on the timer to set the time, so, press the third button from the right once, and the 2nd button from the right three times.
- Press start.
For my grandmother, of course, we got the Microwave With A Knob.
I hate dial-style microwaves. I don’t trust that they will work properly with the silly analog timer thingy.
I hate the segmented LCD displays - how expensive is a matrix display anyway?
All the cooking programs are bung, and the defrost never seems to work properly. I end up with partially cooked chicken most of the time.
Full power is usually far too high, and why is it by selecting 50% power will just makes it go full power 1/2 of the time? Sure it averages 50% power during the time requested, but really, who are we kidding.
The reason why there are heat lamps and toaster bits in microwave ovens is because they’re just not that good at cooking. I’m impressed by what can be made with a micro, but a real gas oven is centuries ahead.
The one lesson that hit me the hardest from The Design of Everyday Things (a book I think has been mentioned previously on this site) was that while as few controls as possible looks the easiest to use, what’s actually the easiest to use is having one control per thing you want to do. E.g. in a microwave oven, you’re likely to want to set a time and the power, so two dials are appropriate.
The “as few controls as possible” mentality was so ingrained in my brain that it took me several re-reads to actually get that “no, you should put in the extra controls iff they map to things you want to do.”
Going back to the basics, EVERY microwave only has 2 (two) settings:
Power level and time to nuke.
All these fancy buttons and settings, dials, and whatever are just fancy buttons.
Maybe some people don’t want to remember how long does their favorite popcorn brand takes to cook, well, too bad. All microwavable foods have instructions in the packaging.
My microwave has some kind of weird sensor which decides how it cook what I tell it to, and it works most of the time.
However, me being a programmer, I know how much time my favorite foods (pizza and popcorn, if you must know :P) take to cook like I want them to, yet, I can’t tell the microwave how much I want it to cook with 2 buttons! What gives ?
Microwave designers seem to think that they know better than me how I want my food…
-ZaidaZadkiel
totally agreed
things became sooo complicated, i dont need these features
normally though the best solution is to buy the CHEAPEST because these things are normally the SIMPLEST as well
However some microwaves will start with a single button push. ‘3’ for 3 minutes, etc. Mine does that for digits 1-6.
I used to have one of those too. It always bugged me that that feature only worked for 1-6 minutes. Granted, it’s not often that you need to heat something beyond that, but the logic is obviously already there – how hard would it be to wire it up to 7-9 also?