It is amazing to me that we're approaching 2008 and there are still microwave user interfaces out there that are close to impossible to figure out. I tried to do a fairly simple but vital task on this microwave at a friend's house last night -- heating up my coffee -- but I just couldn't figure it out. Maybe I'm stupid, who knows, but this was just too much for me.
Here are some issues I see with it:
- The "Start" button doesn't actually start the microwave. And once you get it going (the only way I could figure out how to start blasting is by pressing the "Express" button), the "Off" button doesn't turn it off
- The labels are non-universal and therefore doesn't map to existing mental models of what microwaves should do. What does "Combination" mean? "Sensor"?
- The big round knob in the middle is for turning, and as far as I could tell, if you turn it, it does something to the length of time the microwave is on. But there is no label on this knob and no way of knowing what it does.
- All the buttons are the same size, while different shapes and sizes can help users understand what the buttons are for (if you've seen the TiVo remote you'll know what I mean...).
- And a whole lot more but I'm already a dork for posting about this so I'll stop now
I actually do want to make a point here though... Has anyone seen the user manual for the iPod or the iPhone? It's only a few pages long. That's how much confidence Apple has in the intuitiveness of the UI. And they have every right to be -- it only takes a couple of minutes to figure it out, you don't even have to open the manual!
This microwave probably has an enormous user manual. And for good reason -- it's a lazy design... So anyway, it's a bad photo, but hopefully you'd be able to see what I mean:
No comments:
Post a Comment