Charles Arthur
struggles with technology:
Visited anyone recently and tried to use their microwave oven?
Ummm, no, can’t say that I have, Charlie…
Of all the familiar devices in a house, the microwave has long been the laggard in usability.
Really? Well, I only use mine for ready meals and microwave side dishes, so maybe I’m not best placed to judge, but it seems pretty idiot-proof to me…
… when you buy one, or go to someone’s house and use theirs, you will almost certainly be confronted by an unfamiliar interface. How powerful is it? Do I have to set the heat or time first? If I have to press digital buttons to set the heating time, will it interpret them as hours? If I need to set a heating time of more than an hour, do I enter the minutes, or is there an “hour” setting?
Well, gosh… *nonplussed face*
… we’ve got used to smartphones and tablets whose interfaces have undergone a flurry of interbreeding. Even in rival mobile interfaces, you expect to find apps offered as an array of icons; to have notifications about events in a sliding layer at the top; and get easy access to key functions such as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth from any screen. If microwave interfaces had standardised to the same extent, we’d be able to operate almost any on sight. Instead, they still can’t tell when you’ve put metal in them.
I have a great idea for a reality TV show – 10 ‘Guardian’ journalists in a room with a microwave and a stack of ready meals! Last one not starved to death wins!
Actually I have some sympathy. Our recently replaced one now has the most user unfriendly counter-intuitive set of 6 buttons I have ever encountered on a simple appliance. The button legends are ambiguous and the button legend size is too tiny to read without glasses. There is a ridiculous sequence of setting functions (it has a grill/oven function), power levels and cooking time which must be done in advance via a sequence of repeatedly pressing assorted buttons in the correct order to cycle round functions helpfully(!) designated 'C1' or 'A2' and suchlike on the readout. Then there is a multifunction knob. In total a multi-button sequence and set of codes which you have to learn and remember or you simply can't use it.
ReplyDeleteBasically the interface is designed by a complete idiot, and the machine is made useable only by the one press 30sec full power microwave button - once you learn which one does that and are happy to heat everything in multiples of 30 seconds or by a completely undocumented short cut procedure that we discovered by accident.
Really. Modern interface design is often appalling - and phones are not much better!
Charles Arthur looks like a man who is often perplexed.
ReplyDeleteJay
Whilst all of the above might well be true, when I replaced our defunct microwave, it was with the basic £35 model from ASDA. Two rotary knobs:-
ReplyDeletea) Power from 25% to 100% with 'Defrost" marked.
2) Time in minutes (with 0.25 minute divisions).
Totally foolproof, cheap and if it pops its clogs after 5 or 6 years, no huge financial loss. It's already gone for three years without a hiccup.
You know the Labour leadership contest is going really badly when The Guardian starts printing filler articles moaning about the usability of microwave ovens.
ReplyDeleteAndy Burnham and Yvette Cooper really need to do something about thier lack of charisma I think
"If I need to set a heating time of more than an hour, do I enter the minutes, or is there an “hour” setting?"
ReplyDeleteSo what sort of things need microwaving in hour multiples then?
And when for that matter could you it metal in a microwave - or am I so out of touch that I should expect a job offer from the Guardian any day now?
SteveB
"10 ‘Guardian’ journalists in a room with a microwave and a stack of ready meals! Last one not starved to death wins!"
ReplyDeleteOr just 10 guardian journalists locked in a room. Last one not starved to death wins. Repeat until there is only one guardian journalist left who now has some experience of how the world works.
When all about you think you are a world class div best not to write a moronic article about your kitchen appliance inadequacies in the Graun and remove all doubt.
ReplyDeleteXX SteveB "So what sort of things need microwaving in hour multiples then? "XX
ReplyDeleteTurkey? Goose? Swan? Lion?
Lion is plausible. I'll ask my dentist...
DeleteSteveB
Do not put metal in the science oven!
ReplyDelete"Really. Modern interface design is often appalling - and phones are not much better!"
ReplyDeleteIs it a case of 'too much choice', perhaps? As Ted Treen suggests, shelling out for the most expensive model might be the problem.
"You know the Labour leadership contest is going really badly when The Guardian starts printing filler articles moaning about the usability of microwave ovens."
:D
"Lion is plausible. I'll ask my dentist..."
Hah!