Knobs > Digital, part 2

This evening, we were making cookies in our new oven (initial discussion), and the oven shut off about 2 minutes before the cookies were done, due to some confusion in using it.

How could an oven be confusing? Turn it on, insert cookies, monitor cookies until done, remove. Easy.

Here’s how an oven display SHOULD be designed. This is our toaster oven, which is what I like to use. Twist the knob to the desired temperature. The light goes on. Remove your food when done and twist back.

Toaster Oven Knob

Here’s our new oven:

New Maytag Buttons

Whereas it only takes 1 knob to interact with our $40 toaster oven, it takes 11 buttons to interact with our $400 oven. I guess they figure they need about one button for each $40 in price. I’m glad we didn’t get the $800 model…

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This morning, another poorly designed button interface nearly cost me $180. I had borrowed a power washer from a neighbor, which fortunately only had 4 buttons. On and off, on the unit itself, and Test and Reset, on the oversized power thingie you plugged into the wall. Understandably, having a built-in circuit breaker is a necessary thing on an electrical device meant to spray water all over the place.

After using the device successfully for a while, I moved it to a different location and plugged it in again. Nothing happened – the engine didn’t come on. I tried various combinations of toggling the on/off, the test/reset, trying different wall outlets, etc – nothing. I left it alone overnight, figuring something had gotten wet and it needed to dry. This morning – still no luck. Had I broken it? Was I on the hook to replace the $180 device for my neighbor?

Finally, I called the manufacturer’s help line #, helpfully printed on the unit. Although it was an automated system, it actually got me a useful answer fairly quickly. Turns out I had to press and HOLD the reset button for 4 seconds. Yes, being a computer geek, I suppose I should be used to press and hold. But I usually work around it on my PC just by unplugging and replugging it (as I had tried with the power washer.)

Consumers are used to pressing a button, then releasing it. Any button that requires you to press and hold it for multiple seconds is broken.

Manufacturers:

  • Don’t use 11 buttons when 1 knob will do.
  • Don’t try to turn a single-state button into a multi-state device (normal press, and LONG press).
  • Use the right device, in the way that your customers are used to.
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    P.S. – After I wrote this, I realized our toaster oven has two other buttons – ‘Toast’, and a toaster darkness setting (a knob, fortunately). Still, I think my success rate with the toaster oven is about 99.5% (the other .5% is me turning the toast darkness setting and forgetting to press the button).

    P.P.S – When I cropped the pictures above, I considered cranking up the contrast so that you could actually read the words on the oven buttons clearly. But then I realized that the button contrast is part of the problem. Note that the toaster oven manufacturer, who probably had the factory owner’s high-school graduate nephew design the interface, realized that labels need contrast – thick lettering – white on black or black on white. The oven manufacturer’s buttons look sleeker, but thin gray letters on a tan backgrounds does not make for easy readability…

    8 Responses to “Knobs > Digital, part 2”

    1. Christer Ericson Says:

      It seems most people/companies rarely stop to contemplate the usability of their products. The classic reference on stupid designs and how they can be improved is Don Norman’s The Design of Everyday Things: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0465067107/

      Anyone that is involved in creating an end-user product (whether a knob on a toaster oven or a program UI) should be forced to read (and understand) Norman’s book.

    2. Phil Steinmeyer Says:

      That’s a great book.

      Clearly, the designers at Apple are familiar with these concepts. Most other hardware and software companies prefer the 11 button approach to one knob. (OK, the iPod has 1 button plus 1 knob that also functions as 4 discrete buttons, IIRC…)

    3. Stu Says:

      Whatever “Cook and Hold” is I’ve done my whole life without it.

    4. StGabe Says:

      In all fairness, both knobs or digital can be poorly designed.

      The “knob” that is the shifter for my automatic transmission in my new Toyota Yaris was designed very poorly IMO. It follows a winding route from P to L with the following labels arranged vertically between: R, N, 3-D, 2, L. Which one is drive you ask? It has to be 3-D, right? Well it turns out that, even though the whole thing is setup vertically there are two different settings in one slot, 3 and D, accessed by moving the knob horizontally, and of course I was using the wrong one which meant that the transmission wasn’t using the 4th gear.

    5. Phil Steinmeyer Says:

      But the car designer probably thought it looked cooler with only 5 positions instead of the 6 it really needed…

    6. ac Says:

      I also totally fail to understand the need for so many controls in a car. I can perfectly control GTA, Need for Speed and dozen other car games with just the classic up/forward,down/backwards/brake,left,right arrows..

      One might say that backwards and braking are different functions. I however fail to see how can you go forwards and backwards at the same time, atleast with a regular car. Not to mention pixel perfect landing of fighter jets and helicopters in Battlefield with just 8 keys.

      But since I am kind of divided personality, I’ll also counter myself by noting that some controls take more time to master than others and there are also questions of precision, response etc.

      For some ultimate control thrills, download the Air Crash Investigations serie. I guarantee more thrills than in the 24 serie, for example in the instance when the pilot loses all controls … Well I don’t want to spoil what happens then – depends on the episode your watching 🙂

    7. Chris Says:

      Not wanting to sound like a smart arse bastard, but if the cooker is presenting so many problems, why didn’t you get one with knobs instead?

    8. Phil Steinmeyer Says:

      If it was up to me, I probably would have. But my wife is the main cook in the family, and a bit more partial to gadgetry than I am. Plus, I think most/all of the flat top electric stoves (easy to clean) use similar control schemes now. I would have probably gone for gas (with knobs) myself. Ah well – marriage is all about compromise…

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