Knobs > Digital
Just a quick U.I. observation from the non-computer world.
My wife and I went shopping this week for a new oven/range.
In general, it seems that the more expensive the oven, the more digital gimickry it has. A fancy oven is not content to have a knob to set the oven temperature - it must have a digital display with 6-10 buttons adjacent to it, not only for temperature setting, but for all sorts of elaborate delayed cooking features and whatnot.
With a conventional ‘knob’ interface, I can, at a glance, see whether the oven is on, and if so, what temperature it’s set to. If I want to turn on the oven, it takes exactly one wrist motion to turn it on and set it to the desired temperature (say 375)
I have no idea how the digital ovens work, because at the two stores we visited, they were all unplugged and sitting on the floor. But I’ll speculate that, on initial glance, the oven will show a blinking 12:00 (because the clock will have been reset from one of the frequent storms in our area). I’ll then need to look for the ‘on’ button from among the ~6 buttons, and press it. It will then prompt me for a temperature, and I will probably need to find and press the up/down buttons 4 or 5 times to get them to the desired temperature.
Digital interfaces on non-computer devices are usually inferior.
I’m dreading the day when I have to use a digital toilet.
May 2nd, 2006 at 2:00 pm
Ok, we just bought a range with the silly digital interface. Her’s how it works.
Press BAKE. The display shows 350 degrees. Use UP and DOWN to adjust the oven to the desired temp. (between 100 and 550). After four seconds of not being pressed, the oven kicks in, and then shows the current temp (which is helpful and somewhat addictive watching the temp go up). And then it beeps when it hits the desired temp.
And yes, it’s an annoying interface. What’s particularily scary isn’t so much the interface itself, but that everything uses membrane switches, which from my experience don’t have a great shelf life to begin with, and now you are putting those things near a heat source.
It used to be that you could count on your stove potentially lasting for 15 years or so, due to the realtively hardy mechanical components. While the actual stove/oven might still be completely useable, you are simply one stupid silly cheap-ass membrane switch (which probably have a shelflife of something like 5 years of a decent amount of use) away from needing a new stove.
May 3rd, 2006 at 2:50 pm
Exactly why any decent music equipment and software (read: none) have knobs that turns endlessly to have best possible precision to adjust a digital, possibly floating point, value.
I’ve been preaching about this issue for a while but no one else seems interested.
You might ask how it works in software: Simple, click the knob and the mouse pointer turns into a hand that stays still while moving the mouse adjusts the value as long as you the knob clicked. This way you can position knobs on the edges of the screen in software without bumping to the issue that plagues a ton of software where you can’t adjust the dial because mouse pointer hits the screen boundary.
May 3rd, 2006 at 3:07 pm
Ughh, our oven has knob issues. We have a digital display, but a knob and must turn it to set temp, timer, etc. If you want 3 hours you about break the kneb off by spinning it around so many times.
May 4th, 2006 at 11:48 pm
“I’m dreading the day when I have to use a digital toilet.”
Don’t ever go to Japan!
May 29th, 2006 at 5:09 am
So i guess the Knob was replaced by Buttons (digital) to make it look new age cool.
So what i see here as convenient is to have a knob, not neccessarly it needs to be mechanical.
Is it nice to hear the KRANKING sound as well when you trun the knob? probably not.
I saw something similar on a music system, Digital knob…to move …throught the track list.
It was more kind of a finger powered roating disc, rather than a thumb-n-finger controlled knob.
June 6th, 2006 at 11:11 am
Reminds me of the 80s obsession with graphic equalizers that you could fiddle with forever - my need to tamper with them was far ahead of my ears’ ability to detect the changes. Now I just turn the amp on and leave the dials pointing up. I miss all those twinkling lights though.
June 9th, 2006 at 10:48 pm
[...] 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. [...]