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The article doesn't really go into what the perfect UI would look like. It is more of a buzz feed type article. That being said, my microwave just broke down a

The article doesn't really go into what the perfect UI would look like. It is more of a buzz feed type article. That being said, my microwave just broke down and I headed to the store to buy a new one. I was really disappointed at the new models. The UI seems to be getting worse on them. I have a feeling they are not even trying to innovate because it has become a low margin device. People are still trying if you are interested. Articles: https://ux.stackexchange.com/questions/28006/why-do-microwave-oven-uis-fail https://ux.stackexchange.com/questions/28006/why-do-microwav... https://medium.com/@bn/this-is-how-a-microwave-should-work-4e33b5c38b68 https://medium.com/@bn/this-is-how-a-microwave-should-work-4... Art Mockups: https://www.behance.net/gallery/15102955/Microwave-Redesign-Touch-screen-interface-design https://www.behance.net/gallery/15102955/Microwave-Redesign-... https://dribbble.com/shots/1309476-Microwave-UX-Concept https://dribbble.com/shots/1309476-Microwave-UX-Concept https://dribbble.com/shots/1449210-Microwave-Concept-PSD https://dribbble.com/shots/1449210-Microwave-Concept-PSD https://dribbble.com/shots/3249355-Smart-microwave-UI-concept https://dribbble.com/shots/3249355-Smart-microwave-UI-concep... If you have others, feel free to comment! Appliance UX/UI is a very neglected area.

dmitriid 9y ago
While the StackExchange link is awesome, the rest are just horrible. As with all these wannabe designers they go for the wow effect. It takes about half a second of rational thought to see why. All these art mockups are just that: art mockups. "How do I make a thing look pretty". A tired mantra of programming smays: make it work, make it fast, and only then make it pretty. Touch screens in the kitchen. In the effing kitchen! When you are often up to your eyebrows in grease, oil, flour, vegetable juices etc. Oh, look, you have to turn the knob to set the time. To set the power you have to touch some other area and then turn the nob again. To set the time, you have to touch that area again to switch modes, and then set the time. BUT WHY? This is solved with just having two knobs! https://johnlewis.scene7.com/is/image/JohnLewis/233182566?$prod_exlrg$ https://johnlewis.scene7.com/is/image/JohnLewis/233182566?$p... Oh, look. As it starts, it shows you time remaining, and a stop button. Because you never ever in your entire life would want to, say, adjust time. Nope? The thought never even occured to the designer. Oh, look, there are still multiple small buttons (that are already awkward on a vertical pane), but let's make them touch buttons! Oh, and let's leave them exactly the same as they are now, because the only reason why people don't understand how they work is because they are not touch buttons. Make them touch buttons! They will immediately become intuitive! Oh, look, the iOS time scroller! Because that's exactly what I need: to be able to set 23h 29m 31s by scrolling through infinite lists of numbers. I wonder why is it that the vast majority of microwave uses are around 30s to 5min range on max power? I could go on
- username223 9y ago
  > Touch screens in the kitchen. And in the car, where you should keep your eyes on the road. Knobs work really well for adjusting the stereo and heater; replacing them with a huge touch screen is a terrible idea, and trying to make it less terrible with haptic feedback is a poor solution. Hopefully the current touch screen fad will pass.
snops 9y ago
All of those examples show large, high DPI (really thin fonts) colour touch screens, in non standard sizes. These are completely impractical from a cost perspective, requiring expensive tooling (>$100K) and easily $50 per screen (e.g. iPhone screen https://technology.ihs.com/595738/ https://technology.ihs.com/595738/), plus the massive firmware development cost increase from a small 8 bit micro to some giant ARM core, probably with a GPU as well. You wouldn't design a phone app using the non standard widget toolkit unless you had a good reason, why do designers dabbling in appliance design not use the standard toolkit of physical switches and knobs to start with and see what they can come up with?

dmitriid 9y ago

While the StackExchange link is awesome, the rest are just horrible. As with all these wannabe designers they go for the wow effect. It takes about half a second of rational thought to see why. All these art mockups are just that: art mockups. "How do I make a thing look pretty". A tired mantra of programming smays: make it work, make it fast, and only then make it pretty. Touch screens in the kitchen. In the effing kitchen! When you are often up to your eyebrows in grease, oil, flour, vegetable juices etc. Oh, look, you have to turn the knob to set the time. To set the power you have to touch some other area and then turn the nob again. To set the time, you have to touch that area again to switch modes, and then set the time. BUT WHY? This is solved with just having two knobs! https://johnlewis.scene7.com/is/image/JohnLewis/233182566?$prod_exlrg$ https://johnlewis.scene7.com/is/image/JohnLewis/233182566?$p... Oh, look. As it starts, it shows you time remaining, and a stop button. Because you never ever in your entire life would want to, say, adjust time. Nope? The thought never even occured to the designer. Oh, look, there are still multiple small buttons (that are already awkward on a vertical pane), but let's make them touch buttons! Oh, and let's leave them exactly the same as they are now, because the only reason why people don't understand how they work is because they are not touch buttons. Make them touch buttons! They will immediately become intuitive! Oh, look, the iOS time scroller! Because that's exactly what I need: to be able to set 23h 29m 31s by scrolling through infinite lists of numbers. I wonder why is it that the vast majority of microwave uses are around 30s to 5min range on max power? I could go on

username223 9y ago
> Touch screens in the kitchen. And in the car, where you should keep your eyes on the road. Knobs work really well for adjusting the stereo and heater; replacing them with a huge touch screen is a terrible idea, and trying to make it less terrible with haptic feedback is a poor solution. Hopefully the current touch screen fad will pass.

snops 9y ago

All of those examples show large, high DPI (really thin fonts) colour touch screens, in non standard sizes. These are completely impractical from a cost perspective, requiring expensive tooling (>$100K) and easily $50 per screen (e.g. iPhone screen https://technology.ihs.com/595738/ https://technology.ihs.com/595738/), plus the massive firmware development cost increase from a small 8 bit micro to some giant ARM core, probably with a GPU as well. You wouldn't design a phone app using the non standard widget toolkit unless you had a good reason, why do designers dabbling in appliance design not use the standard toolkit of physical switches and knobs to start with and see what they can come up with?