Scott Bush

I’ve been conducting a non-scientific usability test since, say, the early 90s. The subject is the humble microwave oven. Once a revolutionary device, their ubiquity today is matched only by their lack of decent design principles. A simple scenario explains what I mean:

New company employee retrieves his frozen entrée from the fridge and approaches the microwave. He stares at its buttons, scanning quickly in the hopes of preventing his new coworkers from thinking he’s a dunce. After an abortive attempt, a nice lady intercedes: “That’s for setting the clock. Just try pressing and holiding the number 3 button; that’ll put it on for 3 minutes.” He smiles gratefully and steps away to avoid irradiating his body… he’d like to have kids one day.

This man—and many others, including myself—aren’t dumb. It’s just that microwaves have become terribly unusable.

The “good ol’ days”

When I was younger, we had a microwave with three controls:

1. Button for opening the door
2. Button for starting the cooking process
3. Knob for setting the timer; 0 to 20 minutes

Granted, the thing was the size of boat and weighed twice as much, but it had the right idea as far as interface: simple. No one would start at it in bewilderment because it was intuitive. The buttons were tactile, with a satisfying click to indicate when they were engaged (if the open door or humming didn’t give it away). The knob was very visual and extremely easy to cognitively understand.

Examples of this type of microwave aren’t impossible to find. This one has a second knob for selecting cooking power, I’d imagine:

What happened?

Fast forward today. Microwaves can be had for $20. It is precisely this cheapness that has driven down usability. As microwave “features” grew (popcorn, vegetables, and beverage buttons, for example), engineers simply slapped another button on the front. Gone were the nice tactile buttons and intuitive nobs, replaced by an array of unnecessary and confusing buttons. Who knows the difference between “Compu Defrost” and “Super Defrost”? What exactly does the “potato” button do? Is that one, two, or a half-dozen potatoes? “Pizza” is equally unhelpful (who cooks a pizza in the microwave, anyway?). These kinds of generic buttons are as useful as a woman walking into the salon and requesting “haircut.”
I recognize the economic forces that require reduced cost. But that doesn’t excuse the lack of design principles evident on most microwaves today. For example, why are the “Start” and “Cancel” buttons often the same color as the number and speciality buttons? To keep in line with a gray-on-white design aesthetic? Or outright contempt for the user who has to searc—even for just a moment or two—for the right one to push?

Another bad usability choice is the lack of stratification in user tasks. On many microwave control panels all buttons share equal importance (as defined by their grouping and placement). A thin line or reversed text (typical for the numbers 0-9) helps users differentiate, though these clues are not as useful as they might be if cost wasn’t such a factor. Using larger or multiple circuit boards costs more, which is why buttons are always clustered together, rather than segregating secondary tasks (setting the clock) from primary (entering cook time) with space. Employing colors and larger button sizes to identify the one or two most common tasks would be helpful, but rarely used.

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

Can anyone tell me why I need to be deafened by a piercing beep not once but multiple times when my food’s done? Most trips ’round the glass turntable are 30 seconds or a minute, so folks tend to wait around. If they leave the kitchen chances are they won’t forget they’re hungry and not return for their food, even if it’s been five minutes.

Okay, so we need an audible bell. There are plenty of ear-pleasing gongs or dings that could be sounded rather than most microwave’s punishing screeches. Again, I assume cost is a factor: modulating a high-pitched tone is probably cheaper than a speaker capable of a more pleasant sound. But it certainly can’t be so expensive as to render it unworthy of the cost. My biggest pet peeve are microwaves that continue to beep after you’ve opened the door or pressed cancel. Why must they do that?

If I were a microwave designer…

So I’ve harped on what I don’t like. Let me identify what an ideal microwave design would incorporate. I’m not a mechanical engineer so I’ll assume just throw out the ideal user design condsiderations.

Tactile, visible controls

• Timer must be a knob, preferably with a smooth, slightly resistive feel.
• Any buttons would depress slightly, like those on a Powerbook keyboard.
• Also borrowing from Apple’s design genius, the knob and any buttons would be backlit based on an ambient light sensor.

Simple, understandable tasks

• Organize controls around the most common tasks. Ninety-five percent of people just want to warm something up, so the timer (knob) should be most prominent. Secondary tasks (setting the clock, using a timer, defrosting) should be presented simply but not confuse the main purpose of “just cooking”

Don’t aggravate the user

Conduct surveys and user tests across a wide spectrum of users (kids, teenagers, the elderly, “soccer moms” and “football dads”) and identify common aggrivations, then strive to avoid them. (Horrific beeping would be high on that list).

I realize my ideals would push the microwave from the Kia class into the Mercedes class. But even a simple change to a knob-based system shouldn’t be prohibitively expensive for manufacturers, yet make life much easier for all of us wanting our Lean Cuisine.