Hacking the Bus

In my day job I’m a Business Analyst who specializes in application design and usability. So I’m always curious about how people interact with the things in their daily lives and whether those things are well designed or should be thrown into a pit and never see the light of day again.

Over the fourth of July holiday I saw one of the most frightfully designed kitchen appliances that I’ve seen–my mother-in-law’s microwave oven. 

Everyone knows from experience the process of cooking with a microwave oven looks like the following:

1. Open the door
2. Place your food in the oven
3. Close the door
4. Enter cook time, change power settings, etc.
5. Press start

Simple, right?

As you can see, this microwave works differently than 99% of the microwave ovens that you’ve ever seen. In order to enter the cooking time, you have to open the door.

So this oven reverses steps 3 and 4. Now that might not seem like such a bit deal except for one thing.

The process that we use to cook in a microwave oven is so deeply engrained in us that we don’t even think about it. So changing the workflow without improving it is a big problem.

Generally when a process is so deeply engrained in us, it’s a bad idea to change it unless you’re improving it.

Imagine what it would be like if I took all the light switches (something you know how to operate without even thinking about it) in your house and turned them sideways. Imagine if I did it only because it looked cool on the wall. You’d have to think about your light switch every time you used it. Even the physical gestures you’re used to using to turn the light on would feel alien.

Although there could be some valid business reason, It appears in this case that the change to the microwave oven was made to improve the aesthetic design of the device (i.e. to hide the "ugly" buttons) without regard for the device’s usability.

It is slick, isn’t it?

However, since all of the controls are behind the same door that keeps the microwaves in the oven and your environment protected, you’ve got to open the oven door with your splattering food in it to change the settings.

The start button has been separated from the control panel. This is because the door must be shut before the oven can be engaged. Otherwise your food wouldn’t be the only thing in your house to get cooked.

Less evident is the fact that you almost never get to see the control panel on your microwave oven.

This is more important than you might think.

You walk into your kitchen every day. Depending on how much you look at the control panel of your microwave oven you get to build a cognitive map of the capabilities exposed on that control panel. All of this happens passively. For instance you may notice one day while looking at it that the oven has a special timer function that you didn’t realize was there and would like to try.

The redesigned  microwave oven doesn’t give  you any chance to do that because the control panel is hidden from you permanently.

Frequently we, as designers (graphic, product, application, etc), get so caught up in how something looks that we completely forget how it functions. I am as guilty of this sin as anyone that I might accuse of it.

The more well designed a product is, the more invisible it will be in your environment and in your day to day routine. The moment it’s functional design causes you to notice it not because of it’s novelty, but it’s flaws, then there’s a problem.

My in-laws hate this microwave oven, but they haven’t bothered to replace it yet. It gets in the way of their daily routine, but it still cooks their food. Eventually they will replace it. Hopefully it will be with something that someone has thought about a little more.