Quick–can you figure out how to use this microwave to nuke your leftovers for 30 seconds?
Maybe you guessed that you could press the circle-thingy to pop it out, twist it to 30 seconds, then press Start. Good guess but, sorry, no. The knob does pop out when you press it, but nothing happens when you turn it.
This microwave belongs to my mother-in-law, and it stumps everyone who has not either read the manual or been trained by someone who has. (Second guess: You can use “Quick Min” to start the microwave immediately cooking for one minute, but then “More/Less” only lets you add whole minutes, and again, turning the knob does nothing.)
Let’s back up – who designs a microwave with no number pad on it?
Researching this post I discovered that this microwave is supposedly great at sensor cooking. So you should only have to press the “Sensor Cook” button (top right), and the microwave figures out the rest. Did you know that? I didn’t. But I’m pretty sure that the VAST majority of the time people use microwaves, they expect to enter a cook time, especially when using an unfamiliar oven. In that case, what does the designer leave us with?
A pretty, recessed knob! Circular controls are cool!! And it save the real-estate of 10 buttons!!! That’s it. No hints, no numbers, no backups but the manual.
“Cool” and “clean” are the only rationale I can imagine for putting the number entry into knob form. Well, that and then you don’t need to memorize those Fitts’ Law shortcuts. Although even without those, a number pad beats the knob for efficiency – it’s just not humanly possible to turn the knob to the correct time without overshooting it at least once. That is, IF you can figure out how to get the knob to produce numbers in the first place. Okay, okay, fine, I’ll tell you the secret:
You have to push “Power Level” first (once for 100%, twice for 90%, etc.), THEN you can use the dial. There isn’t even any visual cue that the knob will now work – just a scrolling message that says “set time.”
I am simultaneously fascinated and appalled by this lack of concern for novice users. The designers of this microwave interface have made the most basic and fundamental scenario impossible to figure out without the manual, and they’ve gotten away with it! My mother-in-law now knows the trick, but every new visitor, family member, and renter who wants to use her microwave has to go through the embarrassment of asking for help after failing to figure out the simplest of tasks.
I guess the moral around here lately is don’t mess with the number pad!
