Due to my lack of camera, I have once again had to put my MS Paint skills to the test. Above, you will see a diagram of the microwave in my apartment. This microwave has many design flaws- I will describe a few.
The most obvious problem is with the basic microwave function. In order to cook/heat something, the user hits TIME, then the numbers, then START. The problem is that TIME could just as easily represent the clock display. The only way to tell that this is not the case is to notice the other button, CLOCK.
Furthermore, it is not clear that the TIME button serves any purpose. Pressing a number without first pressing TIME does nothing. Why not eliminate the TIME button, then?
Another confusing function is the DEFROST. Pressing the button brings up the following display: dEF2. The user can only guess what to do next. Pressing START does nothing. The user, in fact, has to push numbers, entering a decibel number between 0.1 and 9.9, then pressing START. What do these numbers represent? Even worse, entering any number above 4.0 yields an error. Why is the user allowed to enter higher numbers than are acceptable? This is an altogether baffling function.
A final, most annoying design flaw is the beeping after cooking. When the time is up for cooking something, the microwave beeps five times. Opening the door does not interrupt the beeping, forcing the user to endure the series of shrill beeps to its conclusion. The user will learn to avoid this, so they will often open the door seconds before the cooking is over, thus leaving an annoying second or two on the timer, which must be later cleared before the next cooking.
