The Minimalist Microwave

100 Days of Reimagining the World, Day 2

As a college student, I microwave A LOT of stuff — from the massive batch of food my mom cooked me last weekend, to popcorn and cold coffee.

But, in my (possibly) fourteen years of using a microwave, I’ve never found a need to venture beyond the safety of the number buttons, and you probably haven’t either. Plus, chances are, if you didn’t read the manual, buttons like “power” don’t make intuitive sense. From a UX standpoint, “power” tends to represent a switch that controls either “power on” or “power off” for an entire machine, not the adjustable microwave strength option that it actually represents.

The microwave in my apartment.

The question now, is there truly any point in having a microwave with 1… 2 .. 3…24 buttons?

Lets take a (sarcastic) gander at a selection of the buttons on my microwave, to the left:

  • Start: not just start microwaving, but also, quickly add 30 seconds! Even when you don’t want it!
  • Express Cook: the same thing as the +30 sec button, but this time with six different numbers, but only those full minutes. To microwave something for, say, 45 seconds…
  • Time Cook: press this button to set your own timing for the microwave, resulting in having to press (on average) five buttons, one of which is the furthest button from the number pad.
  • Time/Weight Defrost: How often do you really know how many ounces your frozen slab of meat weighs? Also, if the following “power” button was more clear, as discussed earlier, “time defrost” wouldn’t be needed, as the ability to defrost would be more clear.
  • Popcorn/Potato/Pizza: I don’t trust the generic buttons to not ruin my heavenly slice of pizza, or to cook a potato, to be honest. I will admit, I used the “popcorn” button once (it failed).
  • Dinner Plate: is this button meant to make my plate hot? Because the microwave already does this automatically! You know, when your plate is on fire, but your food is still an icicle.

It seems like the only truly necessary buttons are the 10 numerical buttons, start, stop/clear, and a more descriptive implementation of “power”.

I do admire the technology and research that must have gone into deciding which food buttons to implement, as well as how to determine optimal microwaving powers and times, while simultaneously speaking to the dietary habits of the American public (popcorn, potatoes, and pizza were deemed worthy of microwave inclusion?) Ultimately, the average microwave interface is too cluttered, confusing, and full of unused elements.

My goals:

  1. Simplify the process involved in setting up a microwaving cycle
  2. Design an easier way to understand and set the different power levels
  3. Maintain clarity in the tactile interaction — as minimal as possible, but still useable. In the microwave interface below, the visual design is aesthetically pleasing, but it’s difficult to understand the area covered by each button, as well as differentiate buttons due to a lack of compartmentalization through boxes and such.
  4. Maintain the flat surface so as to allow for more straightforward implementation, as well as keep costs down by adding constraints: no knobs and raised buttons.

The Solution:

Unlike the above photo, I chose to follow a vertical hierarchy, allowing the user to smoothly input from top to bottom, power level, to cooking time input, to the start button. I also made sure to apply digital UI button design conventions by outlining each button to signify “clickability”. Furthermore, I added a visual element to the power up/down adjustment by implementing a 10 level stack that lights up in relation to the selected power level. To additionally decrease the feature bloat, I later chose to remove the clock and timer functions, things that a user would generally look to a cellphone for.