Daily UX Challenge #9 — Stove Controls
This is a part of #DailyUX design challenge series. I write about my thought process of approaching 20 different design prompts.
Design Prompt
As mentioned by Don Norman in “The Design Of Everyday Things”, natural mapping helps a user knowing which stove control is for which burner. Interview some users and try to get the perfect solution.
What is “natural mapping”?
I haven’t used the term “natural mapping” for awhile (although I do use it in my day-to-day design), so I did a quick search to refresh my memory:
“The term natural mapping comes from proper and natural arrangements for the relations between controls and their movements to the outcome from such action into the world. The real function of natural mappings is to reduce the need for any information from a user’s memory to perform a task. — Wikipedia”
It looks like a “gold standard” answer is already out in the world considered a good natural mapping of the stove controls. How can I push this further? I turned to a few friends of mine who like to cook at home for some insights.
User Interviews
How long have you been using your stove?
E: Four months.
J: Almost ten years.
M: Almost eight years.
T: Almost a year (OMG!) since I bought this house.
How often do you use it?
E: Three times a week.
J: Once or twice a week.
M: Once every three days on average.
T: We use it a few times a week.
On average, how long do you use it each time?
E: About an hour.
J: About half hour.
M: Average about 1.5 hours.
T: We usually use it for about 30mins at a time to make eggs, steak, pasta, roast vegetables or do a reverse sear steak, etc.
What are your thoughts on the stove controls and the burners?
E: I look for the effect on the pan or the stuff cooking. “Med” on the controls doesn’t really mean anything, but bubbling oil means it’s hot enough to cook.
J: It’s not accurate — a stove control with the same heat level does not indicate a burner with the same heat level. E.g., one burner with medium-low on the control can be hotter than another burner with medium-high on its control.
M: It’s intuitive and easy to operate with one hand.
T: It’s the oven controls that are more obtuse. My main complaint is that there are controls to set the bake time and controls to set the timer. And I always get confused which one is which. So inevitably I have to try a few times to set the time. Well, now I just go “hey Google, set a timer for __” and move on with my life…
Like I always do timer set, type in the time, and hit “Start” like a microwave (my microwave is right above the stove and follows exactly what I expected). But you need to press timer again to set it.
Ideally, for me, I’d hit “Timer” and the numbers would light up somehow indicating that’s what you press next, and then when I start typing in numbers, the “Timer” button or whatever button to confirm lights up next. Gimme some visual cue about what the right answer is, jesus.
(not quite related to this design prompt, but timer can be a future design challenge of its own!)
Have you ever mistaken turning on one stove but you meant to use another one? Or, while you’re cooking, you meant to adjust one but ended up adjusting another?
E: Of course.
J: Occasionally.
M: Yes, I’ve done it once or twice.
T: Yeah. Though for the most part no confusion about which stove because we only 1 most of the time, 2 very occasionally.
What do you think might cause that?
E: The burners are not well aligned with the knobs. And the graphics are retarded. I need to really focus and have glassed on.
J: If I don’t look close enough to the labels, sometimes I would forget which control is for which burner (e.g., control on the top is for the front burner or the rear one?).
M: Mainly because I had the pots/pans on the stove and when I turned the control I didn’t visually see the burner react.
T: It doesn’t have lights to warn you which stove has recently been on and is hot.
Photos of Different Stoves
Even though I only interviewed 4 friends, I was amazed by the variety of the stoves I see. Including the stove in my apartment, five people have five different stoves, with a wide range of age, usage, types and control/burner arrangements.
Summary of Findings
Legends as Bridges
3 out of 4 stoves provide a legend next to each control to help people understand the mapping relationship between a control and a burner. Since the arrangements of stove control and burners are entirely different, the stove builders create legends as bridges to connect controls and burners. Good intention, but they are only useful if people see them and understand the arbitrary relationship between trials and errors.
Minimize Text Labels
2 out of 4 friends mentioned the text labels next to each control are small and hard to read. The oldest electric stove appears to have the most faulty design — label is the only thing people rely on to use the stove. Without the labels, people can’t tell which control is for which burner or tell how hot a burner is. This is definitely something to avoid. Or, at least I need to explore the possibility to minimize using labels.
Desire Visual Cues
2 out of 4 friends mentioned they would like visual indication on the burners when they are turned on or warm. Safety is always a high priority when it comes to cooking. Nobody wants to get burned or use the wrong burner.
Design Concept
Layout Variations
SIZE matters — As I noticed, the sizes of burners are all different, though they can generalize as a smaller one and a bigger one. To standardize the scale of my hand-sketching, I used a quarter to represent smaller size burners, and a travel-sized lint roller tube to represent larger size burners.
NUMBER matters — The total number of burners fitting in one stove cooktop can vary based on the cooking preference:
- If having larger burners matters more (e.g., cooking in large portions), 4 is apparently the standard, yet some arrangements can utilize the cooktop surface better than others;
- If having more burners matters more (e.g., cooking many small portions), there is a 5-burner option, which also turns out the best coverage of the cooktop real estate.
Stove Control Variations
AFFORDANCE matters: Even though 4 out of 5 stoves use knobs as the affordance of stove controls, rotation of knobs does not naturally relate to changing heat level. It’s an artificial relationship and social construction.
Growing up, I read mercury thermometers to understand the air or body temperature change. So I decided to borrow the idea from the old fashion way — a push slider button similar to those used in utility knives, push to turn “on” (ignite the electric or gas stove), then slide up and down to change the power level of a burner.
The push slider control can use natural mapping in three different ways:
- Round-shaped control matches the shape of the burners;
- Controls can come in different sizes to match the size of burners (as illustrated above)
- Sliding up and down matches the power level changing between high and low. Also, a color-filled sliding track can provide another visual indicator of which burner is on and how hot it is.
So, my cooking friends, what do you think?
Previous pieces in the series (so far)
Challenge #1 — Wallet
Challenge #2 — Landing page
Challenge #3 — Parking machine
Challenge #4 — Chatbot onboarding flow
Challenge #5 — Teacup
Challenge #6 — Worst phone number input
Challenge #7 — Backpack
Challenge #8 — Contact section
