Microwaves
With the most numbers of buttons on a kitchen device, the microwave is ironically complicated for an “easy to cook” tool.
How do you use that again?
The clock: Why does the microwave have a clock? Is that telling me the time right now or the time left to cook? Or is it the temperature?
Buttons: They are hard to press and have little tactile or visual feedback on being pressed.
Confusing Options: The menu options are confusing and unintuitive for first time users. Here, take a look:
The Power Level gives you an option to choose between 1–10. However, it is unclear what the power level should be for a food or recepie. Also, do we choose the power first or time first? Do all liquids fall under beverages?
Why so hard?
Industry Standard: A lot of the design choices are commonly used by microwaves across companies. Breaking away from the mold can be a risky proposition. Here is what the Google image search for “microwave” returns -
These microwaves are made by different manufacturers but are strikingly similar in their input interface.
Memorability over learnability: A lot of microwave designs disregard learnability and focus only on memorability. People do not buy new microwaves regularly. Once they get accustomed to it, people remember the controls since cooking is a regular task. Multiple buttons can also translate to muscle memory if the person cooks the same dish regularly. They are also fairly efficient for regular users.
Switch to digital: Older microwaves featured dials instead of buttons and digital interfaces. However, with the growing popularity of technology, digital interfaces started to be considered inherently superior for all tasks.
Microwaves 2.0
The primary purpose of the microwave is to cook easily. The simplest way to figure out how to cook is to have someone else do it for you. Well, why not the microwave?
“Hey Microwave, warm up my pasta.”
“Sure! It will be hot and ready in 3 minutes.”
The microwave will have no buttons. Simply a display showing information and a handle to open and close.
Virtual assistants are slowly becoming ubiquitous. Most smartphones have a version of an AI personal assistant. They can connect to home devices like TVs and lights, letting us interact with them using simple voice commands.
Siri and Alexa are becoming increasingly smarter as they gain access to more data and learn our preferences. They can easily look up recipes, heat times and intensities online instead of the user having to do it manually. People have already started to become acquainted with virtual assistants and this will make using microwaves as easy as talking.
