We have a newer Kenmore hood microwave that drives us nuts. It is one of the high-end units that seems to have its own operating system -- probably based on Windows 95.
We bought it because a Sears salesman recommended its “ease of use.” Sounded good, since we have a lot of guests use our kitchen. There is one dial on the face that controls pretty much everything. It doesn’t have a vast array of buttons positioned around a central keypad. It looks clean. It looks straightforward. Sounds great? Not so much.
The problem is, everything is controlled from this one dial. You turn it to highlight your menu item on a large LCD display, then depress the dial to make your selection. The menu system rivals that of a modern-day ERP system. There are menus nested five to six layers deep, which means you lose track of where you are and how you got there. What makes things more frustrating is that guests use it and have no idea where to start with this silly dial on the front of what looks like a Star Trek replicator.
The guests start spinning and pressing, spinning and pressing, all the while changing the configuration of the microwave so it no longer functions in any known microwave fashion. We laugh about it, we grit our teeth about it, and we spend too much time trying to reset it back to its factory settings. But the fun really starts when we get a lock-up on the interface. Windows users get the Blue Screen of Death; we get the Green Screen of Death (GSOD) because the back-lighting on the LCD is green!
Shortly after purchase, the unit started locking up (GSOD). No functions, no menu movement -- just an expensive, oversized nightlight. We found the only way to reboot and reset the unit was to unplug it for a couple of seconds and plug it back in. Grrr. We called Sears customer service, but since the unit was working fine when they came, there was nothing they could do. We set a stool near the kitchen area so shorter people could open the cabinet above the microwave and reset it as needed. We called Sears again as the GSOD was becoming more frequent.
During the service man's second visit, he reset the unit by pulling the plug. He then suggested we must have "dirty power," and that was causing the problem. He recommended I get a good-quality surge suppressor to plug for the microwave. What? Frankly, I am not buying it, nor am I calling Sears again!
This is a kitchen appliance, not a delicate electronic laboratory instrument. I have many thousands of dollars of computer and AV equipment coming through the same power panel (different breaker), and that equipment should be much more sensitive to "dirty power." I have experienced no problems whatsoever with that equipment. The unit was designed by monkeys! This Kenmore microwave is on the short list for a yard sale. Good riddance!
Where are those old polished chrome Amana Radaranges from the 70s? They were heavier than a boat anchor and built like a tank, but they would heat a cup of ice-cold water to boiling in about 15 seconds. They just don't make 'em like that anymore.
This entry was submitted by Brent K. and edited by Rob Spiegel.
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One-time setup issues are kind of a special-case, and I'd agree that that can be some work if one were to try to do without the manual. But that's something that should only have to be done once (or when the battery gets pulled/discharged, and the like). Most products of any complexity are likely to have this issue. I liken it to setting up a Windows desktop -- everytime I install Windows I spend 2-3 minutes doing the relatively-obscure bits like changing my background to solid black, getting my quick-launch icons "the right size" and turning on filename extensions in Explorer. Ideally not something that I have to do more than once a year or so.
It is a huge problem, perhaps to your point with the unit you bought, for the product to send me down into the bowels of minutae-config-land when pressing or turning the most commonly-used knob. This is certainly unacceptable. With my last after-market unit, you had to press MENU and futz with the knob to get down in the config rat-hole, the analog of CTRL-ALT-DELETE.
If the knobs work the way you would expect them to 99.9% of the time (press on/off, turn for volume), I'm having trouble complaining when I really need to get to the other 1% and need to pull out the manual. In my case, this was when the battery did get pulled and I had to figure out how to key-in the anti-theft security code to get the stereo to do _anything_.
I'll definitely grant you that if under reasonable use patterns, if the unit doesn't meet the 99.9% standard, there's a problem. Obsessive-compulsive button-pushers (and children) are just SOL, because nothing is going to make them happy all the time.
I really didn't have a lot of choice. All of todays after market car stereos have a similar UI. Been that way for some years. One I bought for my wifes car is similar and a different brand.
I would always prefer the original factory unit since the controls are bigger and more intuitive. I could have the original repaired, but the cost was not worth it, and warantee very short.
Bullcrap -- this is a marketing problem pure and simple (as far as the HMI is concerned). Maybe you think that marketing walked into the meeting and said "I want an awesome conventional microwave" and engineering said "I can make that microwave with just one dial, watch!". Backslaps and cheers all around, then "Meeting adjourned, good work guys!".
I question the purchasing decision as much as the product implementation. It sounds that equal amounts of time were spent by both parties on each task -- not nearly enough.
Would you buy a car with all of the controls (one!) on the steering wheel? If not, why would you buy a microwave similarly designed? After all, their respective uses are probably within the same order of magnitude of complexity. Blaming the designer is all well and fine for its reliability, but I question the purchaser's lack of judgement for complaining about its interface shortcomings.
While a product designed by the same engineers with a more classic interface may have had the same reliability issues, I blame the purchaser for mentally checking-out before checking-out by not thinking for even a minute about the utility of what it was that they were buying. You bought the equivalent of a toaster and expected it to be a microwave. Did I hear you say that you trusted the salesperson -- and you're an engineer? Wow, wow, WOW...
Sure, shame on them for designing such a UI (and as it turns out, reliability) monstrosity, but you neglected to pop your brain out of Park before driving it home.
Perhaps this is a situation that you probably shouldn't have put yourself in in the first place. If you have warranty claim for the function of the device, wield it! You'll then have been lucky that the two mistakes will have cancelled each other out.
EXACTLY! By the way, do you know the real meaning of MBA?
Easy: More Brainless Ass#oles!
but, seriously, there is a certain dose of narcisism in the software engineers in charge of the simplest functions in the latest appliances too, that make them VERY prone to over-do themselves, which give results like the inoe dial microwave oven. And the lack of older, senior engineers to supervise the final product.
I wonder how many people actually tried using this microwave with its six-deep menu scheme before they bought it? I propably wouldn't have either. I'd have liked the one dial/one button design approach, thinking wow -- only two things to break on this baby! Using your microwave shouldn't be like trying to connect to AT&T tech support ("For Mandarin, press 19!" Thank you! Please enter the 45-digit serial number of your device NOW, or press 8 to let us guess your serial number! Thank you! For "Easy Listening" music while on hold, please press 1. For Oldies, press 2! ... For silence, press 26! I'm sorry, 14 is not a valid selection. Please start over from the beginning NOW! Thank you!)
..Well I guess I got lucky, in about 1986 I bought my first and only microwave...at Sears...a Kenmore...first of the newest hi-tech touch-pad deal...still works fine....although I did have to replace the light that turns on when you open the door...-bulb
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