Why do most microwaves have such a terrible user interface? (opens in new tab)

I was really hoping for an answer!

I wish the post had gone deeper trying to answer the question. I'm not sure what the answer is, but I think several factors contributed:

1. Microwaves originally had analog dials. The first digital UIs were seen on fancier, high-end appliances. This made them a bit of a status symbol. Eventually, tech costs came down and everyone imitated the high-end UI.

2. Almost nobody grows up wanting to design appliance UIs. They're considered boring.

3. Removing features is hard. If you remove a feature used by 1% of your customers, and you have 10,000 customers, that's 100 angry people. They'll be much more vocal than the slightly happier 9900.

Amusingly, the cheapest microwaves are often the ones with the best interfaces. I spent $80 on something like this[1] years ago, and I like it more than any fancy microwave. This includes the model touted by the author. Having only one knob (time) is too minimalist. I hardly ever touch the power knob, but it's occasionally necessary.

1. http://image.haier.com/us/products/kitchen/microwaves/W02013...

The "one knob, that's all there is" user interface that the author of this post hails as a breath of fresh air is certainly simpler than the 34-buttoned UI he criticizes, but anyone who's familiar with the intricacies of microwave cooking knows that just as important as the cooking time is the power level.

You know those cheesy leftovers that you ordinarily nuke for 2 minutes, and the cheesy portion ends up a gooey, steamy mess, while the rest of the dish is only slightly warm?

Try nuking it for 3 minutes, but set the power level to 60%. You'll be amazed at what a difference it makes!

P.S.: Could you imagine a Hacker News crowd-designed microwave? There'd be buttons for "Add 2^1 seconds," "Add 2^2 seconds," "Add 2^3 seconds" ...

I've actually got that same Panasonic in my office, and really appreciate the "Sensor Reheat" feature.

My meals have widely varying thermal capacities (chili vs a sandwich) so it's nice to have a single button to hit, to get my food uniformly hot every single time.

The major complaint I have with my current microwave is that when it's done it gives a simple two or three tone beep and that's it. You can't hear it outside the kitchen and it doesn't repeat.

The flat, non tactile buttons make cleaning much easier, a big plus in my book.

Commercial microwaves typically only have a few buttons as well:

http://www.webstaurantstore.com/solwave-mw1000t-stainless-st...

Funny to find that someone submitted this two-year-old post of mine here. Sorry I didn't actually answer the question, heh.

Thanks for the insightful comments, all.

My ideal would be two knobs and an illuminated push button.

The push button is "mute", illuminated when mute is enabled.

One knob is the standard toaster-oven style "twist to desired time", the other a power level knob (with minimum being a special for defrost).

Unfortunately, it's not going to happen, and for a very simple reason: cost. It costs less to do those stupid little membrane switches than discrete knobs / buttons.

My "good enough" would be separate 1s / 5s / 15s / 1m / 5m buttons. Where you press the button, it adds the time. Like how some timers work. And a dedicated mute button, and easy indication of if you are muted.

I like the two knobs UI, it can be as simple as the single knob but it's more versatile. However, those can be annoying when you forget to turn the power knob the right way. A possible solution would be a led with different colors for each power level, that should avoid nearly all mistakes.

On a side note, my UI Design professor gave the microwaves as an example of a frequently bad UI. He had a theory for this: that customers also preferred more features. As in, when buying a microwaves, it could be tempting to choose one with 10~15 over one with 2 or 3.

That was just a theory, though - no studies whatsoever involved. I have never shopped for domestic appliances myself, so I don't know what I'd be tempted to buy.

I had a microwave in college that I bought used for $10. It had a single knob that you could twist to have it run from 0-10 minutes. It was pretty much perfect. I don't ever use a microwave for anything besides reheating leftovers or melting butter.

Probably for the same reason your TV/car/washer-dryer/digital watch/whatever is ugly and overloaded with "features" you never use: they cost nothing to tack on, and people will pay more for it.