A Lesson in Control Simplicity

Jeff Atwood

10 Oct 2007 — 1 min read — Comments

I was struck, the other day, by how much I had to think when attempting to heat up my sandwich in the microwave. There are so many controls: a clock, a set of food-specific buttons, defrost and timer controls, and of course a full numeric keypad. Quick! What do you press?

I wonder if older microwaves weren’t a better, simpler design, with their single giant analog knob. I noticed that every microwave for sale at Target, even the most inexpensive ones, now use a complete set of digital controls.

This is progress?

Maybe something to think about, the next time you’re about to add just one more field, button, or link to that form.

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