My kitchen has a window. From this window comes sunlight. Sunlight starts in the morning. In the morning, I like to eat scrambled eggs. Scrambled eggs are best cooked on the stove. The stove is in my kitchen. For decades, this circle has gone uninterrupted. Then LG had the brilliant idea of adding a digital interface for hip young couples.
Now, LG doesn't want you to see it in this tiny picture, but it was the biggest I could find (good advertising. It's the goddamn future. I want to inspect this product from the picture, not get an idea that, yes, it is a stove that is white...ish). Okay, so the 5 black squares on the left are LED numbers that give you a digital reading of 0.0 to Hi. To select "Hi", you hit the ON/OFF button and the up arrow beside it. To ensure you are on the "Hi" setting, cup your hand over the LED screen and lean over the hot element to make the LED visible in the light. To select a level of 2.5, an appropriate egg temperature, I think, hit the ON/OFF button, then the up arrow, then the down arrow about 15 times until you think the LED reads 2.5. Remember to cover the LED with your hand to read it.
I think that you could turn it on and hit down to start at what I assume would be "Lo," but I'd still have to hit up ten times to get to 5.
How is this easy?! There was a time when you could simply turn a dial to half and it would be at half. I don't think anyone was confused by it, or broke it, or did not trust the accuracy of the dial.
In short, fuck you LG, for trying to make a futuristic stove. Don't fuck up what ain't broke.
Now for the lesson. There are some things that buttons are better for and some things that dials are better for.
For example: a car that has an ignition button is pretty cool. Yes, by turning your key in different directions or to different degrees, you can perform different actions. These actions are not common and I have seen their functions replaced. My mom's new van, for example. If you want to listen to the rest of a song on the radio, but don't want to keep the car running, you simply turn off the car. The radio remains playing until you open the door to get out. Thus, you always get to listen to the rest of the song, and it always turns off when you leave.
A stove, however, has a large range of temperatures that it can be set to and precision isn't crucial. The difference between 190 degrees and 195 degrees is minimal (celcius. I think it's time to get with it. [That's not a bad book title]). So why do I have to digitally input that temperature? In case I can't find 190 on a dial? Should I really be operating the stove if I can't find 190 on a dial? And if I think the heat needs to go up, I don't want to cancel, reset, input a new temperature, hit Go and collect $200. I want to turn a fucking dial.
Jerry's Final Thoughts.
We're so often frusterated with technology. We have 7 remotes with hundreds of buttons that we've never used. VCRs lived and died without ever being set to the correct time. Buttons take control away from people. Buttons are the cause for so much confusion and misuse. Back in the day, dials were a direct relationship between command and function. Turn this dial, the music gets louder. Turn that dial, the stove gets hotter. Dials put people in charge. Dials are sometimes as satisfying as a really good toggle switch. Bring back the dial.
No comments:
Post a Comment