Comment by russdill | Hacker News Reader

Comment by russdill | Hacker News Reader

I get what the author is getting at, but I really think this is a poor comparison. Selecting a gear on a bike gives immediate feedback. Selecting a power level and cook time on a microwave...does not. Not needing to remember a formula for figuring out a cook time and power level based on the quantity of meat I'm defrosting is a really useful feature.

Plus, I can always select whatever levels I want manually on the microwave, and when using a pre-programmed function I can see what the microwave is doing.

I think an example that makes it clear that the author needs to more carefully work out their point is the Honeywell AllergenPlus line of airfilters. For a while, they had three settings, "Allergen", "General Clean" and "Germ" which are merely 3 fan speed settings. This method was so disjointed form reality, the eventually started shipping them with stickers covering it up with "Low", "Medium", and "High" (I forget what the actual order was...).

It's a real life nightmare bicycle, but of course there is no risk of losing intuitive understanding because of instant feedback. The user will quickly figure out which setting is low, which is medium, and which is high based on simply pressing the buttons. A similar thing will happen with the bicycle. People don't actually look at the numbers and select a number, they just shift gears until it "feels" right.

This really needs a better product example, perhaps just AI over search.

You must be one of the few people who use the "program" buttons on a microwave then. I personally don't know anyone and all the people I talk to really just want a two wheel microwave. Even if I tried the programs they almost never worked accurately anyway. Admittedly newer inverter microwaves are the exception, the defrost mode actually does work (and is the one program I use on these microwaves).

Not sure why you were downvoted, my experience is the same. What people (including myself) want is power and time (and usually there’s a defrost mode on the power dial).

I also don't use the program buttons often, although I occasionally go mad and try one. They never seem to work particularly well.

I have an actual oven where I can select "programs".

As far as I can tell, they control three parameters:

* Where the heat comes from (top, bottom, or both)

* Whether or not ventilation is activated

* The temperature

There is also a dial for temperature, but not for the other two parameters. I am not sure whether every combination is covered by the "program" dial. I am not sure whether or not my understanding is even correct.

I would say it's an 7.5 out of 10 on the nightmare bicycle scale.

Settings like "Bake", "Roast", etc are quite frustrating. They do have meanings, but pretty much no user knows what they mean. A selector that lets the user choose which heating elements they want to use might be useful, but this seems like it might be a case where if the user doesn't know the difference between "Bake" and "Roast" they may also not be in a position to decide if they want heat from the bottom, top, or both anyway.

I teach media technology and electronics at an Art University. The people I teach vary wildly in how interested they are in technology.

Yet one truth that emerged over the years is: The more people understand the underlying principles the easier it is for them to make the technology do what they want.

Good equipment empowers users to understand the underlying principles by using simple abstractions, bad technology tries to obscure underlying principle by using bad abstractions.

If the abstraction made mistakenly tries to simplify a thing more than is reasonably possible, it not only takes agency away from people new to that technology — it can also make it hard or impossible to for people who know the technology on an expert level.

Plus, the programs on the microwave can make use of weight and humidity sensors to determine when to turn off, rather than requiring a predetermined duration.

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