UX: Why do washing machines have windows? | Hacker News Reader

UX: Why do washing machines have windows?

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I love the first answer. Demonstrates the folly of these UX people.

Common sense design: "to see if the machine is full."

UX design: "the water is dynamic and responsive, exciting to look at, calming, relaxing, inviting."

This is why so many startups die.

I hope the first answer was satire :D

Thank you, I'm not alone into thinking most UX stuff is BS. Another platform for 'talkers' to look like they build.

I understand the concept of making the interface intuitive and easy to use and I am all for it. But my God, some of the BS I've heard from people to justify crap is insane.

Most of them aren't worth their salaries.

I'm interested in UX as much as any of these goons. Difference is, I can actually code/build it as well.

Precisely my thoughts. I can add nothing else so I shall not.

From personal experience I can attest that the answer 'so you can see the machine is full of water when it stops mid-cycle' is the right one. I've had my washing machine break down while full of water, and if I hadn't known when I got home and opened it unsuspectingly, I would have been very, very unhappy. You'd be surprised how much water the machine contains when it's full...

That wouldn't explain why dishwashers don't have them.

Opening one of them that has broken down full of water isn't much fun either.

"broken down full of water"

How does that happen? Every dishwasher I have owned is perfectly safe to open at any point in the wash cycle. Maybe the sensor that detects how much water is in the machine fails and it fills up completely?

Blocked outlet pipe.

Dishwashers don't fill with water. They just spray a high temperature water at the dishes and the water is drained immediately.

They do when the outlet pipe gets blocked.

Anything can happen when not operating as indented.

Dishwashers don't fill with water, which is why you can open them at any point in the cycle. You'll probably get a faceful of steam but little water on the ground.

And there's only one narrow failure mode where a dishwasher can actually fill up with water: If the drain is blocked. Any other failure mode (broken water heating element, broken agitator, power failure) still allows the water to drain so it won't flood.

True, noted so in an other comment I believe but forgot it in this one.

As you hint it's a very rare mode of failure, and dishwashers don't use much water — a modern energy-star compliant dishwasher uses about 15L (~4gal) per cycle and the most efficient ones can go lower than 12L (~3.2gal) — so in most cases a blocked drain will end up with visible water staying at the bottom of the dishwasher and may not even overflow it to the door. The drain would need to be blocked directly at the top of the dishwasher drain, and seriously blocked (e.g. your asshole brother plugging it)

Most maybe. But from personal experience, I can assure you it can happen. And it makes a fair amount of mess when it does.

According to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washing_machine): "For front-loaders without viewing windows on the door, it is possible to accidentally pinch fabric between the door and the drum, resulting in tearing and damage to the pinched clothing during tumbling and spinning."

And why don't dishwashers?

Because dishwashers don't fill with water, hot water is sprayed on the dishes from the rotating hoses and drains more or less immediately. The only way for a dishwasher to fill is that the drain is blocked.

See http://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File%3AGeschi... for a (low-quality) demonstration.

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