Hacker News Reader

The name of his Web site might be a clue.

An experiment: perhaps microwave cookers. Issue 500 free modified cookers to a suitable target group who might need them, e.g. undergraduates. The modification consists of a simple device that records the settings used each time the microwave is used and uploads the results to a central server each week.

My hypothesis is that the number of programs actually used will be a very small subset of the total available. I know that my microwave oven is mainly used to reheat leftover soup, and occasionally to make porridge in the bowl. Highest power, 3 minutes or 5 minutes, that is that.

The issue is to make the most commonly used settings easily found. Back to UI design again.

Edit: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7674708

Acomjean arrived at a similar place while I wrote this.

The usage patterns I've noticed from watching people use microwaves:

1. Everyone always uses max power 2. Everyone cooks in increments of 30s 3. No other functionality ever gets used because no one knows what it does/implies

Thus a simplistic microwave design would consist of a '+30s' button and a 'Start/Stop' button. This would probably make microwaves much less complicated internally, and thus cheaper and more reliable.

That said, I don't think either of those is part of the design goals of most appliance manufacturers.

the most commonly used settings on this rice cooker ARE the most easily found, though! You press the power button! You press the "White Rice" button if you're cooking white rice; you press the "Brown Rice" button if you're cooking brown rice. This rice cooker demonstrates EXACTLY what you're saying should be done, and yet this man complains.

If you look at the lineup of Aroma (the brand the OP chose) rice cookers, you'll see that the author could have bought a simple one-button model just like his old one, but chose not to.

http://www.aroma-housewares.com/kitchen/appliances/products/...

In terms of whether his cooker will last 25 years, I'm not really sure how good Aroma is as a brand, but most of the Asian people I know (I'm Asian too) buy top end Japanese branded rice cookers like Zojirushi and Panasonic (aka National) -- and these cookers last a really long time. When you eat rice daily or almost daily, spending a little more for reliability is a no-brainer.

+1. My rice cooker defaults to white rice, so that's one button press to turn it on and... that's it.

Agreed. He also misses the point - you're not supposed to have to refer to the manual. You probably read it once or twice and if it's well designed, you know how to use it. The manual has to be written for people who have no clue - and it seems to be so in this case. Maybe his complication is thinking too much about what his new cooker can do, as opposed to knowing his old cooker just does one thing only. But if that's the case, don't buy new fangled gadgets! :)

It's pretty clear what he's saying. He had a device that had X buttons (one?) and that just worked, and worked for 25 years. Now he has a new device with > X buttons.

Those buttons add some value, but also a lot of potential for failure.

He is saying the added value is not worth the increased risk of failure of the device.

Here is what he says: "The point of this post has been made many times, but I make it again here partly out of sentimentality: simple appliances like my old rice cooker have become complicated by digital technology. In some instances, they’ve been made worse. This is what I encountered in the instruction manual of the newer model we brought home to replace the old one."

And then he proceeds to show the instruction manual, which, again, is written for people who barely understand concepts like "rice" and "inside".

How is the advent of digital technology to blame for the fact that you have to plug the rice cooker in? For the fact that you need to put the rice in the rice cooker? For the fact that you need to add some water, too? For the fact that you need to close the lid of the cooker? For the fact that you need to put the pot of rice inside the cooker BEFORE you close the lid, but AFTER you wash the rice?

edit: I looked at the post again. He barely says anything at all about the fact that this one might break; he mentions it in the very last sentence as a throwaway. He spends a lot of time complaining about how complicated the rice cooker is, describing it as "inscrutable" and "complicated" and complaining that "[he] never had to consult the manual" for his old rice cooker. So no, he's not complaining that the new one will break; he's complaining that pressing the power button and the white rice button in that order is a byzantine process that he can't be expected to understand.

I kept waiting for the step that needlessly complex step, it never came. Granted, some things have been overcomplicated due to technology, this rice cooker has not.

I had the same rice cooker that the OP had in the 80s. The one thing the OP neglected to mention was that the pot in that cooker was a non-coated aluminum pot that required some scrubbing to clean vs today's modern non-stick pots.

I don't miss the scrubbing work at all.