Yes, I made the error of setting it on WARM and not HIGH.. But look at the design of the knob! Who's idea was it to put WARM after HIGH?? How logical is that?? If you aren't paying close attention, you could go one click too far, miss HIGH and set it for WARM, just like I did. Take a look at oven and stove-top dials....they go progressively from OFF, Warm or Lo and are incrementally higher in temperature. Now that makes sense
Have you ever bought an item that you liked, only to find out it has a "stupid" design? I know that I have run across several that left me thinking "who was the idiot that thought of this?" Usually it's something that doesn't become apparent until you actually use the item. The other day I was using my slow cooker to make spare ribs for dinner. I was rushing a bit and multi-tasking (which is never a good thing and topic for a future blog). I prepped the meat, loaded up the slow cooker, flipped it onto HIGH (or so I thought), covered it and went about the business of my day. About 2 hours later I checked on the slow cooker and it was only warm, but not hot. I was puzzled until I looked down and saw the dial indicator pointing to WARM and not HIGH. In my haste, I clicked the dial too far. That delay pushed dinner to later in the evening, but eventually we were able to sit down to a great meal. Yes, I made the error of setting it on WARM and not HIGH.. But look at the design of the knob! Who's idea was it to put WARM after HIGH?? How logical is that?? If you aren't paying close attention, you could go one click too far, miss HIGH and set it for WARM, just like I did. Take a look at oven and stove-top dials....they go progressively from OFF, Warm or Lo and are incrementally higher in temperature. Now that makes sense Another stupid design that I recently discovered was the handle on a 1 gallon shop vac. It's small and made to carry around. The one I had previously broke so I needed to replace it. No big deal, right? Not so. The one that broke had a nice open handle right the top, allowing it to be gripped easily. The replacement one did not have a handle on top, but an opening slot in the rear of the top that only allows you to "hook" your fingers in it. This design is not very comfortable and it's hard on the fingers because you can't actually hold it but only hook your fingers into the slot. A small thing, but a major inconvenience and not something you would really think about until you try to use it! Who designed that?? My final example is the connectors put on flat screen televisions. Not all are designed equally! Some have connectors that plug in at right angles or straight into the back of the TV. Those are very easy to connect because you just push the plug in, or screw the connector in (ie. coaxial cable). That design might be problematic when trying to hang the TV on the wall, but I've noticed designs that actually recess the connector site to take care of the problem. My complaint is about sideways connectors at the rear of the TV which have connectors plugging in parallel to the back of the TV. It might be a great idea because the wires are not pointing straight out the back. But.....my particular TV leaves hardly any finger space for screwing in the coaxial cable. It's a major pain to screw that connector in! My other complaint about these parallel connectors is that HDMI cables plugged in that way have a great deal of stress placed on the plug should the TV be moved or cable have any tension placed on it. My TV is on a small kitchen counter, and we sometimes turn it one way or the other for viewing. Without realizing it, the HDMI cable was being tugged and this actually broke the HDMI contact inside the TV. So my advice is to take a good look at rear connection set ups on any TV you might be looking at and buy accordingly. There are models with parallel oriented connectors that are more generous with space for your fingers. Don't forget to watch for tension you might place on those HDMI cables! So there you have it. My most recent design complaints! Do you have any examples??
1 Comment
I would love to have a microwave that has a door that opens down, like a toaster oven. Microwaves seem to be catering to the right handed user, but that configuration does not always work with where you want to put it. If they can do it for toaster ovens, why not for microwaves?? http://www.ehow.com/list_7466152_microwave-ovens-door-options.html
Reply
Leave a Reply. |
Categories
All
Archives
November 2015
|