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Is the microwave the perfect model for audio marketting?

I remember the first time my mother got interested in a microwave oven. They were brand new, full of promises of fast, convenient cooking and baking. She ended up with a Toshiba with a built in magnetic card reader. You could put in a recipe card and automatically program it, or you could get additional cards and program your own "recipes." This was decades before the Internet, home routers or anything like Wifi.

Last week installers took away my 19 year old Maytag and replaced it with a brand new LG. Full of "features" where it automatically guesses the power and time based on buttons such as "potato" or "popcorn." These are not even very smart features. They don’t weigh the potato or take the temperature of the item you are heating or listen for the popcorn to stop popping. They just look up settings from a table and away you go.

Honestly of the hundreds of features in this microwave I need the light and fan the most. Then the power and time. The first two features are never very good in any microwave. The latter two are the only one’s most of us end up using out of sheer frustration with the automated features.

Is this a model or metaphor for modern audio marketting? Are we constantly being sold a list of features which in the end don’t really matter so long as the light turns on and the frozen Tandori chicken meal is safe to eat?

erik_squires
richardbrand's avatar
richardbrand
185 posts
 

Recently I was one of three adults, combined age over 200, looking after grandkids under 4 in a new house with new appliances.

None of us could change the TV volume. The remote looked pretty normal, with volume and channel buttons. With random pokings we could get it to mute, but it always came back with an anemic volume level. Turned out that rather than just press the buttons, you had to push them forward or pull them back.

Naturally this called for coffee. The coffee machine was fully automatic (in principle), grinding beans and making a dozen beverage types. We could switch it on, select a coffee type, heat it up, make it rinse itself and repeat ad nauseum. But it refused to produce anything except flashing red lights and beeps.

The fridge was more cooperative, and did not even have an internet connection. The wine inside had screw tops so no searching for a corkscrew or need to break the necks off.

Turns out the coffee machine grounds bin was full. Intuitive!

mahgister's avatar
mahgister
13,098 posts
 

I wish my post could be as fun to read as yours..

Thanksyes

onhwy61's avatar
onhwy61
5,229 posts
 

@jonwolfpell the auto engine stop can be turned on/off.  Using it does no harm to the car since the entire starting system has been beefed up to handle it.

For me smart phones epitomize how humans now interact with appliances.  More features than you can use/understand, constant updates and replaceable every 1 to 2 years.  Though cameras, screen quality, CPUs and battery life have clearly improved.  Was there real consumer demand for these upgrades?  Sometimes new tech creates a need where none previously existed.

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panzrwagn's avatar
panzrwagn
533 posts
 

@noromance You are 100% spot on!

@CDC Thanks to modern micromotors, power windows weigh less, cost less, and are more reliable than manual windows. That's why they're nearly universal today.

I suggest everyone get a copy of 'The Design of Everyday Things' by Don Norman, originally published in 1988, as 'The Psychology of Everyday Things', it remains one of the best books on design ever written. The Wikipedia entry is helpful, but the book is foundational reading. It can't fix what's already in place, but it can give you a good grounding in the subject, and maybe help you understand what the designer was trying to do.

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Design_of_Everyday_Things

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