PROBLEM: The "one size fits all" nature of most appliance UIs renders them unusable by certain demographic groups.
SOLUTION: Standardize the ability to customize the UI on any modern household appliance.
RATIONALE: Consider an average household microwave oven. The UI ordinarily consists of a keypad with numbers, a START button, a STOP button, a button to open the door, and any of various other buttons and doodads, along with a readout. For *many* people, this interface is too much. Some people use a microwave only to cook popcorn, for example. For such people, all that is necessary is a single button "make popcorn" (which could be further simplified with just a picture of a popcorn kernel). It would be nice if, in addition to the microwave oven, I could purchase a "swappable" set of UI components, so that I could customize the interface whenever I wanted to, to reflect my preferences.
PITFALLS: People might wind up losing the UI to their appliances, just like they lose their remote control. This could be mitigated by making the UI a LCD 'touchscreen' monitor built-in to the appliance, but then that would make them more expensive.-- drefty, Nov 13 2006 My microwave has a "Popcorn" button. But yeah, there too many other buttons on it.-- DrCurry, Nov 13 2006 This seems like a good idea, but is actually a horrible one. Customizable UIs in software already make tech support into a nightmare. More software-like UIs are the last thing we need for clueless users.
Instead, focus should be on "simpler" UIs. Best Microwave interface I've seen: a power dial, and a time dial. Turning the dial starts the oven, opening the door stops it (you could add a "popcorn" button to it, but that's it...)
On the other hand, it could be useful for hackers. I'm taking the fishbone away...-- cowtamer, Nov 14 2006 [-] baked, and baked poorly at that (I have one that has numerous fixed-setting buttons, none of which actually work for the purpose they're supposed to)-- FlyingToaster, Feb 27 2009 So user intuitive input rather than complex non intuitive interfaces. A damn hard nut to crack when your users demand you automate the mundane. Popping popcorn, parallel parking, all at "the touch of a button", but with a terrible price (tag). Please, think: "could i actually become competent at this?", and consider what controls would compliment competence. A simple rotary timer should suffice.-- WcW, Feb 28 2009 I could use a few user-adjustable presets (heat beverage, heat plate, defrost thing), but apart from that, power and timer dials's are the only necessary things (maybe an offset timer though I'd never use it).-- FlyingToaster, Feb 28 2009 A soft button interface with either an initial startup checklist or an on-line configuration mode would be great for this. Go online once, run through a question by question set-up app (Is your main use of the microwave to: a)Boil Water b)make popcorn c) defrost food d) cook food e)two or more of the above). Once complete it gives you a little configuration file that you transfer to the microwave via a small included USB key, and the microwave is then configured with the buttons most useful to you.-- MechE, Nov 03 2009 random, halfbakery