How not to build a microwave

Think for a moment about what you need to do 10 seconds to turn on your microwave. No complex requirements, just 10 seconds. In the picture below you can see a picture of the model I have. What do I have to do? Add 30-Seconds button, waiting 10-seconds, and then hitting the Cancel button. When it comes to microwaves, I only ever use two buttons: “Add 30-seconds” and “Cancel”. But, my microwave has loads of additional buttons and advanced settings. As I was standing there with 10-seconds to kill, I started to wonder what kind of user experience (UX) lessons I might learn from the large gap between what the science-oven offers; and, how I actually use it. Let’s not create a typical microwave: overloaded with functions that nobody knows how to perform and what the microwave can do at all. And in the end, 99% of the time it’s just used to heat food.

Basic questions

Therefore, we always ask ourselves the following questions:

• Who are my users?
• What do they want to do with the system?
• In what context will the system be used?