That's messed up department

Thermostat

This thermostat that I encountered in Barcelona on my last night is the perfect example of stupid user interface design. How you do use the damn thing?

The dial is currently in its minimum position. What does it do?
The vertical slider has 5 positions and 3 of them are marked. The top marking shows a fan with 4 blades. The middle setting shows fan with 3 blades. The bottom one, a fan with 2 blades. I would assume that this is the fan speed indicator. The grey button isn't. Its just a darkened raised piece of plastic that seems to serve no function.

I fiddled with this for a few minutes before giving up -- in retrospect, I think something was broken -- none of the combinations of the two controls seem to do more than just one a fan on low.

Even if it did work, its a terrible design.

Posted by Mayhem at December 5, 2004 06:24 PM | TrackBack