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2023-10-01 17:48:30Z
I have 2 different microwaves which actually exist. One of them is what I consider "Grandma accessible", the other one is not. And I'm going to go into detail on how one is "Grandma accessible", and how the other is not.
A "Grandma accessible" microwave is a microwave that is very simple to use, especially for a Grandma.
More specifically, Grandmas may not have a lot of cognitive ability and may have bad vision. So I try to figure out how well the microwaves work for them.
The first microwave is "Grandma accessible". It's a microwave with analog controls, which are the following from top to bottom:
It's pretty simple, just 3 things. All you have to do is turn the duration dial and it will do its thing. You don't have to rely on the dial for timing either, you can just turn the dial back to 0 to stop the microwave.
To turn the duration/"heat" up, you turn the dials clockwise. To turn them down, you turn counter-clockwise.
The buttons and dials are reasonably big and not too small (much bigger than close ad buttons). It's also easy to physically feel for the dials, since they pop out quit a bit.
Considering bad vision, you could just try feeling for neighbor dials to determine where you are in the controls.
(I have ignored the icon labels for the dials in this case)
That's about it for this microwave.
The Grandma inaccessible microwave on the other hand is very complicated. A very, very complicated digital microwave.
First of all, there are 12 buttons. Most of them may turn on the microwave, some of them are just controls for other stuff. Second of all, to open the door, you must pull on the door handle instead. I don't think the second point changes anything really.
The buttons list from left to right, top to bottom:
The buttons are in a 2x6 layout, where for each row, it has 2 buttons. There's a big separation between the Start and Stop between from the rest of the buttons.
Here's the problem with those buttons:
1. It's a lot of buttons!
2. For most use cases, most buttons don't matter.
3. They're all in English (I'm the only one in this house who knows English well).
4. There's no dials, only buttons.
5. Some buttons have multiple functions crammed into it. A single button for more than 1 thing.
6. The layout of the button labels is from top to bottom: the icon, the text, and the button itself.
Such things can lead to confusion. It can be cumulative, so someone can be very very confused. Especially when blind, because there's no braille (from that I can tell).
The functions depends on context, but to change the clock, you must be not microwaving, and press the button twice. Then do whatever necessary.
The Soften/Melt button is probably multi-functional, but I'm not sure. Select/Clock is definitely multi-functional, as well as Stop/Eco and Start/+30s.
For Stop/Eco, Eco is triggered without a microwaving session turning off the clock, and Stop is triggered when there is a microwaving session.
For Start/+30s though, if you have no microwaving session, it will both start and add 30 seconds to the timer. Keep pressing it and you will keep adding 30 seconds to the timer. Although if the microwaving session is paused (open door), it will only start and not add 30 seconds.
The microwave has a 7 segment display which gets used as a clock if it's not microwaving. Mmmm, clocks
When it is being used (for setting up or whatever), it will show things like numbers. Also, 7 segments displays can't show "W", so the watts setting is just a number.
Some icons just do not make sense. For Soften/Melt, it has... No obvious icons. It's barely similar to a picture of a gear, I don't know how to describe it. Basically, the Soften/Melt icon is an example of poor communication, because it has an icon which is not associated with melting or softening. (They could've probably put melting cheese as an icon, but I have no idea how they would draw that.)
Favorites is obvious. It's a star.
The labels though, they're all in English. So if you don't understand an icon, you're going to need English.
Setting up a favorite thing has been very much complicated to the point it has confused a computer nerd (me).
Here's how to make a favorite for a microwave setting:
1. Press the "Microwave" button
2. Use the up/down arrow keys to select the watts
3. Press the "Select/Clock" button
4. Use the up/down arrow keys to select the duration
5. Press the "Favorite" button
6. Use the up/down arrow keys to select which favorite item you want to save it to
7. Press the "Select/Clock" button
After that, the setting has been saved into the selected favorite item. And if it isn't obvious, that kind of procedure would require documentation in the manual, which realistically nobody reads.
Here's how to use a favorite setting:
1. Press the "Favorite" button
2. Use the up/down arrow keys to select which favorite item you want to use
3. Press "Start/+30s" to start the microwave with the favorite setting
Not much, but not great for simplicity.
Thanks, Samsung.
If you just want to microwave something and don't care about the settings, it's pretty simple though. Just press the start button.
If you want to do anything more specific though, good luck.
The "Grandma accessible" microwave is a pretty simple microwave. Just "heat" and duration analog dials and that's it, nothing more.
On the other hand the "Grandma inaccessible" microwave is not accessible if you don't understand English and the button's functions. It also has a lot of buttons, and you may need so me time to find specific buttons that you need.