Who designed this?!?!?!?!

[MinisterofDOOM]

These are the the controls for my oven. They are among the worst controls for any device I have ever used.



Why not knobs, like normal, sense-making, usable ovens? What on earth was the supposed benefit of buttons? Looking modern? The range on the same appliance uses knobs!!!!

When your LEDs are so psychotically-arranged that you have to have labelled arrows sprawled across the entire surface, you're PROBABLY doing it wrong.
The best part of the whole thing is unquestionably the question mark after "Start". As though the designers weren't QUITE sure that's what it does, but felt confident enough to go ahead with it.
A close second, though, is the "on" indicator LED whose location is so nonsensical that I can't even think of a good superlative to describe it. It's between the minutes digits on the timer display. Because why the @#$% not.

It's nonsense. The process to turn the oven on is ludicrous.
First, you press Bake.
Then you select the temperature through a process much like setting a 1980s digital alarm clock: by pressing the up and down buttons REPEATEDLY to increase temperature in increments of 5 degrees. It starts at 350. You want 425? CARPAL TUNNEL TIME! You'll be hammering that button like it's Mortal Combat. Yeah, you can hold it and eventually it starts jumping in greater increments, but it still doesn't save much time.
Now that you've finally got your desired temperature selected and the ingredients you had intended to cook have spoiled from sitting out for so long, you can press Start. And the oven begins to preheat.

NONSENSE. HOW IS THIS BETTER THAN TURNING A KNOB AND BEING DONE WITH IT?!?!?!!?

The ONE neat feature of this digital abomination is that it counts down the preheat time for you. Which is nifty.

How some companies willingly produce some products is just baffling to me.

[Razi]

Probably cause it's cheaper.

[Jesda]

Wow, that's a pretty awful design. Most frighteningly, I see these flawed principles being incorporated into automobiles and other machinery. I can see in my head the convoluted flow chart they had in mind when coming up with that input system.


I have a similar complaint about the countertop GE induction range at my mom's house. It provides a completely flat, smooth surface which makes cleaning easy. Unfortunately, it uses capacitive touch controls that, when wet, cease to respond to input.



Now let's think about that. You have a cooking environment, yes? THINGS ARE GOING TO GET WET. Why would they design an input method for a messy environment that ceases to function when confronted with... a messy environment?

Additionally, the electronics had a tendency to freak out and throw error codes, making it impossible to cook. Replacement cost? Three grand with labor. WTF.


Thankfully, GE offers another version with real control knobs.

[float_6969]

I guarantee you it's cost. I work in the pool and spa industry and have for the last 15 years and have seen first hand the migration away from "mechanical" controls to digital. In our industry, it was initially done for many reasons, the primary reason being accuracy. Mechanical controls by nature will allow the temperature of the water to vary by 2-3°F. This would get worse as the thermostat would age. With digital controls the accuracy was down to .5°F. Especially in a spa environment, this made a big difference. There were also things like timers and digital temperature displays that made things more convenient. But back when this started, it came at a price and was only included in high end tubs.

Things are different now. The price difference between a brand new "mechanical" system and a brand new digital system are negligible. And the digital system is far less likely to fail and is quieter. And these are in pretty complicated control environments. In something as simple as a stove/oven, the cost difference would favor towards a digital control. I would be willing to bet that within the next 10 years, the price will go the other way and it will be MORE expensive for a non-digital control interface. Once this happens, say goodbye to knobs, unless there is a variable resistor attached to the other side of it.

[Dattebayo]

The solution is simple: Quit buying knockoff stoves at the dollar store.

[300ZXttZMAN]

When your LEDs are so psychotically-arranged that you have to have labelled arrows sprawled across the entire surface, you're PROBABLY doing it wrong.
The best part of the whole thing is unquestionably the question mark after "Start". As though the designers weren't QUITE sure that's what it does, but felt confident enough to go ahead with it.
A close second, though, is the "on" indicator LED whose location is so nonsensical that I can't even think of a good superlative to describe it. It's between the minutes digits on the timer display. Because why the @#$% not.

This.

The biggest WTF about the controls pictured is the little LED lights with the lines telling them what they are for...

Why aren't they in a line?!?!?!

I'm completely baffled... It has to do with it being more inexpensive.

[Ace2cool]

It's not like there was a lack of real estate on that panel to spread out the LED's a tad.

[Looneybomber]

I guarantee you it's cost. I work in the pool and spa industry and have for the last 15 years and have seen first hand the migration away from "mechanical" controls to digital. In our industry, it was initially done for many reasons, the primary reason being accuracy. Mechanical controls by nature will allow the temperature of the water to vary by 2-3°F. This would get worse as the thermostat would age. With digital controls the accuracy was down to .5°F. Especially in a spa environment, this made a big difference. There were also things like timers and digital temperature displays that made things more convenient. But back when this started, it came at a price and was only included in high end tubs.

Things are different now. The price difference between a brand new "mechanical" system and a brand new digital system are negligible. And the digital system is far less likely to fail and is quieter. And these are in pretty complicated control environments. In something as simple as a stove/oven, the cost difference would favor towards a digital control. I would be willing to bet that within the next 10 years, the price will go the other way and it will be MORE expensive for a non-digital control interface. Once this happens, say goodbye to knobs, unless there is a variable resistor attached to the other side of it.

But on the bright side, instead of a variable resistor (potentiometer), you can still use a knob as a digital switch with a position sensor. Sure you don't get an infinite amount of resistance values like you do with a pot, but even 50 different position values provides a good enough number of settings for cooking. And once you've created the product and the coding for the hardware, it's super easy to mass produce it from there since there's little to no tuning. But that's an analog vs. digital circuit argument that started in the 80's and 90's. It's similar to the analog vs. digital argument in audio. A cosine wave has an infinite amount of voltage values along it's path since it's constantly changing, but if you sample that cosine wave, or audio wave at say 44.1khz, then you get enough samples to be "good enough" for all but the most discerning audiophiles. And that is why sampling rates have increased to 192khz, to make those "golden ears" happy. In the audio world, we've gone back to knobs, because turning a knob and "cranking it to 11" is infinitely more fun that repeatedly pressing the +vol button and hoping you don't hit bumps along the way causing your finger to slip and changing the station on accident.

So in the end, I think you're gonna be right that things will be digital and more reliable (and should also be cheaper due to the nature of digital vs analog circuits), but knobs are a mainstay for numerous applications and should remain common place, including in a kitchen! In hot tub applications though, buttons would be better only because it's easier to make that all water proof since there's no moving parts needed to perforate a membrane like a shaft from a knob would. Maybe?

[300ZXttZMAN]

It's not like there was a lack of real estate on that panel to spread out the LED's a tad.

Exactly. Look at the "whirlpool" emblem, they could have scooted it over enough to allow the digital read out to be centered. Once the digital read is centered they would have had more than enough room to line the LED indicators up and label each one.

[alms24sebring]

Shouldnt have bought it

Also surprised that Whirlpool makes an oven.