COSC-368: Humans and Computers

Usability Observation - Ilam Apartments Stove

Alexandre Pereira

27 August 2014

The Problem
I lived in Brazil for 22 years before coming to New Zealand. Numerous things in this country
are different from my country of origin. One thing I found actually strange here is the cookers that
are used in Ilam Apartments, one of the accommodations available for students from the University
of Canterbury. In Brazil, I was used to cook on stoves that emanate fire. On the other hand, the
cooker of my apartment works based on iron hotplates. I think that this kind of cooker is more
secure against fire compared to the Brazils common cookers. However, it has some problems with
its usability that make difficult, especially to foreign people that never seem a cooker like that
before.
The first problem that I noticed when I tried to use the Ilam Apartments cooker is the
buttons that turn on the plates are not indicated which plate each button turn on. The second
problem is that it needs to be turned on a switch to the cooker works. The shape of this switch is
very similar to the light switch. Furthermore, it is not located in an obvious place to indicate that it is
used to make the cooker work. Actually, on this switch, there are three options. The first switch
turns on a hood, the second the hob and the third, a microwave. These options are indicated by
English words in a small font size. Because of these problems, sometimes I forget the switch
turned on, and I realize it only when I try to use the stove or the microwave again. When I finally
discovered the proposal of these switches, I turned on one of the cooker buttons, and a red LED
started to shine. The cooker was working, and I tried to fry some eggs. However, the eggs were
not being fried at first. After about a minute, I finally could see that the eggs were starting to be
fried. The following pictures illustrate the stove and its details.

Figure 1- General view of the stove

Figure 2 - The Iron plates and buttons

Figure 3 - The switch

Figure 4 - One of the buttons turned on (which iron plate is on?)

UX Design Principles
Each of the problems mentioned above violates one or more of the usability design
principles. The first problem is the lack of a map that indicates which iron plate each button turns
on. That situation violates the natural mapping principle design, that is the relationship between
controls and actions of a device (Summary of Don Norman's Design Principles, 2007).
The second problem, the need of turn on a switch that is not well located and because of
that, it is not obvious that this switch needs to be turned on to the stove work. There are three
options on that switch are indicated by words in English. This problem violates the visibility,
consistency and constraint principles of design. It transgresses the visibility design because it is
located slightly far of the stove. It violates the consistency principle because it is very similar to a
light switch and the user probably will think that this switch is not for the stove. It also contributes to
the poor visibility of the switch. Additionally, this switch violates cultural constraints. These
constraints are related, as its name says, with cultural differences and this principle relies on
learned conventions. In this case, cultural constraints are violated because the options on the
switch are written in English. Despite most of the people, living in New Zealand, speaks English,
and it is a prerequisite to enter at University of Canterbury; some people may not know what hob,
hood or microwave means. So, it is probable that the user will try to turn on the stove without
turning on the hob switch because they do not even know that the switch is related to the stove.
The other problem mentioned, the delay for the iron plate starts to heat leads us to another
violated design principle, the feedback principle. At the first time a person uses this cooker, they
might wonder why their pan is not heating and may think that the button to turn the plate is not the
correct one, because of the lack of mapping between the buttons and the plates, and may will try
the other buttons, and they will become more confused. As it is perceptible, different wrong design
principles together will join forces to provide to a bad user interface (Preece, J., Rogers, Y., Sharp,
H., 2002).

Proposed Solution
For each of these problems, I elaborated a solution. In the first problem, I propose a design
beside of each button. On this design, the four plates will be drawn, and the right plate will be
highlighted. I think this is a good representation. Moreover, I think that it is universally
understandable, avoiding cultural constraints. Another option to solve this is by placing the buttons
at the same position as the plates. So, by analogy, the user will understand which button is related
to an iron plate.
The second problem can be solved by changing the switch from its current place and put it
immediately on the wall behind the stove, or in the left side of the stove, at the alike distance of the
cooker as the iron plate buttons, that continue the right side, with its mapping drawings. It would
have a red color and have a draw of a cooker above it. In the button, it would have two symbols. 1
to represent that the stove is on and 0 to indicate that the stove is off. Furthermore, the LED that is
above the iron plate buttons will be moved near to this button. Similar design would be made in the
microwave and the hood.
In the third problem, the user does not know if the iron plate is heated in the first minute.
So, to solve that, an electronic panel should be placed beside each button related with the iron
plates to indicate its temperature. This panel will be activated when a user turns on the
corresponding button. With that mechanism, the user will know that the iron plates are heated,
even if its temperature is increasing slowly.
With all of these new obvious designs, users will know how to turn on and turn off the stove. They
Will know the relationship between the buttons and its correspondents' iron plates and will have a

feedback of the temperature of each iron plate independently of their country of origin.
Consequently, the user experience of cooking will be much more pleasant.

References:
Summary of Don Norman's Design Principles (2007) Available at:
http://www.doctordisruption.com/design/principles-of-design-43-mapping/
(Accessed 27 August 2014).
Preece, J., Rogers, Y., Sharp, H. (2002), Interaction Design: Beyond Human-Computer Interaction,
New York: Wiley, p.21