The product user interface of today can madden the seniors of tomorrow. I am looking at the console of a Volvo right now. Mulling over the SOURCE/Push Scan knob -- turn it to switch from FM to AM, PUSH it to SCAN the channels, PUSH again to stop scanning. This is an eight-year-old car, and it took most of the first few years of perusing the owner’s manual to figure out how to use the radio (PTY, TP, NEWS buttons I’ve left untouched). But brand new cars have achieved a new level. Just starting up a newer car -- never mind the radio -- requires a long training session, watching the sales rep, taking notes. For one car expert I know, it was not clear how to get a brand new, automatic transmission BMW out of PARK -- without instruction.
Why must we study the manual? Stoves, uh, cooktops, have modes, not dials. Radios with dials are retro; wall-mounted dial thermostats, just a memory. It’s almost a pleasure to see a deliberate choice of the alarm clock in Starwood’s Aloft hotel – set by turning a knob on a large bedside clock with…real numbers on it. Wanna bet they chose this because people complained about digital clock radios that turned on at 4 am?
