The Internet of Poorly Working Things
IMO there is a very annoying trend in household appliances towards worse and worse UI.<p>Basically, it started with light switches already decades ago, at least in Europe. In the past, you had switches that themselves indicated what state they are in, so if you cluster them on a board it's incredibly easy to find the one switched on at the moment [1].<p>Then, some moron came up with switches that don't show anything anymore [2].<p>Nowadays you're lucky if you get switches on anything at all. This [3] is how a standard stove looks like in new Swiss apartments nowadays. Good luck explaining this to your grandma. <i></i>You idiots, it has one job, getting more or less hot!<i></i><p>Recently I took a residential elevator that just had an empty touch field when you came in. <i>No indication of what you could do whatsoever</i>. This immediately gave me anxiety, and I'm just 31 goddamnit. Anyways, what happened was that <i>once the elevator door closed</i> it gave me a selection of floors to go. [4] <i>facepalm</i><p>Please, for the love of what's holy, <i>stop improving what doesn't need improvement</i>! In german we have a word for this: "Verschlimmbessern". (a combination of verschlimmern='making it worse' and bessern=improving)<p>[1] <a href="https://adventurelightingblog.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/light-switch.jpg" rel="nofollow">https://adventurelightingblog.files.wordpress.com/2010/02/li...</a><p>[2] <a href="http://www.schulungshandbuch.de/WebRoot/Store22/Shops/62784718/54C3/771A/FC18/5950/9A6B/C0A8/2ABB/1470/Lichtschalter.jpeg" rel="nofollow">http://www.schulungshandbuch.de/WebRoot/Store22/Shops/627847...</a><p>[3] <a href="http://media3.siemens-home.com/Product_Shots/915x515/MCSA00681395_2_EH645BB17E_def.png" rel="nofollow">http://media3.siemens-home.com/Product_Shots/915x515/MCSA006...</a><p>[4] <a href="https://www.google.co.jp/search?tbm=isch&q=schindler+touch&tbs=imgo:1&gws_rd=cr&ei=xWq6V6_KAcjK0ATj9JqYBg#gws_rd=cr&imgrc=33lIUZ1H5KvvxM%3A" rel="nofollow">https://www.google.co.jp/search?tbm=isch&q=schindler+touch&t...</a>