As someone with a passion for good UI, this is infuriating. We've had microwaves for 50 years; their UI should be solved by now. After a half-century, we should have a standard set of controls that are simple, intuitive, efficient, and forgiving.
Instead, we all have stories like this about microwaves with dials, modes, stages, levels, pre-programmed jobs, and recipe databases, but that lack a simple way to microwave something for 30 seconds!
I assume this is because every microwave designer wants to invent some new feature they can tout on the box. I have often fantasized about enacting a law that requires designers of new interfaces to be forced to use said interfaces in their personal lives for a month. Hopefully this would promote better design; alternatively, it could be used as a form of penance.
I think that the best microwave UI is just two analog knobs. One for power level (although it would be nice to get rid of this as well, but some packaged foods ask to be cooked at 50% power for part of the time), and one for cooking time which also starts the cooking if the door is closed. Turn the nob to whatever time you want and it starts cooking. If you want to stop cooking before time is up, you can either turn it back to 0 or just open the door.
My parents still use a microwave they bought before I was born (I'm 28), and it does exactly this, except without the power dial. It's one analog dial for time -- turn it to start, turn it back to zero to stop. I miss having it around.
The best microwave UI I've used has several functions above the number pad, all of them completely optional. Typing a time on the number pad and pausing made the microwave start -- to rephrase, if you press 4 5 and didn't press anything for 3 seconds, the microwave would begin and operate for 45 seconds. Pressing 1 3 0 and walking away would run it for 1 minute 30 seconds. When it was done it beeped 3 times, then once every 10 minutes, until you open the door or press a button. At the bottom was a Power button which you could press to change the power level at any time, and a Start / +30 sec button which would add 30 seconds to the amount of time on the timer. And if the clock wasn't set, it would just display 00:00 solidly, not blinking.
Maybe this is a mis-remembered mix of the best UI elements from several microwaves, but to me it's ideal.
My grandparents set their house on fire by microwaving a potato for 50 minutes instead of 5 minutes. It's going to be really hard for any UI to compensate for that kind of disadvantage, where a subtle difference like pressing a digit an extra time can set your house on fire. The +30sec button is a reasonable button-oriented approach, but dials are a lot easier to use.
I'm also not a big fan of your "walk away while the microwave is off and it turns on after three seconds" model.
I would like a microwave that has exactly this kind of two knob UI, but implemented by solid state electronics. Across last five years or so the root cause of almost all broken appliances in my home was some kind of mechanical sequencer that somehow failed and cannot be reasonably fixed and finding it as an spare part somewhere is practically impossible.
With digital you can heat for a specific time and power, so it's replicable. This is great when, say, heating milk for a baby or water for Aeropress. There's a big difference between 30 seconds and 50 seconds at 800W.
As you say, microwaves are sold on the number of features they offer. I guess every 'program' is an extra feature (even though it's just a preset time and power). And if you have enough programs, then nobody will need the manual controls, so they don't need to be easy to use. At least, that's how the mind of microwave designers seems to work.
In reality, most food that you want to microwave has precise instructions on it, so I really only need quick and easy to use manual controls.
Some ideas for my ideal microwave (should any manufacturers be reading):
* Small camera with OCR that can read the instructions and program accordingly
* Thermometer which checks whether the food is ready.
* A way of mixing the food, instead of relying on me to stop it halfway through and do it manually.
* Cover which goes over the food automatically, so I don't realise I forgot only when there's a load of food baked onto the top.
* Something which cooks the food without heating the container to an untouchable heat.
A camera+OCR would be so painfully less reliable than a QR code or even a traditional barcode, either of which could represent a short string that could contain a power level, heating/standing times, and wait characters (like the special pause/wait characters traditionally supported by cell phones). It would take some hefty marketing muscle for a manufacturer to get the ball rolling for including this on food packages, though. Perhaps there's a professional organization within the food/appliances industry that could make this happen.
It would "just" require a manufacturer to offer a sufficiently good partnership to a handful of the largest supermarket chains. The large ones like Walmart, Carrefour, Tesco etc. have more than enough market power to simply tell their suppliers they'll suffer from marketing favouring their competitors if they don't add labelling following a certain standard.
I think microwaves are fine. It's just like any other white goods. From the lower-to-mid ranges they are utilitarian and reliable. Like you say, the customer's mistake was to obtain a high end model, which features these embellishments to merely justify the cost.
Instead, we all have stories like this about microwaves with dials, modes, stages, levels, pre-programmed jobs, and recipe databases, but that lack a simple way to microwave something for 30 seconds!
I assume this is because every microwave designer wants to invent some new feature they can tout on the box. I have often fantasized about enacting a law that requires designers of new interfaces to be forced to use said interfaces in their personal lives for a month. Hopefully this would promote better design; alternatively, it could be used as a form of penance.