Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

AmazonBasics Microwave: Accessible for People with Visual Impairments (2019)

afb.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–67 of 67 posts

Re: AmazonBasics Microwave: Accessible for People with Visual Impairments (2019)

#61

Post by vel0city »

poleguy wrote: post #45
Detrytus wrote: post #2

Forgive my ignorance, but isn't an old school microwave with knobs and button even more accessible, thanks to tacile feedback? Why do they need to put AI in everything?

Buttons on a microwave are like features on a car (or in a software program). Great for comparative marketing, but do you really need all those features? Do they make it better? I bought this microwave, currently $74.97 and even my six year old could use it. I'm not blind, but I can't imagine why anybody needs all those buttons. I bought this because it saves me a couple seconds every time I use it. It is a better, s…

I actually really enjoy the sensor cooking on my microwave. Single press reheat button, defrost by weight works really well, specific food cook modes are spot on (potatoes, popcorn, frozen veggies, chicken). Like, would you not want to just press a button once and have a, evenly cooked chicken breast? Or just put some frozen veggies in a bowl, press a single button, and they're nice and steamy every time?

Re: AmazonBasics Microwave: Accessible for People with Visual Impairments (2019)

#62

Post by vel0city »

yread wrote: post #16
arijun wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From the article, it seems there is tactile feedback on the buttons—the author says they aren’t sure which button was the 2 button, implying they could differentiate buttons. Your solution seems strictly worse. If they’re setting the time with a knob, how do they get 1:35 instead of a guesstimate of the time? How do they change the power level, use the defrost mode, the popcorn preset? They don’t need to put AI into…

Popcorn preset? Who uses that? What does it even do? Dont microwave popcorn bags just say 3 minutes at 600W?

3 minutes at 600W? My microwave is 1680W. What's the right conversion? Is this bag a little small, is this one a little large?

My single button sensor has never made a bad batch yet.

Re: AmazonBasics Microwave: Accessible for People with Visual Impairments (2019)

#63

Post by graftak »

Detrytus wrote: post #2

Forgive my ignorance, but isn't an old school microwave with knobs and button even more accessible, thanks to tacile feedback? Why do they need to put AI in everything?

I have the cheapest microwave offering from Ikea, it has 2 dials, no buttons. It is by far the best UI in my household.

Re: AmazonBasics Microwave: Accessible for People with Visual Impairments (2019)

#64

Post by jrflowers »

wincy wrote: post #22

Interesting to see this here as the more expensive version of this microwave with convection baking nearly burned down my house on Thanksgiving. It was a hectic morning and we were getting ready, and I had my kid put something into the microwave/oven. She put in the metal rack and the food on top. We’d done this dozens of times before. I then used Alexa from another room and said “Alexa, bake at 400° Fahrenheit for t…

> I then used Alexa from another room…

…

> maybe it was decided it was too dangerous of a product.

That’s almost certainly what happened. If you give people the ability to do something insane like turning on their microwave without being in the same room as it, somebody is going to be foolish enough to actually attempt that — regardless of how pointlessly dangerous that is or how infinitesimal the amount of time or convenience that the ability to do so might create.

Re: AmazonBasics Microwave: Accessible for People with Visual Impairments (2019)

#65

Post by wincy »

lozenge wrote: post #31
wincy wrote: post #22

Interesting to see this here as the more expensive version of this microwave with convection baking nearly burned down my house on Thanksgiving. It was a hectic morning and we were getting ready, and I had my kid put something into the microwave/oven. She put in the metal rack and the food on top. We’d done this dozens of times before. I then used Alexa from another room and said “Alexa, bake at 400° Fahrenheit for t…

I like how you didn't report it to Amazon originally. How low are our expectations these days? "I almost started a fire, I guess I was just holding it wrong".

I reported it immediately via some very difficult to navigate form that barely worked in the Alexa app. I never heard back or got any feedback. It was buried under menus and once I got to the form it was doing something weird where it was like chugging and crashed twice on my iPhone but I finally submitted.

Then heard nothing and got no indication I’d actually done anything. It definitely gave me the impression they didn’t care.

Re: AmazonBasics Microwave: Accessible for People with Visual Impairments (2019)

#66

Post by batiudrami »

giraffe_lady wrote: post #58
housemusicfan wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I then used Alexa from another room and said “Alexa, bake at 400° Fahrenheit for twenty minutes”. Later I looked at the logs I like how at no point did you realize the complete and unnecessary idiocy of remote controlling potentially dangerous appliances. You have to walk up to it to put the food inside. Is pushing a few buttons afterward that difficult? Ok, so you sent your kid, you trust him or her to put the foo…

Eh they made a series of choices clearly planned for and intended and likely marketed by the creators of the devices. You're maybe right that it shouldn't exist, but given that it does the fault isn't with the user. But the voice controls being an accessibility boon is part of the current context here. I think they're exactly right to place the failure with amazon.

In my industry (rail, which admittedly is more keen on system safety than most) this would absolutely be the responsibility of the designer not the user. Poor safety in design, simple as that.

Re: AmazonBasics Microwave: Accessible for People with Visual Impairments (2019)

#67

Post by stacktrust »

rootsudo wrote: post #48

I understand the article is about people with visual impairments, but why doesn't even it include a photo of the microwave in question? If you amazon the model number it takes you to another one altogether. Just too funny.

Because the primary audience for this article would be consuming the content as audio, via text-to-speech screen reader.
Post reply on HN