Comments on: LCD Monitor adjustment blues http://designblog.nzeldes.com/2008/04/lcd-monitor-adjustment-blues/ Nathan Zeldes blogs on everyday product design Wed, 11 Jan 2012 12:49:40 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Douglas Aurelio Marques http://designblog.nzeldes.com/2008/04/lcd-monitor-adjustment-blues/comment-page-1/#comment-5629 Douglas Aurelio Marques Sat, 09 Jan 2010 13:04:38 +0000 http://designblog.nzeldes.com/2008/04/lcd-monitor-adjustment-blues/#comment-5629 Interestingly (or sadly), it seems to me that the more high end, the worst it gets! I bought an Asus monitor last year for gaming and its controls are terrible! You not only have to navigate through the on screen menus to do most of the settings, but also have to wait some seconds ("function timeout") if you change your mind and want to use another function, because each control has multiple functions. For example, when I turn on the monitor, the arrows let me choose the input (HDMI, VGA, DVI). But then, if I immediately want to set the brightness, I can't do it because the bright control is activated by the arrows too! So, I have to wait until the input mode times out, otherwise while I think I'm changing the brightness, I start to change the input and my screen simply goes blank! And it happens not only with computer monitors. I bought a microwave oven 10 years ago that had a knob to adjust about everything. To heat up something for some seconds in standard power I only had to turn the knob to set the duration and then press start. And to adjust the power during the process, I could press power and turn the knob. Amazingly I bought a high end microwave oven recently and to do any simple thing I had to press a lot of buttons! And it beeps very loud every time I press them, without an option to turn the beeping off! A design nightmare! Interestingly (or sadly), it seems to me that the more high end, the worst it gets! I bought an Asus monitor last year for gaming and its controls are terrible! You not only have to navigate through the on screen menus to do most of the settings, but also have to wait some seconds (“function timeout”) if you change your mind and want to use another function, because each control has multiple functions. For example, when I turn on the monitor, the arrows let me choose the input (HDMI, VGA, DVI). But then, if I immediately want to set the brightness, I can’t do it because the bright control is activated by the arrows too! So, I have to wait until the input mode times out, otherwise while I think I’m changing the brightness, I start to change the input and my screen simply goes blank!

And it happens not only with computer monitors. I bought a microwave oven 10 years ago that had a knob to adjust about everything. To heat up something for some seconds in standard power I only had to turn the knob to set the duration and then press start. And to adjust the power during the process, I could press power and turn the knob. Amazingly I bought a high end microwave oven recently and to do any simple thing I had to press a lot of buttons! And it beeps very loud every time I press them, without an option to turn the beeping off! A design nightmare!

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