Timothy Z. Lu

Microwave - Human Use Analysis

introduction user experience pros and cons improvements

While microwaves come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, we will be analyzing a basic touch-pad microwave, from the persepctive of a typical undergraduate college student.

The procedure for using a microwave to heat up food is typically as follows:

1. Obtain food to microwave
2. Determine cooking time
   • Microwavable foods - on package
   • Leftovers - guess (or based on experience
   • Raw foods - follow recipe or guess
3. Open Door
4. Place food in microwave on turnstyle
5. Close door
6. Set time and start cooking/use one-touch cook
7. Wait for food to finish heating
8. Open door before/after timer runs out
9. Take out food
10. Clear timer if there’s time left

To help demonstrate this process, we will follow Aaron Huang, MIT Junior, as he microwaves a hot dog.

In this particular case, Aaron did not know exactly how long to microwave the hot dog for, so he used his intuition and selected the "add 30 seconds" button, conveniently cooking the hot dog with one push. Towards the end of the cook, Aaron decided to check up on the temperature by stopping the cooking and opening the door. Upon testing the temperature with his hands, he determined that the temperature was to his liking, and removed the hot dog from the microwave.

To further investigate the existing user experience, a survey on microwave usage and opinions was sent to and answered by 33 undergraduate students, with certains respondents selected for further interviews. Here is a summary of the key user experience takeaways:

• On average, most respondents used a microwave less than once per day, with the majority heating up either microwavable meals, or leftovers.
• The vast majority (85%) of surveyed individuals make use of the “add 30 sec” button, and most (61%) use some sort of express-cook functionality.
• Most other basic microwave features (defrost, preset food buttons, kitchen timer) were rarely used by the respondents.
• When looking to buy a microwave, the vast majority (91%) consider price to be an important aspect. Size and purchasing convenience were also important factors.
• Generally, it appeared that most respondents don’t put too much thought in purchasing microwaves, opting for the first cheap option that's easy to buy, taking into account of size restrictions.