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Modern Eco-Storage Heaters are Not Fit for Purpose. Discuss.

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Case 1. Heater provided with no operating instructions in box.


Case 2. Heater could not be programmed. Reason: it was factory set in "Eco-mode" where programming was not possible.


Case 3. Too complicated with layers of programming needed. The A4 sized instructions are many pages long covering many settings and day options.


Case 4. A recent heater seen has a very small window screen where the writing is about 1mm tall and is very difficult to read when programming it.


Case 5. They are too complicated and not easy to use. Over engineered and liable to failure due to complicated P.C.B.s inside. Perhaps that is the plan. If you can't easily use them they save energy as one of my customers found out after spending many hours over the phone speaking with the maker's tech. dept. The heater is now cold and has stopped working.


Z.
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    mapj1:

    There is a general problem of letting software people write software for controls, in that the result is typically just awful. For some reason working with computers for a long time seems to addle the brain, and leave people with a very odd sense  of what type and layout of control is  intuitive.

    (it also affects the speech centres, folk talking about MMI (Man Machine Interface) or ergonomics, or 'human factors' (unless you make equipment for aliens there are no other factors), have probably passed the point of no return.)


    If anyone has ever used the manual controls on a Votsch lab oven they will understand. Siemens mobile phones made the same mistake.

    Where are they now ?

    To be successful the controls on any piece of equipment need to be quite intuitive-  and that means  being able to go back when you have made an error,  increasing things being clockwise, or perhaps up, and to have some sort of overview of what has been programmed - a simple clock face with segments in different shades and a key showing that pale is set to 20 degrees, and dark is 15  or whatever is a lot simpler than a line of semicolons and << >> signs.

    Anything requiring a handbook of more than one sheet of paper has probably already failed, and will not be understood or used correctly once the enthusiastic fool who fitted it has left the property.

    Mike.



     


    A superb observation Mike! Copy it to an email and send it to every manufacturer in the country, I think it would put Britain back on the map!


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  • 0
    mapj1:

    There is a general problem of letting software people write software for controls, in that the result is typically just awful. For some reason working with computers for a long time seems to addle the brain, and leave people with a very odd sense  of what type and layout of control is  intuitive.

    (it also affects the speech centres, folk talking about MMI (Man Machine Interface) or ergonomics, or 'human factors' (unless you make equipment for aliens there are no other factors), have probably passed the point of no return.)


    If anyone has ever used the manual controls on a Votsch lab oven they will understand. Siemens mobile phones made the same mistake.

    Where are they now ?

    To be successful the controls on any piece of equipment need to be quite intuitive-  and that means  being able to go back when you have made an error,  increasing things being clockwise, or perhaps up, and to have some sort of overview of what has been programmed - a simple clock face with segments in different shades and a key showing that pale is set to 20 degrees, and dark is 15  or whatever is a lot simpler than a line of semicolons and << >> signs.

    Anything requiring a handbook of more than one sheet of paper has probably already failed, and will not be understood or used correctly once the enthusiastic fool who fitted it has left the property.

    Mike.



     


    A superb observation Mike! Copy it to an email and send it to every manufacturer in the country, I think it would put Britain back on the map!


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