Joel on Alarm Clocks
I love this story from Joel on Software about how an alarm clock caused several sleepless nights:
“Oh, that thing? I have no idea how to use that thing. I never use it,” she said. “I’ll disconnect it completely.”
“Not necessary,” I said, and turned off the alarm, set the volume to zero, and, in my late-onset OCD, set the clock to the exact time.
Mrs. C was terribly apologetic, but it really wasn’t her fault. It took me—me!—quite a while to figure out how to operate the damn clock radio, and let me tell you, sonny boy, I know a thing or two about clock radios. The UI was terrible. Your average little old lady didn’t stand a chance.
Also, ktpupp, whose photo I used in my previous post Alarm Clocks and Usability, shared this about her alarm clock:
My alarm clock definitely would get low usability scores…
Too short of a snooze (7 minutes, not changeable and most others are usually 9 minutes), Off button right next to Snooze (easy to hit the wrong one and oversleep instead of snooze) and the “rewind” function is poor (doesn’t speed up if you hold the button down so you have to press it 60 times to move the alarm back one hour instead of just holding it down until the right time arrives).
The only good thing about it is the extremely large numbers so that I can read it at night without my glasses. Most clocks use 1-inch displays which I can only see as a red blur without my glasses! I put up with lousy usability for that feature alone.
