The Worst Interactive Design in the World

Posted by Doug on Oct 10, 2009 in Thoughts | 1 comment

…is right in front of your face when you wake up. That’s right. A digital alarm clock. Have you ever noticed how complicated it is to set the time, set one of multiple wake-up times, set a snooze time, set the alarm, stop the alarm, switch between music and buzz and even find a radio station are? This is a great example of how progress has taken us one giant leap backwards. Features trump functionality.We designed something that by definition requires interactivity on a regular basis but completely lost track of usability.

Remember back when an alarm click did one thing. It woke you up. Period. Then we discovered that it was more pleasing to wake to music. But the music has to fade in so as not to jar us from our beauty sleep. And AM is too scratchy so we need FM to find that soothing classical station. Then we need two separate alarms, one for weekdays and one for weekends. But then, since we don’t need to set the time that often, let’s make setting the time of day obscure and difficult so that dolts won’t accidentally set the time instead of the wake time. And the only button big enough to locate in a sleepy stupor is the snooze button which works twice, then fails without warning.

I want three controls and three controls only:

1. Set the time of day
2. Set the time I want to wake up
3. Toggle the alarm on and of

And if it’s not too much to ask I’d like a big digital display so I can see it while my eyes are still blurry to ensure that I didn’t screw up one of those three controls and that it is indeed time to get up. Is that too much to ask?.