I apologize for the lengthy post...
I just thought I should comment on another thing in this thread, since I was thinking about it.
At a lot of companies, there are entire research teams dedicated to figuring out how to make their products more ergonomic and intuitive to use, while reducing the amount of possible user error which could happen if the user doesn't read the manual.
One of the biggest philosophies at Apple for example, is that they wanted to make the computer extremely intuitive and simple to use, for someone who doesn't understand computers. This is exactly why they've become so big as a company.
One of the things I've learned in life is that if someone can find out an incorrect way to use a machine, they will. This especially applies to appliances.
Just to put things into perspective, here's a video of someone with an LG waveforce washer who attempted to wash a king sized comforter using the default "Cottons" setting.
The problem was, both the person was wrong and the machine was wrong. The person should have known to use the "Bulky" cycle, but they didn't, presumably because they didn't read the manual. On the other hand, the machine should have known there was an unusual problem and compensated for it, but it didn't.
The end result is disaster. Even worse, it's things like this that can destroy a company because an engineer didn't think that this could happen.
So, even though I think it's great that you are drawing up these designs, the problem is, you shouldn't be using what you see in your house as an example. You should be rethinking how one should interact with their machines. You have to make them "Idiot Proof" while still allowing for enough functionality and features for the more advanced user to utilize.
There are people at Ariston and Indesit who get paid to think of things like this every day. When the engineering staff meet up with these designers and product teams, they determine these exact answers to these questions. The companies that make a product easy to use are the ones that sell the most product, right?
It's one thing to propose a washer for example, which spins at 2000 RPM. How do you stop a user from telling it to spin that fast with a load of very heavy items, which could potentially destroy the machine? Better yet, how do you engineer the machine to take that user error into account so it doesn't do that?
One individual I read about in another forum was complaining about how his Miele washer had destroyed all of his clothing. It turned out he was using Persil and the default cottons setting with all of his clothing, expecting it would wash all of his laundry perfectly. Of course, the hot water made the coloured items bleed into his whites and the Persil faded everything. From the users perspective, the machine was a piece of junk, but the machine only did was it was told to do. The machine wasn't really suitable for the user because the user didn't know how to operate it properly.
What the user ended up doing instead was getting rid of his Miele and getting a conventional Top loading Speed Queen washer, because it had the settings he knew what to do with.
In your drawings, what I see above would be something I would see in a European Household. To me, it's bizarre, strange, confusing and complicated. For you, you've seen designs like this all of your life so you know what to expect and you would know how to use it. What I see is something which a typical North American wouldn't be used to.
So, before you open up your graphics program and start drawing out what you'd like to see in your house, ask yourself, "How would I design something to be idiot proof, yet give me all of the functionality I wanted?" Better yet.. Think of the process behind what you would like to do when you do laundry.
What would you do when you approach the machine? What buttons would you want to push, dials to twist, etc and in what order? What would you expect to see on the display? What sort of feedback would you expect from the appliance?
To put things into a clearer perspective, how would you do it if you never ever did laundry before in your life and didn't know anything about it?
Then start asking yourself questions like, "How would I stop the machine if I needed to?" ... Or, "What happens if I use the wrong settings or didn't push the right buttons? Or even push them at all?"
Like anything, user interface is a process. Considering that these are appliances, it should be simple, intuitive, easy to use yet flexible and powerful. The less someone has to think about what they need to do to get the machine to do what they want it to, the better.
More to the point, if a user has to delve into a 500-page instruction manual, they're not going to read it, they just want it to work for them NOW with minimal effort. This is why I asked you to think about what an instruction manual would look like for your designs.
Find someone with an Apple iPhone and just try calling your home with it. Ask yourself how many pages of instructions you had to read before you could do it. I guarantee you'll say "Zero."
FYI, Technical writers get paid well to design and write operation manuals for equipment. They provide input into the user processes and are the last point before a user calls a support line to ask about how to do something. Getting practice writing technical manuals is a very valuable skill, especially when it comes to appliance design and engineering.
If you can do that, then what is a concept now becomes a reality. If you do it right, you can change the way the user thinks before they use the machine.. and you change their thinking to the way you want them to think. That's such a powerful concept, isn't it?
Are they going to be properly U.K.
