Daylight Saving Time is a perfect test for UI designer
I have five clocks in my house. All of them I have to change manually twice a year: one hour back in the Autumn and one hour forward in the Spring. Today was one of these days.
Each clock presents a unique puzzle. Three out of five have no direct controls for changing time, and manuals have long been lost, so I have to figure it out every time.
As you can guess, setting time is a game of trial and error. My favorite is the microwave: while setting time is more or less intuitive with − and +, getting in this mode requires unplugging the whole thing.
It’s not enough to think inside the world of interface alone, you have to break out into the real world. Hey, the power cord is UI too!
So here’s my idea: if you are hiring UI/UX designers, ask them to design UI for a wall clock/kitchen timer, specifically the part that sets the time.
