IH01-UrvashiGupta

From IEOR 170 Spring 2007

Good Design- Folding Dish Drainer

This is a picture of a folding dish drainer. It’s used to hold the wet dishes after they have been rinsed so they can be left there to dry off. I really like the design of this as firstly it’s very simple and fool proof to use. You jut have to arrange the plates in the crevices which are spaced very well so dishes of several different widths and sizes can fit in easily. Also it collapses easily and folds to form a very slim and easy to store panel that can be slid into any small space, so it utilizes space in the kitchen cabinet. It also has a rough texture that makes for a non skid surface so the utensils don’t slid off the rack. The broad design of the dish rack allows for a comfortable air flow through the dishes which enable quick and spot free drying. The broad base also means there’s good stability and a low center of gravity that ensures the rack will not topple over. The drain board is also raised a couple of inches off the counter top so there won’t be any water collecting and stagnating below it but will drain away into the basin easily.

Picture 1- The dish drainer opens up to provide two layers to set the dishes out onto. The top level is for plates and larger utensils where as the bottom one can be used for cutlery and glasses.

Picture 2- Here the rack has folded up so that both sets of surfaces interlock nicely, thus protecting the rack while it is folded up and also making it very compact and easy to store in any kitchen cabinet.

Bad Design-Electric Heater

This is a picture of an electric heater in my room. It is very difficult to use because I don’t understand how the controls work. As you can see in the picture below, it has three protrusions which have a symbol below each to signify what they stand for. Two of them make sense as the thermostat and the timer but it’s very hard for the average consumer to figure out what the first one means. Also changing the numerical value of the settings is not possible to do by simply pushing these buttons in. They change only after I repeatedly press them in the upwards or downwards direction, one try does not suffice. This new style of controls to toggle the setting is not intuitive at all and it opposes the principle of affordances. I feel that they could have been a lot easier to use had there been two simple buttons for each setting, one to increase the value and one to decrease it. They should be allowed to operate simply by pushing those inwards, unlike the complicated technique of having to push upwards or downwards.

Also the heater is very difficult to transport from one place to the other as it rests on its several fins. It’s impossible to drag on a surface due to the multiple fins and it weighs twenty-eight pounds so its too heavy too lift up and carry either. I suggest that the heater could come fitted with rollers so it would make it mobile and easy to shift from one part of the home to another.