6 ms·

I've been thinking the same about power switches lately. If I turn a flashlight, or an old radio on or off, I flip a switch and get the result I want. With my

by skohan 6y ago

I've been thinking the same about power switches lately. If I turn a flashlight, or an old radio on or off, I flip a switch and get the result I want. With my 65 EUR gamepad, or 300 EUR headphones, I hold a button and wait several seconds for the result. Why has UX regressed so much in these areas?

MereInterest 6y ago
And even if there is a physical switch, it is not clear what that switch is doing. My bluetooth headset has a hardware on/off switch. However, when the switch is turned off, it plays a sound to say the words "power off". If it were a physical switch across the battery, then I would expect the power to be immediately cut, and it shouldn't have the power to say that the power has been cut.
- moe 6y ago
  But then how would you know it's really off!
  - kempbellt 6y ago
    I sense sarcasm, but I'll answer anyway. A power indicator light would do the trick... But in all seriousness, your bluetooth headphones should have a sim card built in and be an IoT slave to the cloud. So that when you turn them off, they send a message to Alexa, Google, and Siri, so that all of your devices can tell you "YOUR HEADPHONES ARE NOW OFF" at the same time. Like a tiny choir of angels informing you of the new state of your device. But of course, there will be one slow/older device that lags 0.3 seconds behind and says "HEADPHONES...OFF", completely out of sync with the rest, like a rebel. Damnit, toilet! Get with the times...
    - bitwize 6y ago
      𝕐𝕆𝕌ℝ 𝕁𝔸ℂ𝕂𝔼𝕋 𝕀𝕊 ℕ𝕆𝕎 𝔻ℝ𝕐
      - Shared404 6y ago
        This reminds me of that one dystopian text adventure game the verge put out a while ago. The version on the original site now links to here: https://adirobertson.itch.io/wake-word https://adirobertson.itch.io/wake-word for those who haven't played it yet.
  - pessimizer 6y ago
    The way I've been able to learn that devices are off since the early 2000s is that the blindingly bright blue LED light is replaced by a blindingly bright red LED light.
    - seventhtiger 6y ago
      I really hate those. When your house is dark and it's calm and all you see are little eyes of Sauron floating in the darkness. I've gone around my house with masking tape and covered every unnecessary visible light. Google Wifi is one of the worst offenders. They might as well market it as a wifi-repeating lamp.
      - whiskers 6y ago
        You can adjust the brightness of the light ring from the Google Wifi app (all the way down to "off"!).
        seventhtiger 6y ago
        Thank you. This helps a lot. I didn't think to look for it.
Symbiote 6y ago
My rented apartment has switches that presumably use radio to turn on and off the lights. There is no further integration, or smart app etc. I can't see which light switch is on or off, so even after years living here I mix up some of the switches. Sometimes the radio pulse doesn't register, so I have to go back to the switch and press it again. After pressing the switch, there's a perceivable, variable delay for the light to come on. Guests are confused. There are only downsides with such a system.
- projektfu 6y ago
  You are living in the little hell we created. Sorry.
- RedShift1 6y ago
  At work we have a few rooms that have 4 buttons organized in what normally is one light switch. Each button controls different parts of the rooms. I call them Heisenbuttons, you never know what they'll do until you've pressed them.
  - Reason077 6y ago
    Tried operating them with your eyes closed? Real Heisenbuttons change their behaviour depending on whether or not they're being observed.
- millstone 6y ago
  I installed a wireless (RF) switch and I like it. It lights a tiny LED when it's on, and it is as reliable as a hardwired switch. The big advantage is that it provides separate fan and light controls without needing to run new electrical wires through the wall and ceiling.
- pbourke 6y ago
  These kinds of switches are perfectly analogous to technical debt. Doing things the right/straightforward way involves costs that we don’t want to pay (holes in the wall/labour to run a new circuit) so we shoehorn a complex hack using some new tech (RF control). The cost savings are moderate and the price paid is amortized over every further use of the system.
m463 6y ago
I have always wanted a flashlight with a brightness knob, that clicks to off. It is incredibly hard to find this. I have one somewhere, but the knob was a little silly: https://amzn.com/B07BDQS3XX https://amzn.com/B07BDQS3XX I think a better design would be a ring around the circumference that you twist. But I agree - when it came to putting a good stereo in my car (when you used to be able to do such a thing) I always kept looking until I found one with an actual volume knob. In a moving car - grabbing a knob and finding the right volume level is immediate and doable. By the way, schiit hel: https://www.schiit.com/products/hel https://www.schiit.com/products/hel
- pmalynin 6y ago
  Schiit audio is quite good, I have had the Magni 2 and Modi 2 for about 4 years now and they work really well. And they're small enough that I can throw in my backpack when I go somewhere for longer (>2 months) period of time.
- aareet 6y ago
  Maglite flashlights behave as you describe - you turn the head to turn on/off and change intensity or pattern https://www.amazon.com/s?k=maglite https://www.amazon.com/s?k=maglite
  - Poacher5 6y ago
    Unless something's changed since I bought my big maglite, the outer ring only controls the beam pattern, and the button just gives you on and off. Things might have got fancier in the meanwhile, but mine still does what it needs to.
    - Nition 6y ago
      Modern ones work as you describe, but you can also press the button multiple times quickly when first turning it on to control the brightness. One press for bright, "double-click" for average, "triple-click" for dim.
- ranger207 6y ago
jayd16 6y ago
Probably because you actually don't want your gamepad to turn off as you fumble a combo or your headphones to turn off as you operate buttons you can't see. In other cases its usually to double dip on input components.
- skohan 6y ago
  I don't want a button, I want a physical switch with two positions in a place where I am not likely to switch it accidentally. And when I switch it, it should turn on or off fast enough close to instantly: this should not be a high-cost operation which requires a UX mitigation. If I toggle a light switch accidentally, I'm not concerned about it, because it's so easy and fast to correct my mistake.
rob74 6y ago
That's one of the reasons why I love my good old Bose QC 15 headphones: they have a physical switch that turns off the noise cancelling and also acts as a reliable no-delay audio kill switch. Some people would complain that you can't turn off the NC and keep listening to music, but I think the switch is actually more useful this way...

by skohan 6y ago

MereInterest 6y ago

And even if there is a physical switch, it is not clear what that switch is doing. My bluetooth headset has a hardware on/off switch. However, when the switch is turned off, it plays a sound to say the words "power off". If it were a physical switch across the battery, then I would expect the power to be immediately cut, and it shouldn't have the power to say that the power has been cut.

moe 6y ago
But then how would you know it's really off!
- kempbellt 6y ago
  I sense sarcasm, but I'll answer anyway. A power indicator light would do the trick... But in all seriousness, your bluetooth headphones should have a sim card built in and be an IoT slave to the cloud. So that when you turn them off, they send a message to Alexa, Google, and Siri, so that all of your devices can tell you "YOUR HEADPHONES ARE NOW OFF" at the same time. Like a tiny choir of angels informing you of the new state of your device. But of course, there will be one slow/older device that lags 0.3 seconds behind and says "HEADPHONES...OFF", completely out of sync with the rest, like a rebel. Damnit, toilet! Get with the times...
  - bitwize 6y ago
    𝕐𝕆𝕌ℝ 𝕁𝔸ℂ𝕂𝔼𝕋 𝕀𝕊 ℕ𝕆𝕎 𝔻ℝ𝕐
    - Shared404 6y ago
      This reminds me of that one dystopian text adventure game the verge put out a while ago. The version on the original site now links to here: https://adirobertson.itch.io/wake-word https://adirobertson.itch.io/wake-word for those who haven't played it yet.
- pessimizer 6y ago
  The way I've been able to learn that devices are off since the early 2000s is that the blindingly bright blue LED light is replaced by a blindingly bright red LED light.
  - seventhtiger 6y ago
    I really hate those. When your house is dark and it's calm and all you see are little eyes of Sauron floating in the darkness. I've gone around my house with masking tape and covered every unnecessary visible light. Google Wifi is one of the worst offenders. They might as well market it as a wifi-repeating lamp.
    - whiskers 6y ago
      You can adjust the brightness of the light ring from the Google Wifi app (all the way down to "off"!).
      - seventhtiger 6y ago
        Thank you. This helps a lot. I didn't think to look for it.

Symbiote 6y ago

My rented apartment has switches that presumably use radio to turn on and off the lights. There is no further integration, or smart app etc. I can't see which light switch is on or off, so even after years living here I mix up some of the switches. Sometimes the radio pulse doesn't register, so I have to go back to the switch and press it again. After pressing the switch, there's a perceivable, variable delay for the light to come on. Guests are confused. There are only downsides with such a system.

projektfu 6y ago
You are living in the little hell we created. Sorry.
RedShift1 6y ago
At work we have a few rooms that have 4 buttons organized in what normally is one light switch. Each button controls different parts of the rooms. I call them Heisenbuttons, you never know what they'll do until you've pressed them.
- Reason077 6y ago
  Tried operating them with your eyes closed? Real Heisenbuttons change their behaviour depending on whether or not they're being observed.
millstone 6y ago
I installed a wireless (RF) switch and I like it. It lights a tiny LED when it's on, and it is as reliable as a hardwired switch. The big advantage is that it provides separate fan and light controls without needing to run new electrical wires through the wall and ceiling.
pbourke 6y ago
These kinds of switches are perfectly analogous to technical debt. Doing things the right/straightforward way involves costs that we don’t want to pay (holes in the wall/labour to run a new circuit) so we shoehorn a complex hack using some new tech (RF control). The cost savings are moderate and the price paid is amortized over every further use of the system.

m463 6y ago

I have always wanted a flashlight with a brightness knob, that clicks to off. It is incredibly hard to find this. I have one somewhere, but the knob was a little silly: https://amzn.com/B07BDQS3XX https://amzn.com/B07BDQS3XX I think a better design would be a ring around the circumference that you twist. But I agree - when it came to putting a good stereo in my car (when you used to be able to do such a thing) I always kept looking until I found one with an actual volume knob. In a moving car - grabbing a knob and finding the right volume level is immediate and doable. By the way, schiit hel: https://www.schiit.com/products/hel https://www.schiit.com/products/hel

pmalynin 6y ago
Schiit audio is quite good, I have had the Magni 2 and Modi 2 for about 4 years now and they work really well. And they're small enough that I can throw in my backpack when I go somewhere for longer (>2 months) period of time.
aareet 6y ago
Maglite flashlights behave as you describe - you turn the head to turn on/off and change intensity or pattern https://www.amazon.com/s?k=maglite https://www.amazon.com/s?k=maglite
- Poacher5 6y ago
  Unless something's changed since I bought my big maglite, the outer ring only controls the beam pattern, and the button just gives you on and off. Things might have got fancier in the meanwhile, but mine still does what it needs to.
  - Nition 6y ago
    Modern ones work as you describe, but you can also press the button multiple times quickly when first turning it on to control the brightness. One press for bright, "double-click" for average, "triple-click" for dim.
ranger207 6y ago

jayd16 6y ago

Probably because you actually don't want your gamepad to turn off as you fumble a combo or your headphones to turn off as you operate buttons you can't see. In other cases its usually to double dip on input components.

skohan 6y ago
I don't want a button, I want a physical switch with two positions in a place where I am not likely to switch it accidentally. And when I switch it, it should turn on or off fast enough close to instantly: this should not be a high-cost operation which requires a UX mitigation. If I toggle a light switch accidentally, I'm not concerned about it, because it's so easy and fast to correct my mistake.

rob74 6y ago

That's one of the reasons why I love my good old Bose QC 15 headphones: they have a physical switch that turns off the noise cancelling and also acts as a reliable no-delay audio kill switch. Some people would complain that you can't turn off the NC and keep listening to music, but I think the switch is actually more useful this way...