Analysing the Product 1: Setting up the Product

Setting the Equipment Up 

I first attempted to use the product straight out of the box without looking at the instructions which according to Apple and Donald Norman et al. demonstrates good design! Moreover the demographic that the product will be re-designed for may not be able to read the instructions due to deteriorating sight, or worse loss of sight.

Turning the display on was easy enough - just a case of plugging the mains charger to the mains and the other end into the device!

Image 2

This left several parts remaining (image 3), a lead to connect the display device to a computer, a transmitter, a lead with a clamp connector attached to one end, and a selection of coloured trims for the display panel. My first assumption was that the clamp connector can be positioned around a wire measuring the current to a product and then transmitting this information to the control display. I tried this using my laptop to no success.  

Image 3 

Using the instructions, I set the rest of the equipment up. The instructions are quite clear and succinct and it was easy to set the equipment up. The clamp was in fact for connecting around a wire to measure energy  consumption, as I expected, but this only works using one of the many wires that run from the existing energy monitor. I had difficulty in finding the correct wire to connect the clamp to (I am still not sure it is the correct wire as the power consumption seems very low) and once I had there wasn't enough room to correctly fix the clamp around the wire as there wasn't quite enough slack in the cable. So the first problem that I've come across is the design of the clamp.  

Image 4

When I plugged an additional electric device into the mains an icon appeared displaying 'Up!' (Image 5) and informed me that the monthly energy cost would increase by 71p (the reading itself is not correct due to above said problem). The feature is a good idea as you can get a feel for how much different appliances affect an energy bill. However, the information is only displayed for about 30 seconds and there is no way of storing the information or keeping it on the screen for longer. If you wanted to know how much each household appliance would affect the energy cost you would have to try them out and write down the results - not so easy for someone with poor eye sight or arthritis for example.

Image 5