Analysing the Product 2: Feedback, Visibility & Mappings

Monitor Buttons

Feedback

When a button is pressed there is no feedback to inform the user that the device has received their command. For example, a small section of the display representing the recent energy consumption changes between the previous 1, 7 or 30 days when said button is pressed, see image 10. Someone above 60 with poor eye sight might not notice this happen (I will be doing some empathic research over the coming weeks so will test this out for myself).

Image 10

If the buttons survive my product re-design I may chose to add feedback to their operation. A bleep, vibrate and, possibly, visual feedback such as the part of the display that is changing (due to a button press) flashing for several seconds. This would cover all bases assuming that some users could have poor eye sight whilst others could have poor hearing or a dexterity condition or (hopefully not) a combination of these problems.  

Visibility & Mappings

The physical buttons themselves are also not particularly well designed for the elderly. The three small buttons are positioned close together and are labelled with an upward arrow, downward arrow and 'OK' (Image 11). The designer could argue that he has used natural mappings as the upward arrow increases the hours or minutes when changing time or the tariff when adjusting the electricity cost. The OK button increases the number of days on the recent energy consumption display, I wouldn't say that is very intuitive.  

Image 11

The actual purpose or intention of a button press is not particularly visible, you have to try pressing them to find out what they do. 

To be fair to the designer the device isn't aimed at the ageing population and the instructions are OK (although not great!). But this doesn't mean a younger demographic should have to get used to the device using trial and error.