The item chose was an Oster toaster oven. It is one of my roommates and I really struggled with figuring out how to properly use it. I found it very complex and hard to understand. In an attempt to do my own usability study, I asked one of my other roommates and his girlfriend to try it out as well. Both of them did not know how to use it either, and faced the similar challenges I faced.
The challenges we had were being confused about what to cook various things at and for how long. They admitted that both of them struggled at this because of how many options were available. This was a nonparametric test because I tried to see if there was a difference between men and women for success in the particular task of figuring out this toaster oven. Three of us did not have much experience with kitchen appliances, which might help explain our complications over this oven, but we are still users.
A clear understanding of how to use this toaster oven is important, because fires can happen if the temperature is set at to high for to long on the wrong piece of food. Good usability is also important because if something is to complex, people will not understand it and want nothing to do with it. I attempted to use this oven several times because it is the only toaster we have available in our kitchen. After several attempts, the owner of the oven showed us what he recommends for cooking items like toast and bagels.
The toaster had only three knobs, but within those knobs was to many settings making it very confusing. Most toaster ovens only have a timer and temperature. The toaster oven does not have any signs of what to cook stuff at making it hard to understand what the cooking temperature should be for something like toast or a potato. Most microwaves do a very good job at posting recommended cooking temperatures and times on the side to give people an idea on what to expect. Without having any idea on how much time to allow for something to cook, the possibility of fires exists and we have to carefully watch our food. Many other appliances allow to flexibility of walking away because you have an idea of how long it will take to cook the food.
According to Measuring the User Experience, it does not have good usability because a person on average cannot figure this item out due to its complexity, particularly for being what should be a simple toaster oven. In the book, it states on page four that, “Usability really just means making sure that something works well: that a person of average ability can use the thing.” The oven does not work well if you do not know what to cook something at. If three college students cannot figure an item like this out, the chances are slim that an average day person is going to figure it out as well.
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