Sitting in my office working on one of the few sunny Saturdays we’ve had so far, I can’t help but get a little distracted. Here’s a quick design critique of my office’s climate control system, so I can feel productive in my procrastination.

The main thing I want to bring attention to is the “Too Warm” and “Too Cool” buttons. Someone at Mistubishi Electric was getting a little too clever here. Buttons should almost always be labelled with what they do. A simple “warmer” or “cooler” probably would have made more sense.

Interface design is about reducing the friction in the interaction as much as possible.

Tags: Design