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One Setting

1 min readWritten by a human, edited by AI
Product DesignProductProduct Development

I had a thought this morning about the pointlessness of all the settings on my washing machine.

It has:

  • a day or night mode (I have no idea what that is)
  • an option to start washing immediately or delay the start (who uses that?)
  • 4 spin speeds
  • 5 temperature settings
  • 10 modes

By my maths (please correct me if I'm wrong), that's 800 different combinations of settings the washing machine can operate in.

And when I put clothes in the machine, I add the powder and the softener and then put it on exactly the same setting on exactly the same temperature on exactly the speed I always do.

Maybe I'm being short-sighted. Maybe more features = more sales in the world of washing machines. But, for me, more features does not mean a better product. The product should focus on doing a few things really, really well and solve the issue the user has.

I don't really want a washing machine; what I want is clean clothes. For that, all I need is one setting.

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