My profession isn't product design, but I have been writing software for a couple decades and have spent countless hours thinking about usability. For this reason, it really grates on my nerves when confronted with poorly designed espresso equipment. This morning was one of those times.

It began at our usual Friday get-together at Counter Culture Coffee's espresso lab. I had arrived extra early to do some tests comparing the Baratza Vario and the Mazzer Robur (if interested in more details, see Baratza Vario Grinder - First Look). In my opinion, the Vario represents one extreme of the product design spectrum: Intuitive interface, good looks, and generally practical features. The front panel's button mania and perpetual bright blue LED costs it subtlety points, but hey, nobody will question the assertion that Baratza did their homework. In sharp contrast, the La Marzocco GS/3, which benefited from years of prototype feedback, entered the market with what I consider obvious oversights in good user interface design. I called them out in the conclusion to One week with the La Marzocco GS3:

HB wrote:I didn't share Chris' enthusiasm for the GS3's usability. Perhaps, as Greg mentioned earlier, it may take "some getting used to", though I've used plenty of espresso machines that seemed well adapted to how I like to work, not vice-verse. Subsequently I would dock its Convenience / Features score due to the ungainly layout of the steam arm / steam arm toggle / brew button array. I'm hopeful that a smart product ergonomics design engineer will revisit the prototype control panel layout too. Its bank of same-sized buttons offer poor visual clues and no tactical clues to their different purposes. I was almost ready to place a big piece of masking tape near the correct button (if you look closely at the extraction videos, you'll notice that I hesitate for an instant as I confirmed which button to press ). I have a nagging feeling that the focus on performance and reusing existing components trumped refinements one would have expected in a groundbreaking home espresso machine.


Photo courtesy of dublinbarista and Mark Prince (flickr)

But this thread isn't about the Vario or the GS/3, it's what we observed this morning on the technician's bench at Counter Culture.

Occasionally they receive evaluation models of commercial equipment, presumably that the manufacturer hopes they'll recommend to their client cafes. The technician solicits opinions from the staff and anyone else he can drag back to pull shots, even "home baristas" like us. Ken grabbed a couple pounds of coffee, some demitasses, tamper, knockbox, Super Jolly grinder, and beckoned us to follow him through the roastery to his work area. There he had a two-group espresso machine, the top removed, plumbed in, hot and ready to pull shots. I volunteered to play pro barista.

It's really a bad sign when the first usability mishap is failing to find the "pump on" button. Or I should say, I had no trouble finding what could be the pump on button. The machine sported a large array of buttons across the panel labeled with graphics depicting various sizes and quantities of demitasses. Small single, medium single, large single... small double, medium double, large double. There may have been another bank of small, medium, and large triple, I'm not certain, because what I really wanted was a simple "pump on" button. As I recall, the 10th button, mysteriously labeled "P" with a squiggly line, was the winner.

There were other buttons, which of course begged for further investigation. The button on the right side of the machine activated the water tap. It was well labeled (good) but located on the opposite side of the machine (bad). I can imagine this arrangement being a great source of pranks ("Hey new guy, would you steam this up for me (heh, heh)?", followed by screams when the oldtimers release a torrent of hot water within millimeters of the new guy's hands as he purges the steam wand - great fun! ). The left steam wand was also curiously placed; rotating it towards the driptray to purge condensation was blocked by the water tap. I suspect the right steam wand will quickly become the side of choice.

There were other features that went from practical to silly. The green energy folks will love how it "learns" your cafe's hours and starts/stops the steam boiler automatically. Setting the brew temperature was easy enough, though I shudder to think what icky gunk will encrust the cracks between the multi-directional command switch after a few short weeks in a busy cafe. The switches would be at home on your DVD player, not food prep equipment. Or how about humidity readouts? One of my buddies helpfully suggested it could foretell a required grind adjustment. Maybe, but I wonder if a barista who needs a digital readout to remind him it's getting steamy will know which way to turn the grinder adjustment collar under said conditions.

Despite my quibbling about usability, overall this evaluation espresso machine wasn't a bad ride. I managed some good espressos and Dave praised the sweetness of his espresso, which is something I'm not accustomed to hearing from this morning crowd. If only I had had time to figure out the espresso machine's MP3 recording feature, I could have preserved his comment in a download for this thread. Damn buttons.


PS: For those new to HB, this post is a continuation of my semi-retired blog Overextracted.

Dan,

I feel your pain. I just spent a week rewriting some vastly over complicated software, a process I described to the project manager as re-knitting a sweater from the top down, going from an XXL to an M. But I digress.

I have encountered numerous engineers who have a god complex, for lack of a better word. They see the world a certain way, and anyone else's view is wrong. Then there are those of us who do think about end users and maintainability. You have to see things through the eyes of the user. Which requires, sometimes, checking your ego at the door.

I see the same thing a lot in cars. I travel a bit and have driven quite a few cars. There are those you sit down in and the controls are where they belong, intuitive. And then there are those where finding the headlights can be a challenge.

I can only guess as to why. LM is an old and established company, and perhaps they don't feel the pressure to improve, the management focuses on the hardware aspects, the bread and butter of the company, and the electronics is seen as peripheral. They are after all, arguably the big dog.

Baratza however is not the big dog. They are a big player, but they are not Mazzer. They are doing something new, and risky, and have the need to prove themselves, or the vario at least, to the world.

Hard to say, but bad design is particularly annoying as it's a constant reminder as long as you own the product.

For sheer unadultered awfulness in interface design, it would be hard to beat the La Spaziale S1. Below is an excerpt from the S1 cheat sheet, without which the unprepared user would never be able to change the temperature settings.

First you must change the temperature in 5C increments. (Why these increments run all the way up to 120C is anyone's guess.)

Changing the temperature in 5C increments (85, 90, 95, 100, ...):
1. Machine must be on.
2. Press and hold the ON/OFF button for three seconds. Current temperature light will blink.
3. Press and release the water tap button; the temperature will move to the next temperature (95, 100, 110, 115, 120, and then back to 85).
4. Press and release the ON/OFF button to exit programming.

Sure, use the hot water tap to change temperature. Why didn't I think of that?

Then you fine tune the 5C setting up or down in 1C increments:

Changing the temperature in 1C increments "fine tuning" (+1, +2, +3, 0, -1, -2, -3):
1. Note the current temperature in 5C increments (85, 90, 95, 100, 105, 110, or 120). The machine must be on.
2. Turn the machine off by pressing and releasing the ON/OFF button (ON/STBY light is blinking).
3. Press and hold the two-cup button for three seconds. Two amber lights will be solid. The number of
blinking lights to the left of the two amber lights indicates how many degrees are SUBTRACTED from the
temperature; the number of blinking lights to the right of the two amber lights indicates how many
degrees are ADDED to the temperature.
4. To subtract 1C, press the single cup button; to add 1C, press the BOILER button. If no lights are blinking (only the two amber lights in the center are on), nothing is added to the 5C increment temperature.
5. Press and release the two-cup button to save your changes and exit programming.
6. Press and hold the ON/OFF button for three seconds to turn the machine back on. If you had the boiler
off beforehand, remember to turn it off again by pressing and releasing the BOILER button.

Let's see: I have to turn the machine off, then press and hold the two cup button, then use the single cup and boiler buttons to fine tune the temperature setting, then press the two cup button when done, and then remember to turn it back on. No problem.

BTW, there is no digital display of temperature. A row of LEDs lights up to show the coarse temperature setting. You have to remember the fine setting (or go back into programming mode). Adjusting the coarse setting does not change the fine setting, so going from, say, 93C to 94C requires a maximum amount of completely unintuitive button pushing.

My vote for worst user interface in a home espresso machine (drum roll): the La Spaziale S1V1!

Most of the information re Spaziale was deprecated several years ago when the firmware was redesigned. The temperature granularity is 1 degree C, as is the control panel display. The 5-degree oddity is historical.

HB wrote:...
It began at our usual Friday get-together at Counter Culture Coffee's espresso lab...

Dan,
I must have somehow missed you. Yesterday was my first trip to Counter Culture. I was the guy sitting by the dry erase board who obviously knew nothing about cupping.
-Fred

Sorry Fred, the espresso lab starts around 7:30am and we're gone by 9am. The public cuppings begin at 10am.

If they ever need any extra guinea pigs, I'm a volunteer.

We're there most Fridays, somewhere between 7:30am and 8:15am; contact me offline if you want to be added to the mailing list. The 10am cuppings are open to the public. Just show up.

Richard wrote:Most of the information re Spaziale was deprecated several years ago when the firmware was redesigned. The temperature granularity is 1 degree C, as is the control panel display. The 5-degree oddity is historical.

A fact for which all S1V2 owners can be duly grateful.

I know a lot of very smart stupid people. You know the kind, they can work two page long formulas in their head in seconds but have no practical knowledge at all. They would calculate the force needed to drive a round peg into a square hole instead using a saw to simply cut it square, or look for the square peg. It is easy to make something complicated, there is something to be said for one button, or lever.

While not an espresso machine blooper, I did once have instructions for a folding table that were obviously translated into English from Chinese by a Russian. Instead of 'unfold the table leg' it read 'give table erection'. Wish I had kept that paper.