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I gave a talk at Sun Labs where I encountered a special light switch in one of their conference rooms. At first I thought it was some kind of silly “engineer” joke. But the light switch functions as stated for real. Does it win the award for the most confusing light switch? I bet there are other ones out there that are equally complex to use.
32 Responses to “How Many Engineers Does it Take to Turn on a Light Bulb?”
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I used to work in place that had a switch like that in a meeting room I used about once a month. Sadly it didn’t have the instructions printed on it - not that you could read them when there’s no light anyway. It used to take me several minutes of trial and error to figure out how to get it to brighten the lights each time I used it.
A friend of mine has these installed in his apartment. I thought they were a pretty nice way to adjust the lighting, but they certainly aren’t as simple as the knobs of yesteryear. Perhaps they should simplify them to be more like the iPod click wheel . . .
it looks like that it supports the legacy on/off switch behaviour? i.e. if you know how to you a normal light switch, this works the same way.
I guess the problem is ubiquity - if these were everywhere no-one would give the behaviours a second thought (?)
ummmmmmmmmm………….. pretty cool uh yakinh=g this many enginners to turn on a light bulb. uhhhh but it was pretty gay about this idea like it was lame bro. so get better next time
ok bro it ws goooddd
ummmmmmm thatn awas lame
These switches have actually been around for a while, maybe they were introduced 10 years ago I’m not sure. When I first encountered them I would spend some time learning their behavior, which wasn’t too hard to figure out and is part of the simplicity of the design. Its funny that the guys at Sun either made a label for it or decided to stick the manufactures one on it though.
One final note is that the ones I first saw looked and behaved pretty much the same, its just they didn’t have that small preset button on them.
What is everybody talking about? I understood this completely! The preset idea is pretty neat, by the way.
~Joel
I actually know the guy who designed and has the patent on this switch.. well, I know his son. I first saw it installed in his home. Anyway, it’s pretty cool. But you’re right. Until you know how it works, it’s not that intuitive to use.
That’s actually pretty cool, and cooler because they made it work like a regular light switch if you use it like one.
My take on this:
* Get rid of the little square button on the side: it’s really confusing.
* Make the light switch in such a way that the top and bottom halves can be pressed independently (this is mechanically easy).
* Tap up for full on, down for full off.
* Hold down up to fade brighter, down to fade dimmer.
* Tap both up and down simultaneously to go to preset.
* Hold down both up and down simultaneously for at least one second to set the preset.
The preset thus behaves much like a car radio button. As an earlier commenter noted, folks who don’t want the special features don’t notice them. The switch is probably cheaper to build. It seems to me way more intuitive.
Functionality is good. Functionality plus usability is better.
What’s wrong with the good old-fashioned dimmer switch? Does all functions except the preset and much easier to figure out.
It’s not a bug… it’s a feature?
How many programmers does it take to change a lightbulb?
none, it’s a hardware issue.
We had a couple of these switches installed in my childhood home when it got renovated in the mid-90s. I was still a kid and found it very easy to learn how to use them, and I really like the features. I agree with PO8, usability IS good. Besides, how many people here have ever made fun of Mac users for their inability to cope with a two-button mouse?!
I agree with Mike K on this one. Good old-fashioned dimmer switches are far more intuitive than this thing. And they *do* actually provide the preset function (at least the kind of switch I remember as a kid): Just turn the button to the brightness you want, then push it to switch off. Push it again and the previous brightness level is restored. Easy to see how functionality this intuitive is easily forgotten!
IMHO, this is a clear case of featuritis (I mean, who needs a fast fade off and a slow fade off feature?!)
Sure, it’s possible to figure it out (for those who are into that kind of thing), but something is definitely wrong if even your lightswitches have a learning curve.
I wonder what kind of switches they have over at Cupertino?!
Traditional dimmer switches are expensive because of the rheostat on the knob, although that could probably be replaced with an optical interrupter in a more modern design. They also have no “instant full on” setting, which can be annoying.
A dimmer knob next to an off-dim-on three-position switch would be reasonably intuitive, but still a bit complex and expensive.
>I wonder what kind of switches they have over at Cupertino?!
Well, duh. SINGLE BUTTTON switches of course.
I actually have a house full of these great switches and I’ve been looking for these instructions - thanks!
This looks like an X10 switch I used to have in my apartment. Which would mean that there was originally another sticker on the other panel with the instructions for how to set its channel.
I must disagree with all the criticism of these switches. If you tap a normal “Decora” switch’s up side, the light goes on. Tap the down side, and the light goes off. Simple, right?
That’s exactly what these switches do, too. Tap up, on. Tap down, off. I installed switches like these in our house and they all pass the wife & daughter test.
Sure, there’s additional features, such as holding up for down for brightening and dimming. And that tap-up may go on to a preset level that you program (for rooms with fixtures that cast too much light, for example).
But otherwise the conceptual model is still the same: tap up, on; tap down, off.
This switch isn’t that complicated, and the functionality would certainly be nice to have in certain business/presentation situations. Though, as stated in another comment, a good old-fashioned dimmer switch would probably suffice.
I bet most of the people who would be overwhelmed by these instructions are also the ones who also never bothered reading through the instructions to set their VCR/DVD player clock.
I bet most of the people who would be overwhelmed by these instructions are also the ones who also never bothered reading through the instructions to set their VCR/DVD player clock.
But why would you bother? It’s a waste of time. There are already clocks on every damn thing. I don’t look at the VCR when I want to know the time.
It’s not a matter of being overwhelmed. It’s a matter of being smart enough to be lazy, rather than being a slave to idiocy.
I bet most of the people who would be overwhelmed by these instructions are also the ones who also never bothered reading through the instructions to set their VCR/DVD player clock.
But why would you bother? It’s a waste of time. There are already clocks on every damn thing. I don’t look at the VCR when I want to know the time.
It’s not a matter of being overwhelmed. It’s a matter of being smart enough to be lazy, rather than being a slave to idiocy.
I wonder how you read the instructions when the light is off and you are in the dark?
What’s wrong with these switches? They’re simple and intuitive to use when you don’t need their advanced features, and the advanced functions are easy to access. Anyone walking into the room for the first time will easily turn on the lights.
As for the question on fast/slow fade — I can see where the slow fade is useful when you’re leaving a room and want to keep the lights on while doing so. Although that would mean the lightswitch is too far from the door
The fast-fade is usable in media rooms where you need to switch off lights for your projector and such.
I guess if its only so big in order to provide room for the sticker with the manual …
The problem with the switch is the explanation. The interface is really easy to understand when you use it - it’s the language that sucks.
*And* they degrade gracefully, if you have no expectation that they’re smart. Tapping is simple on off.
> But why would you bother? It’s a waste of time. There are already clocks
> on every damn thing. I don’t look at the VCR when I want to know the time.
No, but your VCR needs to know the time if you want to record things at a certain time. You know, the whole “R” part in “VCR”.
They installed one of these goofy light switches in our new remodeled office conference room. It lasted about 10 days before the CEO walked in literally bashed the crap out of it one Saturday (still installed and powered on!) with 2 swings of a sledge hammer. He now keeps the hammer in his office in a case on the wall with the caption “Break Glass in case of Braindead Designs” on it.
I’d love to have these switches, actually. We’re remodeling and need 3-way dimmers (so knobs and sliders don’t work for us). This sort of gracefully-degrading electronic dimmer switch is just what I’m looking for. Anybody know the name brand?