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On washing machines, users and designers

We upgraded our washing machine. After nearly a decade and a half or thereabouts. For good measure, we purchased the same brand and roughly the same capacity - since, well, we were used to the machine and as change averse as we are when it comes to washing clothes, we decided to stick to the brand. But little did we realise that the world has changed. From simple washing machines to fuzzy washing machines - nowadays they also use AI and IoT - to wash clothes. I think by the time the next generation of machines hit the market, we will have to offer it crypto coins, biometric scanners and use blockchain to identify the clothes and modes. 

Jokes apart, after using it for a few days, I am fairly convinced, washing machine designers do not use the washing machines they designed. 

The washing machine does not allow me to put wet clothes into it. Why do I put wet clothes, you ask? (Because I am a user and I have my quirks). But rational explanation - Some times clothes need to be scrubbed before it goes into the machine - especially children's clothes that are dirty. But the moment we do that, the machine decides to throw the soap water away. [This did not exist in the earlier machine - but somewhere along the way an intelligent designer added this feature] Many Indian users scrub their soiled clothes because the washing machine never washes them properly (but like I said, no washing machine designer uses their own washing machines). 

Then, after discarding the water, the machine does an elaborate calibration exercise of checking the weight. I don't know what it accomplishes with this - yes of course, it needs to figure out via artificial intelligence how much water is needed - but I just prefer the normal/usual mode (more on this later). And no, I can't override that. 

The human hack I have figured is after the washing machine weighs my clothes and starts to function, I pause it and dump the clothes and the soap water into it thoroughly confusing it. And it reluctantly accepts its fate and continues. AI - 0, Human - 1

My older washing machine had 6 modes. This one has 8. But I have used exactly 1 mode over 15 years. One. That really is all I need. The water saver, normal washing mode that washes once, rinses once and dries once. Everything else is features I don't need. But somebody had to create useless features and since the designers and bosses never use washing machines, they did not realise it is useless. This one has jeans, wool, gentle, thunderstorm, extra terrestrial modes. 

The newer washing machine has an app (yes, a mobile app) that talks to the wifi (yes, wifi) to convey to us in case something is wrong in the machine - . Who thinks this is a feature? Why will I, starved for entertainment, watch my washing machine wash using wifi? And then use an app to troubleshoot it? Any user will first call the service center "My washing machine is not working". If anything this required a simple SMS to the service platform. But no, the bosses have to be impressed.  Instead of communicating to the user who is in the same house, it will use wifi to talk to the user who has to have installed the app in the first place. 

And then the lint filter - which was functioning perfectly till the point we thought who needs a lint filter? But no, they had to take what is working perfectly and replace it with a glowing plastic filter that somehow, magically creates more lint and adds to our clothes like an additional layer. Free lint available!

And for some reason, they have changed all the notification sounds, the pause button functionality and confused the hell out of us. And yet, after all this, the clothes were washed better in the older model. 

Now, I am not being a Luddite here, but I wish washing machine designers spent more time with users and their challenges before adding useless features and making it more difficult (as opposed to more useful). 

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