Hi Tim:
The problem is NOT the cell phone manual and its warnings, but the microwave oven. I've just bought "Design of Everyday Things" by Donald A. Norman. Norman talks about how the product design leads to use difficulties and affords misuse. Your father-in-law needed to dry out the phone. Heating something is a method of drying it out. Any oven would afford a means to heat up the phone and dry it out. The microwave oven affords a means to heat something up -- quickly. Ipso facto, you father-in-law popped the phone into the microwave to dry it out. Norman would likely point out that your father-in-law did not distinguish that microwave heating is fundamentally different than convection heating. Typical microwave oven instructions only hint at this difference -- because it rarely makes any difference -- except speed -- when heating foods. Norman would likely point out that a warning in the phone instruction manual is not likely to prevent putting the phone in the microwave. Our brains tend to be cluttered with such data, and the data gets filed somewhere that is difficult if not impossible to recall, especially warnings that are obscure and useless at the time you read the warning. So, the fault lies with the microwave oven, not with lack of warnings in the phone manual. The fact that we call it a "microwave" oven should tell us that it is fundamentally different than an ordinary oven. If we don't actually use the oven, but watch someone else use it, we may very well lose the distinction that the oven uses microwaves for heating. Best regards, Rich Richard Nute Product Safety Consultant San Diego - This message is from the IEEE Product Safety Engineering Society emc-pstc discussion list. Website: http://www.ieee-pses.org/ To post a message to the list, send your e-mail to [email protected] Instructions: http://listserv.ieee.org/request/user-guide.html List rules: http://www.ieee-pses.org/listrules.html For help, send mail to the list administrators: Scott Douglas [email protected] Mike Cantwell [email protected] For policy questions, send mail to: Jim Bacher: [email protected] David Heald: [email protected] All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at: http://www.ieeecommunities.org/emc-pstc ______________________________________________________________________ This email has been scanned by the MessageLabs Email Security System. For more information please visit http://www.messagelabs.com/email ______________________________________________________________________
