1 minute 30 seconds or 90 seconds?

[vakkotaur]

I've noticed that many microwave instructions now call for a heating time of 1 minute 30 seconds. I think this is fairly recent thing (last few years) as I recall seeing instructions calling for a 90 second time. It's not any big deal, but it is a curious shift. Is 90 seconds now somehow nonstandard? Is it like an improper fraction, being over a full minute but all in seconds? Or is it that a new generation of instruction writers or rather those who approve them, has decided that "1:30" makes more sense with numeric keypads than "90" which is one less keypress? They mean the same thing. All the microwave ovens I've encountered deal with 90 seconds just fine, so not only do they mean the same thing but they have the same effect. It's hardly as if 1:30 would have been a problem setting the timer on the older twist-knob timers of earlier microwaves. Or is there now an assumption that people have trouble with 90 seconds instead of 1 minute 30 seconds?

Comments

[wendyzski.livejournal.com]

my microwave sets time by pressing buttons to advance in multiples of 10 sec, 1 min and 5 minutes

so you CAN'T set it for 90 seconds but only for 1 min 30 sec

[nefaria.livejournal.com]

Yep, mine is the same way. I have a Minute button and a 10 Seconds button, no 0-9 digits. I guess the popcorn manufacturers are worried that someone will sue them if they can't do the division properly and end up nuking the popcorn for 9 minutes and setting their house on fire.

[vakkotaur.livejournal.com]

Ah, so it's a result of bad user interface design. I think I know why the interface was made that way: fewer buttons. Or more buttons to dedicate to preset things. I really hope that that is not the future of microwave user interface design. It shouldn't concern me for many years, but that sort of entry would be something I'd consider a design flaw, even if it did make the gadget a couple bucks cheaper.

[altivo.livejournal.com]

It's a fact that some people have trouble with the idea of 90 seconds. I've been asked repeatedly if that was what I really meant, whether giving microwave instructions or something else.