Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
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Replace "light" with "sausages" and this may work...

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Exp bar

On your microwave
  (+6)
(+6)
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I may just be exceptionally lazy or as I like to think of it exceedingly efficient, but I find myself not using more than two buttons on my microwave. If I throw in a veggie sausage, I don't bother with punching the 4, then moving my finger to the 0, then over to the start. No, I just hit 44 start. See the time and attention span savings? That's a whole (looking for 0 button) and a (re-aiming finger) saved. Is my sausage a bit overdone? If I ever know the correct number within 4 seconds I need to start eating fewer sausages and find something better to do with my life.

Of course I can never be the **absolute genius** that invented the "add 30 seconds" button (a feature I will surely have on my next device). Or the **underappreciated visionary** that created the timer dial (sadly a feature that is waning in popularity, perhaps due short mechanical life compared with buttons). But I hope this idea can save you all a (very) little time.

The Exp bar is simply a touch sensitive strip below your keypad for advanced and lazy users. It ranges from the trivial Exp(1) = 1 second to the perhaps excessive Exp(9) = 8103 seconds. For my veggie sausage I'd jab somewhere around 3.7 on the scale, the display reads 40.447s and it immediately starts cooking (no Start button, please).

Worldgineer, Oct 01 2020

[link]






       //Exp(9) = 8103 seconds// Useful for reheating brussels sprouts.
pocmloc, Oct 01 2020
  

       I've membrane switches, so timing tends to be :23, :45, 1:23, 2:34, 3:21, 3:45 ... poke and slide.
FlyingToaster, Oct 01 2020
  

       I'd suggest a formula of (15*2^x) seconds with x going from 0 to 5. This gives you six buttons, with timings of 15s, 30s, 60s, 2m, 4m, 8m
hippo, Oct 01 2020
  

       My rice-cooker regularly wants a 13 minute setting, so can we add a couple of extra buttons on there please?   

       I do like dials on things, be they microwaves, radio-tuners or volume knobs. I particularly like those free- wheeling dials that are velocity sensitive, so a fast twist to the right will jog the value more quickly than a gentle turn for more fine-tuned adjustment. Thinking about it, there is an alternate "spin-and-wait" paradigm I have on my mouse scroll wheel - where you press a button to disengage the "clicker" and then give it a flick to spin like a flywheel, and scroll all the way down the text of whatever License Agreement I'm currently ignoring. I quite like the physicality of spinning a weighted wheel, stepping back and letting the spin get you to where you want to be, setting-wise. On a microwave, replacing the regular dial with a big naval free-spinning valve-wheel (what are those things called?) might be a nice way to go.
zen_tom, Oct 01 2020
  

       Does it help that 13 is in the Fibonacci sequence?
pertinax, Oct 01 2020
  

       Could do - it depends on how much rice I'm cooking! I've been trying to get the perfect "omurice" and currently a cupful of rice for 13 minutes seems to be the sweet spot.   

       What I think we can all agree on is that whoever invented the recipe-specific buttons on a microwave should probably be taken out and gently reeducated. Imagine a hob where each ring/burner has 30 settings, one for fried eggs, another for boiling water, another for soup, another for asparagus and so on forever. A nightmare scenario.
zen_tom, Oct 01 2020
  

       // gently reeducated //   

       Take it from us, that doesn't work. You need to go with the random, violent beatings.
8th of 7, Oct 01 2020
  

       Time doesn't exist except in your mind. So wing it...a warm bun nonetheless.
blissmiss, Oct 03 2020
  

       But reality is still here, right ?
wjt, Oct 06 2020
  

       ......@......@......@
pertinax, Oct 07 2020
  

       Someone should really answer [wjt].   

       Yes, as far as we can tell reality is still here. Sorry for leaving you hanging for a few days on something so important.
Worldgineer, Oct 11 2020
  

       Maybe it wasn't for a few days
pocmloc, Oct 11 2020
  
      
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