Aaron Cohen has been running Jason Kottke's blog while he's on vacation. Cohen also owns an ice cream shop. Here he presents us with an example of confusing design. The image is of a freezer knob. If you wanted to make the freezer colder, would you turn the knob clockwise or counterclockwise? The arrow is pointing to the right (clockwise). Does that mean that you should turn the knob in this direction to make the freezer colder, or does it mean that these smaller numbers on the right are where you should set the knob for a colder temperature? In other words, which is colder, a setting of 1 or a setting of 6? I have the same knob on my refrigerator, and since both ideas occurred to me, I just left it sitting where it's always been.
It's like when someone asks you to turn the air conditioning up. Do they mean to make the A/C work harder to make the room cooler, or do they mean turn the thermostat up, which would be warmer? In that case, you can just ask them what they mean. Let us know your opinion in the poll, and maybe some HVAC pro will set us straight in the comments.
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Unless the arrow indicates that smaller numbers mean colder settings.
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Perhaps turning the knob clockwise would make the freezer colder since that's what the label on the knob indicates.
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At least there's an arrow! Some older models don't have that. In the freezer world, the higher the number the colder it gets.
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