Bad Design

Sound System Control Panel


After carefully observing this product, i noticed that a lot of people had troubles with using the control panel. Many people could not find it simply because there aren't any indications as to where it might be. This is a high end sound system control base so all its functions such as volume settings, surround sounds, sound depth settings, etc. are all in this one area. It is meant to look very sleek and organized so very little is shown on the interface which prevents clutter and other things that do not need to be shown to be there. While it may look very good when the user looks at it, this piece of electronic is more than confusing when the user tries to operate it.
Many users were having troubles with how to access the control panel rather than where it is. Although the panel is hidden, there is a recessed area around the panel cover to show that there is something behind there. The main problem was that people did not know how to open that panel.


The control panel contains a lot of needed controls to get the best out of the sound system so opening it is very important. The user needed to push against the bottom of the panel cover to activate a spring that opens it gently but there aren't any indications that the user was meant to do that. Users were trying to pry it open with their finger nails or thinking they were meant to push against the whole panel for it to open.

Solution:

The company probably wanted to keep the nice flat surface of the front which is why they didn't incorporate any curves into the panel to help the user indicate how to open the panel but there are other small and simple solutions that a lot of other designers use already.
By putting a small groove on the area of the panel where the user is meant to push down on is more than enough help to the user. The groove is a universal indication that tells you to push down on something.
Other similar solutions would be to put a slightly raised arrow on the lower part of the panel indicating that they user needs to push on the lower area of the panel. A small "push" word put on the panel would also do the trick.
Another solution would be to put a release button next to the panel so that when the user pushes it, the panel would open automatically. Although this is a valid solution, the company may not want too many useless buttons on the face of the system.
Since there seems to be a theme that everything on the system is black, all of the above solutions can be in black but still be seen because they're either recessed or raised a little so the user can tell that there is something there.