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GE Stacked Washer Dryer Combo

By Allison Lee, 05/17/2022

In fall of 2020, not even 3 months of living in my new apartment, the washer dryer unit broke and flooded the apartment. And as terrible as this sounds with the inconvenience of having to take out the wet, soapy laundry from the wash and find a laundromat that was open at 8pm, I could not be more thrilled. A broken machine meant it was going to be replaced with a much newer and reliable model.

The new washer dryer unit exceeded my expectations, and strangely, I no longer dreaded the idea of doing laundry. For me, older washing machines felt complicated and the array of numbers, settings, and dials overwhelmed me. Their learnability (the ease in which a product can be picked up and understood by users the first time they encounter the interface) was difficult to master, to the point where I stuck with the one setting I was familiar with.

GE Stacked Washer Dryer Figure 1: The Washer Dryer Unit

But the new GE Stacked Washer Dryer Combo that replaced the old washing machine was quick to learn. The dials are placed in order from left to right of the typical laundry cycle, wash then dry. This follows a natural mapping, in which the order of controls matches that to the outcome in the real world. Starting with the washer cycles dial, it is made clear to the user that there are four quandrants: colors, whites, extraneous items, and other functions. The dial has a sloped section with a line down the center to be an indicator of which function the user is going to select. The dial will click and snap into place, lining up with the white circle for the function to let the user know which function they have selected. This is considered feedback, which communicates the results of any interaction. The other two dials indicate temperature and load size, and these dials also provide the same feedback as to which function the user is selecting. The ease in which the user is able to learn this washing system also factors in with the efficiency of the washing machine, in that users do not have to spend much time thinking about which actions they need to take. If they know that they plan to wash a medium load of colored clothes, the user can easily read the dials of which functions they need.

Washer Dials Figure 2: The Washer Dials

Additionally, the washing machine also provides a display of the system status depending on which stage of the wash cycle it is currently in. When the washing machine is on, it will display a certain light under the status column for the corresponding stage. If the lid is locked, the light will shine red next to the “Lid Locked”, and this means the washing machine is taking a safety precaution to prevent users from hurting themselves. For example, if the barrel of the washing machine is spinning at fast speeds, the lid will lock automatically. The washing machine also provides error tolerance; the way in which a product will allow users to correct their mistakes. For example, if the person doing laundry notices they missed a piece of clothing and the wash cycle has already started, they can either open the lid (as long as the lid is not locked) and throw the article of clothing inside, or if the lid is locked, the user can spress the start/pause button to pause the machine and add their clothing.

Dryer Dials Figure 3: The Dryer Dials

In terms of the dryer, the dial is less learnable. Separated into four quadrants again, users have a choice between selecting cottons, delicates, having a timed dry, or easy care. The separation of the type of fabics versus having just a timed dry seems appealing at first glance, but many clothing items in ones laundry can call for different temperatures or settings, like tumble dry low. The distinguishing factors between delicates and easy care are not clear, as many would use these terms interchangeably. Users may wonder the differences between the two and struggle with deciding which function they need if they are in a hurry to do their laundry. The error tolerance here is also lacking. Sure, users can pull out their laundry at any point of the dryer cycle, but had they forgotten to take out their knitted sweater, it may already have shrunk by the time they remember to pull it out. Reversing shrunked clothing is no easy feat.

But at the end of the day, the user’s clothes are washed and dried, thus the washer dryer unit will always provide utility as clean clothes are typically what users want.