Faucets need independently varying controls

Until I read Don Norman’s “The Psychology of Everyday Things,” I thought I was the only one frustrated by the everyday challenges of dealing with poorly designed objects, controls, and signage. When I read his book, which he says was inspired by “struggles with British water taps, light switches, and doors,” I started thinking maybe my frustration wasn’t a curse, but an opportunity. In the words of Rage Against the Machine’s Zack de la Rocha, maybe “anger is a gift” (and yes, I’m aware that my annoyance at a doorknob is not the same as Mr. de la Rocha’s anger).

Frustration can inspire innovation. Annoyed with the Blockbuster experience? Invent Netflix. Frustrated by the way you can never tell which switch controls which light? Invent a more intuitive light switch (like the one Don Norman introduces in the book mentioned above). Tired of having a Window pop up while you’re typing mid-sentence, so that half the sentence ends up in each Window? Develop software that recognizes when you’re mid-sentence and prevents this from happening (why hasn’t someone done that yet?).

Frustration can also help identify design flaws. For example, this is a terrible faucet:

Found it at a very nice hotel in Los Angeles, and it annoyed the crap out of me. It looks fine, but the only way to control it is by rotating that lever on the top. Water pressure and temperature are controlled by the same motion (yoked), so they can’t vary independently. Faucets should have independently varying controls, so that you can “dial in” the pressure and temperature you want, like the controls on an Etch A Sketch. Here’s a diagram of how faucet controls should work, where the gray area represents all the possible combinations of pressure and temperature that you should be able to achieve:

Here’s the same diagram plotting the possible pressure/temperature combinations for my flawed faucet:

The fix would’ve been to have the handle translate up and down for pressure control, and twist for temp. Or to sacrifice the sleek look by having two separate controls.

I’d probably be happier (and people would like me more) if I’d stop sweating the small stuff and go with the flow (sorry for the faucet pun). But for now I’ll keep telling myself it’s an under-appreciated advantage, because the desire to innovate sometimes comes from a dissatisfaction with what already exists. What inspires you to innovate?