Opinion
Kitchen appliances with touch controls drive me crazy
by Simon Balissat
Turning the world upside down: a book you'll be nodding along to
24/4/2026
Translation: machine translated
In "The changing of the world", author Gabriel Yoran describes the everyday annoyance of products that never used to be a nuisance. The state of things used to be better - and it's good to question the reasons why.
It all starts with a hob and a post. It was February 2022 when Gabriel Yoran shared a picture of his new induction hob on Twitter (back then). The operating steps of his cooker are something between a postcode, house number and Egyptian hieroglyphics. It wouldn't need any text. But since this is the internet, he types in a classic.
Nobody:
Nobody really:
AEG engineers: 0 1 3 5 8 10 14 A
Yoran no longer understands the product world, but the network world understands him. His post is just as popular as this article by my colleague Simon Balissat, which appeared a few months earlier.
Many people are annoyed by the fact that simple things are suddenly being made complicated - and that this is being sold to us as progress. You've probably stood in front of the modern version of a device that used to be self-explanatory, cursing more than once. And wondered why this is no longer the case today.
Progress and regression at the same time
Simon interviews a design professor who is of the opinion that touchscreens don't belong in cars or kitchens, but end up there because they cost little and look modern. And Gabriel Yoran sets about researching a book to get to the bottom of the state of everyday life. Four years later, more and more cars and kitchen appliances have touchscreens - and I'm holding his collected thoughts in my hand.
The author, entrepreneur and consultant doesn't moan about how everything was supposedly better in the past. He recognises the progress that has undoubtedly been made. And questions why we struggle with many developments. «You can observe a strange simultaneity of progress and regression in such appliances», writes Yoran in reference to his kitchen problem.
Former standard, today extra
His induction hob is better, safer and more efficient than it used to be when it comes to cooking. It's just that using it is maddening. It's the same with the washing machine, which is economical and good - but constantly beeps melodies and has countless additional functions. Or the car, which drives efficiently and safely, but accepts commands with awkward swiping gestures. I can hardly stop nodding as I read this.
The things of everyday life matter, because good things do good things to us - and bad things do bad things to us.
What is good or bad cannot be neatly separated. Our world of goods and advertising has become far too confusing for that. In the author's opinion, it also provides too few incentives to produce the best possible product. It is often enough to create the appearance of innovation. Or to sell the obvious as an extra all at once.
Yoran falls into this trap in his battle with a shower hose that is attached to a brand new tap from a well-known manufacturer, forcing him to constantly make new contortions. No wonder, after all, the model is not «twist free», i.e. equipped with swivels. What used to be normal is now a feature for which you naturally pay extra.
All the nice things that used to be taken for granted are now wonderful selling points for the packaging and advertising text of «Premium» products. And all the omitted details are not so noticeable when the sales channel is online.
There, things have to look good first and foremost - and be well priced.
A cycle of carding
Yoran explains that you can't put much stock in online reviews in Star Wars, not only with ubiquitous fake reviews. But also with customers who have known and liked their new robot hoover for ten days, but have no market comparison. «The impression of someone who has already used other robot hoovers would certainly be more meaningful than that of a beginner», he writes. Someone like my colleague Lorenz Keller, who has the test models piled up in his home with a shocked look on his face.
The cycle of carding not only causes us to lose track of what's on sale. It also forces us to invest in its continuation. At least that's what Yoran argues when he brings the stock market into play, which promises us returns. «The price I have to pay for this is - as is usually the case with cheap things - high: I benefit from increases in the value of companies by motivating them to sell me worse or more expensive products», he writes. In the end, this is a zero-sum game, the return is usually so small that it is only enough for the simple products.
The compounding context is a stinking, rumbling perpetuum mobile: private investors invest in their own detriment - but all alternatives are worse.
The fact that truly long-term thinking is no longer a topic with ever shorter product cycles is also shown by his enquiry to Stiftung Warentest, which has set ten years as the minimum requirement for the «longevity of washing machines». Officially, this is because the test procedures would otherwise take too long (and the products might no longer be up to date). However, Yoran also speculates about how much influence the industry has on the foundation, whose representatives sit on committees, boards of trustees and advisory boards. Why is a device that «only» breaks down after ten years «very good» - and not «inadequate»?
And why do we all have plenty of stories of products that break down far too early, but often after the end of the warranty period? My television was one such case. It broke down quickly, the manufacturer's repair offer was expensive and nobody at the repair cafe could help. Diagnosis: too modern to repair. And I don't want to tell you about my kettle worries here again.
New products, new desires
According to Yoran, «planned obsolescence», i.e. the planned demise, is accompanied by another effect: «psychological obsolescence». Because new products awaken new desires. If the next generation of smartphones has a sharper display and a better camera, the old device becomes uninteresting.
The right to waste arises from an economic system whose floor is as hard as steel, but whose upper limit is not even the sky, but Mars.
The author, long-suffering from customer services and queues, continues to entertainingly argue his way through our modern world, in which the companies behind them are barely tangible - while their products, as long as they work, constantly want something from us. An update here, a tweak there, an error message on top. Beep, beep, beep.
Toys for adults
There's always something to do. If you work hard, sacrifice yourself and pay a lot of money, you can, for example, start your «coffee playlist» from the sofa with the fully automatic EQ900 - provided someone puts a cup under the spout.
«We are dealing with toys for adults, for men», writes Yoran. Like a Loriot character, the EQ900 tries to maintain a façade of seriousness and cosmopolitanism, but ends up looking ridiculous because it has to deny its playfulness with such seriousness. «The already frustrating experience of service staff fighting with mobiles in the café is extended into the upscale home.»
If you want to know more about the travails of the modern coffee klutz, just read the most helpful reviews of it. They are half novels. Complaints about the non-configurable cup lighting included. If you want to know more about Gabriel Yoran's inventory of our world of goods, I highly recommend his book.
It's easy to make fun of everyday madness. And difficult to pack the big picture behind it into a small book that is worth reading. Yoran succeeds because he never loses his sense of humour and brings in different perspectives. As a philosopher and entrepreneur, customer and consumer. The state of everyday life may have been better before - but it has never been better or more entertainingly summarised.
Michael Restin
Senior Editor
Michael.Restin@digitecgalaxus.chSimple writer and dad of two who likes to be on the move, wading through everyday family life. Juggling several balls, I'll occasionally drop one. It could be a ball, or a remark. Or both.
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