Rethinking the Alarm Clock

24 June 2012

About a 2-minute read

I interact with my alarm clock every day. It wakes me up in the morning, and because I get up at different times each day depending on what I need to do, I end up setting the alarm time again almost every night. I have been thinking about device design and the user experience of an alarm clock, and I have some idea that may make it into a new prototype I’m building. The device I have in mind isn’t really cost-effective—It won’t compete with the bargain-basement plastic clocks pouring out of China—but I would like to explore some new design ideas.

Problems with Other Clocks

The clock I use every day is bare-bones. I like it, because it has multi-colored seven-segment displays. But the interface for setting and checking the time and alarm settings is the seemingly-standard four buttons: time and alarm buttons; and hour and minute buttons.

The interface is admirably simple, driven to extremes by the competition for lower prices. But it requires two hands to use, and to setting a time earlier than the one programmed in the clock is annoying. There is no way to go back; the user must go “around the horn” to choose a new time. Simply holding the buttons down doesn’t work, either: the clock counts forward so slowly that my finger cramps from holding the button for so long. So I end up pressing the buttons as quickly as I can, and if I miss the minute I need, it’s another fifty nine clicks to get back around. That’s annoying!

I also generally find myself frustrated with the lack of clarity as to whether the alarm is even active. The designers usually hide the alarm switch on the side or back of the clock, so if you don’t want to snooze, you’ll have to flip the flimsy switch until the evening.

My Goals

I would like to create the simplest and fastest interface I can. I have many thoughts about how to do so, but some ideas are central. Here’s the breakdown:

  1. Choosing a time is a continuous action. Time (at least as clocks portray it) is linear, and the user needs to be able to find a time in the continuum quickly and easily. For this task, I have in mind a rotary encoder, like a modern volume knob. The detents should be gentle and smooth, and fairly close together so going through sixty click doesn’t take too much effort.
  2. Clocks are important at night, so the screen needs to light up. I don’t want to press anything to see what time it is, and I surely don’t want to turn on a lamp to see the time. I want to know, still in the dark, whether the alarm is on, what time it is now, and whether the clock thinks it is currently morning or night.
  3. The clock needs to survive a small power outage. If I have just fallen asleep, a power outage is not going to wake me up. And if the clock doesn’t wake me, nothing will. So I need the clock to remember the time for about twelve hours when it’s off wall power, and still sound the alarm when I have to get up. It doesn’t have to show the time if that takes too much energy, but it does have to wake me up.
  4. The alarm switch and buttons need to feel good. I want a solid click, not a wimpy squish.
  5. The clock needs to look nice. Ugly appliances are garbage.

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