Abort, ReToast, Cancel?

Being a user experience design professional, I have, like you, standards for the things that I buy and what I want to use on a day to day basis. I expect then to meet my design, usability, and desireability bars, and what the hell, not piss me off every day. I rail against bad design and ergonomics when evaluating products, which is why my wife will no longer shop for appliances with me. Come on, how many years does it take to get decent design of stovetops?

So, our toaster died a horrible, smoking death several weeks ago, and we needed a new one. My criteria: it had to do 4 slices, have good controls, stainless steel look to go with the kitchen, and evenly toast the bread. My wife's criteria: it had to fit into the appliance garage. This is a tough requirement. Apparently, toasters have gone the way of most americans, w-i-d-e load. These puppies won't fit into the standard airline seat, let along our narrow appliance garage. Finally, my wife finds and buys one that is skinny and fits - and tells me that I'm not to complain about it.

All right, but I can complain to you, right? So, I look at the thing and two factors hit me. First, it has a dial from 1-7 for toast levels. Straight-forward, right? No. Do I turn the dial towards the dark, to the right, which makes 7 the darkest... or do I turn to the number at the far right, number 1, where the dark icon is? Irritating.

But here is the weird part. The way to pop up the toast before it is done toasting is not to just lift up on the lever. Oh no, too easy. It is the "Cancel" button. What? What is a "Cancel" button doing on my toaster? What type of craziness is this? Do I hit Submit to get it to toast? No, I get a Toast button, a Bagel button, a Frozen button, and a Warm button. Why Frozen is above Warm, no idea.

But "Cancel"? Not "Pop Up" or just freakin allow me to lift the lever. Insanity. And now, I really hate using the toaster.