quisquiliae wrote:
snip
I have that problem when I consider what will happpen when my Philips
'Space Cube 40' expires. (still going strong after 20 years) Two buttons
to set the time up and down, two buttons to do the same for power level
and a start button. Why do all the new ones need a button for every item
in the larder and a weight calculator?

Because more buttons are obviously better...
Sigh.

And the buttons are often rather less visible than they could be.
I overlayed the buttons in my last microwave with a laminated bit of paper
with actual reasonable sized text.

The ideal interface would probably be a menu driven one.
I'd want to be able to either select a time and power simply, or do
something more complex.
For example to set up a memory for stew, nuke at 100% power for 30 mins,
then keep oven on at 110C for 2 hours.

Arbitrary decisions like "we've only got 20 buttons to use, or the front
panel becomes too busy", leading to "I know, let's leave off the numbers,
and just have 10 min/1min/10s buttons" type decisions (meaning that for 7
minutes you've go to press the button 7 times, not just "700") are just
annoying.
However, this means a larger LCD, which actually costs money.