Bad power switch design on XS100 home office UPS

[Anonymous user]

There's a complaint on one of the blogs which describes the XS1200 as "a great device except for *one fatal flaw*. The round circle on the front is the on/off switch for the UPS. It’s also a very sensitive switch. It doesn’t take more than the soft fingers of a 2 year old child to turn off the whole darn UPS and all 8 devices connected to it off!!!!!

Apparently there's no chance to save your work and the device doesn’t wait a few seconds before shutting down. It doesn’t beep to give a warning. It doesn’t require a second push of the button to confirm that the person wants to shut down the UPS.

Is there any way around this, in software perhaps, or will the design be changed on future models.

Great if you guys could address this and regain some happy customers. The original blog complaint is at http://onproductmanagement.wordpress.com/category/business-topics/product-management/ (and scroll down the page)

Pete

[Anonymous user]

All,

Please find my response to Saeed on the linked blog.
http://onproductmanagement.wordpress.com/2008/06/23/bad-design-on-a-ups/

The text is also below:

OK, we're guilty as charged! Saeed is right, our UPSs can be turned off by merely depressing a single button. As one of APC's product managers for the Back-UPS line, I concede.

However, I can assure you we’ve thought many times before about the frailties that the on/off button of a UPS injects into a computer set up. To combat this problem, on some products we have recessed the button. Although, this method seems like it wouldn’t have worked in the presence of a small child with a penchant for pressing buttons. We’ve also considered requiring users to hold the button in for a few seconds in order to turn it off, but we already use this method on our units with AVR as a means to adjust voltage sensitivity transfer settings. Software changes could also be made, but many people never install it. We even put a removable “kick guard” on one of our surge protectors, but we found out that the vast majority of people didn’t read the instructions and never used it. And to further frame this issue, we try to maintain a consistency of features across a product line, so that customers know what to expect from APC as they purchase different units over time. In other words, in a perfect world, all the on/off buttons of our Back-UPS products would look and operate the same way.

While there have been a lot of people jumping on the bandwagon of the original post, to be fair, it's worth looking at this from a UPS manufacturer's point of view. As a product manager, I can tell you that every feature we include on our UPSs represents a trade off, a compromise between user needs and ease of use, between cost and functionality, complexity vs aesthetics. In order to be as competitive as possible in this marketplace, we strive to please the maximum amount of people with the minimum number of products. This probably holds true for most of the companies people reading this post work for. Additionally, I can also tell you that APC spends considerable resources on focus groups as we try to continually improve our products. And you'd be surprised when seemingly harmless changes deter less tech savvy people, sometimes forcing us to retreat to more "plain vanilla" features in an effort to please the most people with the fewest number of products. Frustratingly, the old adage, “You can’t please all of the people all of the time” comes to mind.

Now, having said all this, based solely on this blog, there are a few people here talking about some new ideas to better protect the on/off button. Please keep in mind that any changes critical to user interface, like this one, have to be reviewed and pass a series of "hurdles", any of which having the potential to guide us towards (or away from) keeping this switch just as it is now. (Incidentally, testing new ideas like this is one of the best parts of my job). So while we haven’t found the “perfect on/off button” yet, APC, and a lot of others are still on the hunt.

Good luck with your 2 yr old. I used to shut the french doors to my office and quarantine my kids in the living room. I can still remember their tiny faces pressed against the glass as they drooled yogurt and saliva onto the rug, wondering what I could possibly be doing on the computer for so long. Oddly, it seems that now-a-days the situation has been completely reversed...

Andrew

[TheNotoriousKMP_apc]

Pete,

I had a discussion with a couple of APC Escalation gentlemen yesterday, and there was an agreement that this cannot be defined as a "fatal flaw." Other UPS manufacturer's use the same design technology for the power switch as well.

The other side of this is that a child can also turn off your TV or other electrical equipment that requires a push of a button to turn off. If you have a $2000 LCD HDTV on a surge protector and a child turns that off, and blows a bulb in the HDTV because it doesn't have the necessary time to cool down. Which one is more of a concern? The PC which is still fully functional with some data loss, or the HDTV which is non-functional until the bulb is repaired?

The other discussion came up of why the UPS is so accessible in a PC setup. Since the discussion in Saeed's blog discussion was about a button under colorful lights, we can look at the following. On the display of the UPS, there are 4 LED's, Online, On Battery, Replace Battery and Overload. In a normal operating environment, only a Green "Online" LED should be illuminated, any others would be considered abnormal and attention should be paid to the UPS. Therefore, not an ideal scenario, but would be a work-around for the time being, electrical or duct tape can be placed over the power button to minimize suspicion and create less attraction to the UPS and its LED.

Message was edited by: The Notorious K.M.P.

[BillP]

yeah i agree with the above post. a lot of mission critical things have the power button right on the front..what is to stop a 2 year old from just pushing the power/reset button right on your computer? most computers these days begin a shutdown if you do that, some you also have to hold in. but its like that with anything..

most things are dangerous to a 2 year old..just the way it is..

anyway..it can certainly be entered as a recommendation.

[Anonymous user]

Hi Kevin,

You might want to check out the guys blog again. He posted a response to your answer to him. Seems like most of the people who commented agree with him.

http://onproductmanagement.wordpress.com/2008/07/21/bad-communication/

J

[TheNotoriousKMP_apc]

James,

After having reviewed and re-read Saeed's response, I have decided to edit my earlier response to eliminate any confusion that may have been caused by a personality gap caused by the use of Internet communication. I apologize to the APC Online Community if any comments werer misconstrued in a demeaning manner or sensed any hostility towards Saeed's discussion on an APC Product. Please know that the information has been passed up the chain to an APC Back-UPS Product Manager, who will be replying with his comments soon.

Message was edited by: The Notorious K.M.P.

Message was edited by: The Notorious K.M.P.

[Anonymous user]

Andrew,

Thanks for the thoughtful response on the our blog. As a fellow PM, I completely understand the trade-offs and processes that are needed when bringing products to market. I too have have had to make design decisions that I knew didn't address all of the use cases and scenarios that were needed.

I would ask that you reconsider explicitly addressing the "curious 2 year old" scenario in future home/office products. As an aside, a friend of mine told me that his cat has turned off his UPS -- not an APC device by the way -- in the same manner.

While I understand the need for a consistent interface, I'm just curious why the need for a prominent power button? Wouldn't a similar button on the BACK of the unit server the same purpose?

Thanks again for the response. And if you want have any other questions or want other input, you know where to find me.

Saeed

[Anonymous user]

no two year olds here but I do have a cat that managed to turn off my backups es550r off by sitting with on it with her paw on the off button. poof, off went the computer heh.

how about something configurable via software but with a default to its simplest mode (IE instant off say) with the other options (hold for 5 seconds, press twice etc) only settable via software. that way the casual users who dont bother to read the instructions or configure (or even install) the software wont have a problem and the power (hmmm no pun intended) users can kid (or cat) proof their systems.

I know you want constancy but protection of data seems more important, and out of the box consistency would be the same.

btw I fixed my problem by putting a small surround speaker over the power button.. heavy enough the cat wont move it, small enough it doesnt interfere with ventilation.

Message was edited by: CharBroiled

[TheNotoriousKMP_apc]

Dave,

I'll pass this onto Andrew tomorrow. Hopefully he'll comment back on the boards.

[Anonymous user · Accepted solution]

Has this problem been fixed? Is there a way to permanently disable this power button? Why do we need this button in the first place? This is a UPS! The most important thing is to keep the power NOT interruptable! There are many power outlets available on this device and that means we may be plugging in new devices or unplugging some devices from time to time. I think the risk of accidentally depressing the button is as high as that of a power outage in my area.

I will return the unit if there is no solution to protect or disable the button.

Please help/comment!

Thanks,E