Bad Designs - More coffee or less

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More coffee or less

A friend told me he was confused by the switches on his coffee maker (See photo.) Each switch has a light on it. The top switch turns the coffee maker on and off. When it is on, its light goes on. No light appears when the coffee maker is off.

The bottom switch selects the quantity of coffee desired, either a) the smaller quantity of 3 or fewer cups or b) the larger quantity of 4 or more cups. The problem is with the light on this bottom switch. When would you expect the switch light to go on, for the smaller quantity or for the larger quantity?

If you said that the light goes on when the switch is set to the larger quantity of 4 or more cups, you would be wrong. The quantity light ONLY goes on for the smaller quantity, three cups or less. It does NOT go on for the larger quantity, 4 or more cups.

Why is this confusing? People naturally expect more coffee to be associated with more light (light on) and less coffee to be associated with less light (light off).

Design Suggestions

Change the operation of the coffee quantity switch so that the light goes on when the coffee quantity is set to make more cups of coffee, not fewer cups. This change would involve switching the positions of the "min...3" and "4...max" labels.
Remove the light from the coffee quantity switch.
Consider removing the coffee quantity switch entirely. Most coffee makers don't have one.

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