> The single button makes the unit appear simple to operate, but having operated one myself and as I watched a number of other people attempt to use them it was apparent that it was not so simple.

That sounds awfully similar to my experience with both Apple's home-button, and their one-button mouse.

If you like that article, you might also like Donald Normans The Design of Everyday Things, https://www.amazon.com/Design-Everyday-Things-Revised-Expand.... It has a lot more examples for these kind of bad designs, and it also explains why these designs are bad and what makes a good design. I can't recommend it enough, everyone that ever might design a product or a GUI should have read it.

My personal "favourite" are refridgerators with a dial for setting 1 - 5. Is that Celsius? [no it's not] Is "1" a low or high temperature? Usually "5" is the lowest temperature (presumably for "5 = most cooling power").

I really like 2d approaches on knobs: turn to adjust heat, and press it to turn it on/off. My car stereo does this for volume and it's quite graceful to use. Analog controls with continuous domains really go well together

As a sysadmin I consider this a UI improvement. Please make space heaters unusable. Your other equipment will last that much longer.

I'd prefer about 60°F (which causes a lot of complaining in many places so I don't express my preference) but I hope the author is joking about using a heater in the summer.

I have tragically been in an office where someone was so uncomfortable with the consensus aircon setting that they had their own heater under their desk.

Open-plan offices are hard.

Closed-plan offices are also hard in most buildings. The HVAC vents are set in fixed overhead positions, and then the tenant has to subdivide it into offices, meeting rooms, break rooms, etc. Those never seem to line up properly with the vents, and the temperature sensors are in different spots, so some rooms end up freezing and others too hot.

That's a reasonable response. It sure beats that person demanding that the rest of the office live with what they're comfortable with.

(2005) with 2000-era web design :)

You mean, it doesn't require Javascript to render the page? That's a feature, not a bug.

Did you have an actual problem accessing the web site?

It really is bad designed though. Tiny and too wide text especially, and it also has a totally confusing site hierarchy that is not reflected in the navigation menu to the left, that seems to have no link with the navigation at the top.

Yes, it's fixed width on mobile and doesn't reflow, so you have to scroll left and right constantly, or deal with tiny text.