Recently I bought a nifty little USB charger for my iPod touch and mobile phone. You can build these things, but I was in a rush, and Radio Shanty had them on sale. I was so pleased at how tiny my vacation bag was without my enormous collection of wall warts.
We get to our mountain cabin, tuck the baby into bed, and plug in the charger. Ack! The Blue LED of death! Why must almost every electronics manufacturer put these obnoxious super-bright blue LEDs into everything. Is it really a feature?
Sure you can say “night light”. But what night light makes one wince? I once worked on a pair of computer servers from a reputable maker. The blue LED on the front of the box was so bright it hurt (not kidding) whenever I failed to turn my head before approaching the machines.
When I looked inside these servers, I found a light pipe over one foot long to make the bright blue light come directly out of the center of the machine (straight into my face). So the design team on the computer actually worked long and hard to make this death ray come out of the center of the control panel. This is really quite far away from the “pilot light” concept, the little stupid light that tells one a machine has power.
Of course the solution is black electrical tape. However I would urge design teams to send the marketing girl/guy packing when they pop in to ask for a bright blue LED on something. Apple has the right idea with pilot lights, dainty soft, unfocused lights, discretely hid on the front of devices. Design is about removing that which does not belong as well as adding what does. Unless there is a compelling reason to put a blue death ray on something, it’s better left off.
