Design a product/service that allows a business traveler to set a specific time to wake up for an appointment. The purpose of the design is to reduce the anxiety associated with encountering a new piece of technology in a hotel room and to improve the reliability of this essential function of business travel.

I began by reasoning that a solution to this problem would more resemble a product than a service. Having an alarm clock or something similar actually in the room, with its displays, controls, and functionality available is more reassuring than having to trust a remote system whose operation can't be verified first-hand.

Following from this, I began listing the shortcomings in hotel alarm clocks I have encountered while traveling for business:
1. It is not always immediately apparent how to set the alarm or current time
2. Occasionally a previous guest has changed the current time on the clock so that it is no longer correct. A related problem is that, on some occasions, a previous guest has set the time correctly but the clock is twelve hours off Ð 5:00 AM instead of 5:00 PM.
3. When the alarm goes off in the morning it is sometimes difficult to remember how to turn the alarm off or how to activate the snooze timer. A related problem is that I have sometimes turned the alarm off when I was trying to enter snooze mode.
4. Feature creep Ð added functionality like a radio, sleep timer, multiple alarm settings and modes, gentle wakeup, etc. increase the difficulty of accomplishing the primary task Ð waking the user at the desired time.
5. Alarm clocks that pretend to be smarter than they are. An alarm clock that has a range of smart functions may be appropriate at home where the user has time and motivation to learn their operations and behaviors, but in a hotel environment, features like seven-day alarms are a burden and may even produce unexpected behavior (as when the alarm behaves according to the seven-day alarm set by a previous guest.)

1. A device that will reliably wake the user at a pre-set time.
2. A simple, reliable way to set the desired alarm time.
3. An easy way to test the operation of the alarm to determine whether it works correctly.
4. Visibility of settings for easy verification.

The user I envision is a person who travels for business, probably frequently. This user wants only two things from a hotel's alarm clock Ð he wants it to tell him the current time, and he wants it to wake him at the desired time. Past this, he doesn't want to be burdened with learning controls, remembering states and settings, or worrying that the alarm will not function as desired.

The user of this device would first encounter it after checking into his or her hotel room. Sitting on a bedside table, displaying the current time, the device would be immediately recognizable as an alarm clock. Other than glancing at the time, the user would likely not have any reason to interact with the device until he or she was preparing for bed.

On first encounter, two things would set it apart from most other alarm clocks Ð it has a second display and only six controls. The first display is illuminated green and shows the current time and the clock itself lacks any controls to change this time. Four buttons are grouped under the second display which flashes periodically in red the message "alarm time not set." These four buttons, arranged in groups of two, are arrow-shaped with one arrow in each group pointing up and the other pointing down. With the user's first button press the first display continues to show the current time and the second display changes to the common "blinking twelve" message. The two button groups are spaced so that they lie immediately beneath the hour and minute sections of the second display.

At this point the user can only infer that the second display indicates the set alarm time and that the buttons likely are used to set this time. The user then manipulates these four buttons to set the time Ð the up arrow underneath the hour display moves the hour forward once each time it is pressed, the down arrow underneath the hour display moves the hour backward once each time it is pressed. The behavior is repeated to set the minute.

Once this operation is complete or once a certain amount of time has passed with no more input from the user the second display resumes blinking but this time the message is "alarm not on." At the same time a slightly recessed switch on top of the alarm clock begins blinking a red light in unison with the second display. If the user moves this switch to the other position the blinking light turns to a steady red one and the second display on the front of the clock stops flashing the "alarm not on" message and displays the set alarm time. From this the user can easily infer that the alarm has been set and will sound at the time shown on the second display.

Alarm set and ready for bed, when the user switches off the room lights, the clock senses the change in light conditions and responds by dimming all displays and indicator lights.

The next morning when the alarm sounds, the placement of the clock's controls steer the user toward the appropriate action. The top of the clock contains two controls Ð the sliding switch for turning the alarm on previously mentioned, and a large button labeled "snooze". This arrangement reduces the chance that the user will accidentally turn the alarm off when reaching for the snooze button. Once the alarm has been switched off the clock retains the alarm setting but resumes flashing the "alarm not on" message indicating to the user that the alarm will not go off again unless explicitly told to.

There are two additional components to the design that will be invisible to the user. The first is the method by which the current time is set. The controls for setting the time have been removed from the device itself to prevent users from inadvertently setting the clock to the incorrect time. Time signals are instead sent by the hotel management over a powerline network. The clock receives these signals several times per day and sets itself accordingly. A similar technique is also used by the hotel each time a guest checks out of a room - the management sends a signal to the clock instructing it to reset the alarm time set by the previous guest. This way each new guest encounters the "alarm time not set" message and will not be affected by a previous guest's alarm setting.