Defensive Design in the Kitchen

Our apartment came with an Breville Fresco cordless electric kettle. I’ve never used one before. It’s really nice. It boils water very fast (significantly faster than the electric stove) and keeps it warm for a good long time. It also has a nice little design touch…

There is a large power switch at the top of the handle. You press it down the handle to turn it on – Up the handle to turn it off. ...Nothing fancy there.

Here’s where it gets good. There’s also another switch on the underside of the handle. When the kettle is on, it pops out a bit. Lifting the kettle out of it’s base forces you to press the switch back in – Turning off the kettle in the process.

There’s no worry that it may be sitting there empty, heating up the plastic it’s made from. Which is the sort of thing you probably wouldn’t worry about anyway… until the first time you do it.