Danika Miller

Professional portfolio

Reviewing microwaves was a project that required major sleuthing. My editor and I were frustrated, delayed, and ran into several dead ends. We had to get creative, rethink our angle, and hunt for the truth.

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With hundreds of seemingly identical models on the market, we didn't know where to start. After consulting with microwave experts (yes, there is an International Microwave Power Institute), we learned that many microwaves were, in fact, identical. I discovered that the vast majority of microwaves are made by just two companies in China — Midea, and Galanz. Brands like Panasonic or Kenmore repackage those models with different buttons and doors, but the mechanics are the same. So how do you claim one is better when they're all the same inside? We got inventive.

Since we knew they would all do the literal job of microwaving, we anchored ourselves in what mattered most for the consumer — quick heating, reliability, and usability. I learned quick heating correlates to high wattage, so we cut any product with less than 800 watts. Reliability, according to our experts, tracked to price — so we scoured user reviews to find the price point that sacrificed quality ($100). And for usability, we brought in a range of features to test ourselves. I took our crazy discoveries and distilled that information to help consumers make their choice.
 

During testing, I thought carefully about what our results were going to tell us. I didn't want to arbitrarily heat things just to see if it could be done, because of course, a microwave will heat things. I designed tests to indicate the effectiveness and ease of use. For example, the entire purpose of a microwave is convenient cooking, so we tested that by using the popcorn preset. We tested whether we could simply hit “Popcorn” without worrying about burning or undercooking. In the end, we found a few microwaves that wow-ed us, and I helped navigate readers to the product that would fit their home.