Matthew Kressy likes to think that he owns a first-rate microwave. The founding director of MIT’s integrated design and management program, Kressy lets his experience inventing gadgets guide his purchasing decisions. But when he needed a new microwave a few years ago, the best he could do was the Panasonic NN-SD861S. Instead of poking at a touch pad to set the cook time, he twists a dial. “It’s kind of fun to use,” he told me, “but it’s not much better than anything else.” His 1.2-cubic-foot unit looks essentially the same as every other countertop microwave available to the average American consumer. It is large. It is rectangular. Its right side is dominated by numerous buttons that could be removed at no loss to society. And it has the same basic look as microwaves from a decade ago, the decade before that, and the one before that. Not only are microwaves ugly, but they are also not particularly user-friendly: My own Sunbeam microwave has a “Potato” button that sets the cook time to five minutes …