Patent ID: 7571553

Claim:
A laundry appliance, comprising: a control element; a user interface having a first display region configured to display a primary operating mode of the laundry appliance and a second display region configured to display a secondary operating mode associated with at least one of the primary operating modes; a processor controlling at least some operating of the laundry appliance; and memory storing computer executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the laundry appliance to perform a method comprising: detecting a first manipulation of the control element; identifying a current primary operating mode; determining whether the current primary operating mode has a plurality of associated secondary operating modes; if there does not exist a plurality of secondary operating modes associated with the current primary operating mode, changing the primary operating mode of the laundry appliance to a new primary operating mode; if there does exist a plurality of secondary operating modes associated with the current primary operating mode, identifying a current secondary operating mode, determining whether the current secondary operating mode is a last in a predetermined sequence of secondary operating modes, and if the current secondary operating mode is the last in the predetermined sequence of secondary operating modes changing the primary operating mode of the laundry appliance to a new primary operating mode, and if the current secondary operating mode is not the last in the predetermined sequence of secondary operating modes, retaining the same current primary operating mode and changing the secondary operating mode of the laundry appliance to a next secondary operating mode in the predetermined sequence of secondary operating modes.