Lets assume you’re toasting white bread and you want it a little bit toasted - a long way from burnt. Which way do you turn the dial? Towards the black toast picture where the indicator is thickest? Or towards the white toast picture where the indicator is smallest?
It’s not what you’d hoped and you’ve just burned 6 slices of bread.
The real trick is that this toaster has a track of wire that moves inside the toaster to move the bread under heating elements. The knob changes the rate the track moves at. Counter clockwise gets you a slower track and more time exposed to the heat.