Bad Design in Everyday Things

[Sage]

Before you point it out, yes, I stole this idea from The Straight Dope. Deal with it.

Anyway, what everyday object causes you to grind your teeth because it was designed by a monkey on cocaine?

One thing I especially hate is the parallax effect that makes it so difficult to use ATMs. Whose bright idea was it to make it impossible to tell which buttons align with which arrows on the screen? Why must I crouch down just so I know I’m hitting the right button?

I also hate how tupperware has all kinds of decorative ridges in it which means that after you’ve dried it, it’s still holding water, and it spills out on the surfaces you’ve already dried. Dumb.

And my new peeve is how many USB thumbdrive manufacturers make the damn things so fat that you have to have two USB ports available to make way for one thumbdrive.

 

[CDailey]

This isn't necessarily a design flaw, more like an interface flaw, but I can't switch digital inputs on my audio receiver from the remote. I have to get up out of my chair and press the little button on the receiver to switch between optical inputs.

 

[YSSMAN]

Something that has been driving me crazy as of late has been the overall design of telephones as of late. It would seem as though the designs of cell-phones have crossed into that of land-line phones, and thusly everything has to be exceedingly small (yet having more buttons), more difficult to use, and worst of all, impossible to find when the phone rings.

Maybe its because I grew up when telephones were large, tethered (or attached) to the wall, and would either have large metallic buttons or a rotary dial, but I really don't care much for the new phones out there today. Interestingly enough, I WANT a big phone in my house. Granted we still have one tethered to the wall circa 1988 technology, but I want something even older... I want 1978, 1968, etc. Personally speaking, they look nicer, they sound better, and me being the nostalgic man that I am, just love having to use the old stuff. Its harder to hit the wrong buttons, its either off or on, and best of all, you get to play the game "Do I answer it or not?" without caller ID.

I actually went shopping for a phone such as this the other day, and I found nothing at any store that came remotely close to what I want. Even the brand-new wall-phones have all the stupid buttons and LCD screens that I generally dislike so much on the cordless models, it just makes me want to scream.

...Sure, I love progress, and I love phones when they're done well (my RAZR is an exceptional design), but so many of them are quite simply, crap...

 

[Joey D]

Ok I know everyone is going to flame the living hell out of me for this but...

I hate and I mean absolutely hate the iPod and it's damn click wheel thing. Probably one of the main reasons I got rid of mine for good. Why it was designed like that is beyond me, I know some people really like it but I can not stand it. Personal opinion, I have nothing again iPods, I just don't like the way they are designed and would never buy another one.

Other things I hate:

On the TI-83 graphing calculator if you take the batteries out to replace them all the data is lost. How on earth are you supposed to replace the batteries? Yes I use my calculator a lot.

And one thing I hate about my truck (ok there are a lot of things I hate) is that there is no way to open the tailgate from the outside of the truck without the key, so this mean when I want to put something in the boot I have to turn the truck off and take the keys out. It's a terrible design.

 

[Sage]

On the TI-83 graphing calculator if you take the batteries out to replace them all the data is lost.

Shouldn’t the little backup battery be able to keep the data while you replace the main batteries?

 

[Joey D]

Shouldn’t the little backup battery be able to keep the data while you replace the main batteries?

Huh? Never thought about that...maybe mine is dead

 

[Perfect Balance]

My Civic's fuel lever. It's in the perfect place that when I get out, my pants frequently catch on the lever and pull it.

 

[Jedi2016]

Shouldn’t the little backup battery be able to keep the data while you replace the main batteries?

You'd think so. I have to reprogram my pager at work every time I change the batteries. Even without a second power supply, it's not that hard to use some SRAM variant that doesn't lose it's data when power is lost, especially if it's only for a few seconds.

The thing that irks me about the pager is that it runs through batteries pretty quickly. Which is odd, seeing how rarely it's used.

I can't think of anything else at the moment, but I know I've got some floating around my brain somewhere. I know this because at least once a week I utter the phrase "Whoever designed this thing needs to be shot".

 

[V1P3R]

I'd sound like I was whining or complaining but...

On my monitor it has multiple inputs and won't auto switch when I turn one thing like my pc off and my 360 on. My old monitor would be able to recognize it. Instead I have to select what input I want.

 

[Sage]

I have to reprogram my pager at work every time I change the batteries.

Pager? They still make those?

 

[opelgt1969]

Here's a great one Earplugs for MP3 players whoever designs these things must not have ears. The only thing I have found that works ok are a set of lightweight headphones made by Maxell. All the others are either too large for your ears or will not stay in.
I also have a 55" bigscreen HDTV that has one HD input that is a DP15 input I have yet to find anything that will input to it.Note it also has the component (RGB) input.

 

[TopHat]

Hmmm.... TV's without A/V inputs on the side or front of the TV.

 

[Sage]

Oh my, how could I have forgotten to mention? I absolutely hate CD cases that have the middle part latch on so tightly to the CD that you just have to hope you won’t break the CD as you’re pulling it out.

 

[V1P3R]

Discgear to the rescue!

 

[Kylehnat]

Perhaps the resident architects can defend themselves on this one. In many, many apartments (including the two I've lived in), the bedroom is facing the parking lot, the undisputed noisiest part of the unit. I demand answers.

 

[Cap'n Jack]

Oh my, how could I have forgotten to mention? I absolutely hate CD cases that have the middle part latch on so tightly to the CD that you just have to hope you won’t break the CD as you’re pulling it out.

Ugh, that happened to me with the Indy Racing Series game. I always knew it would happen some day.

 

[Citrus]

Hmmm.... my neighbors car that i see parked outside most days. The butt-ugly Chrysler PT-Cruiser. Its too big, too high, too bland (my rovers more exciting!) too slow, and worst of all.... its Hideous! When you've just woke up you dont want that to be the first car you see.

I also dont like how small things are getting. Screws in particular. For example... you have just got a die-cast model, brand new, but you cant get it out of its stand... they have only gone and screwed it to the stand with incredibly small nails!

 

[Blake]

One thing I especially hate is the parallax effect that makes it so difficult to use ATMs. Whose bright idea was it to make it impossible to tell which buttons align with which arrows on the screen? Why must I crouch down just so I know I’m hitting the right button?

This is true, and annoys me every time I use an ATM.

And my new peeve is how many USB thumbdrive manufacturers make the damn things so fat that you have to have two USB ports available to make way for one thumbdrive.

Yeah, what the hell? I can’t even use my new 4GB one on my PC because of the design of the case. I’ll need to buy a USB extension cable, and I’m having trouble finding one that’s less than 1.8m long…

 

[Azuremen]

I hate and I mean absolutely hate the iPod and it's damn click wheel thing. Probably one of the main reasons I got rid of mine for good. Why it was designed like that is beyond me, I know some people really like it but I can not stand it. Personal opinion, I have nothing again iPods, I just don't like the way they are designed and would never buy another one.

Other things I hate:

On the TI-83 graphing calculator if you take the batteries out to replace them all the data is lost. How on earth are you supposed to replace the batteries? Yes I use my calculator a lot.

I agree on the click wheel, drives me nuts too. I like having something there that clicks.

On the TI-83 issues, WHY oh WHY an 83? 89 so much better... so much more wonderful.

My gripe... apple sauce containers. All those ridges keep me from getting all the goodness out. Who thought up that idea? "Lets shape if funny so its IMPOSSIBLE to get everything out, so we can torture people!"

Seriously.

 

[Jondot]

About 3/4 of all Linx (Axe) shower gel bottles were devised by satan. Every time you open the super-tight cap (which could only have been devised to keep out nuclear missiles), you kill your fingers on the sharp edge. If I didn't use the bathroom tap as leverage I wouldn't be typing this.

Touchpads - I like them. I've got nothing against using them. But every time mine gets remotely warm, it stops responding to my fingers almost completely. It's so frustrating...

Toshiba remote controls - they are dreadful! You'd think on an £800 TV they'd have bothered to design one of the vital components. Not only does it feel cheap, but it's horribly unresponsive. You have to have it pointed directly at the TV and press the buttons almost to the degree that they are forced through the back casing to get it to do anything. It's alright for just turning it off or changing the volume, but as soon as you want to use the built in TV guide it's actually quicker and less painless to get in the car and go buy one than find the right channel in time.

Cat food foil trays. Always have a habit of spitting their contents at you when you open the lid. Blurgh...

 

[ceiling_fan]

Yogurt cups- at least the Yoplait ones. I've never been able to open them cleanly. And, it's next to impossible to actually completely finish the cup.

Capri Sun juice- They had an unusual design (kind of like a pocket or something) with a straw which one end was sharp, so you can puncture the opening. I've never been able to do that without it squirting.

 

[G.T]

There are hundreds I've come across, but it's one of these days I can't remember anything...

But one I do remember is how hard it is to get these specific type of Colgate toothpaste bottles open (the gold one). You have to use your teeth to open it without breaking your fingers instead...

 

[Mark T]

Just to add to what Sage has already mentioned. Why do ATM's have buttons that either have a 3 second delay or need a robotic finger to push down.

Banks have pens that never work and never go back in there holders on the counter so they end up flapping around on there cable.

 

[GilesGuthrie]

Perhaps the resident architects can defend themselves on this one. In many, many apartments (including the two I've lived in), the bedroom is facing the parking lot, the undisputed noisiest part of the unit. I demand answers.

In my house, before we re-designed it, the architect (who was clearly smoking crack that day), put the designed-to-make-things-cold fridge-freezer right next to the gives-off-rather-a-lot-of-heat oven.

Why do car manufacturers hide the screenwash reservoir in the front wing, and then not put a dipstick in?

Who at Gap thought that 8mm dia scalloped buttons were a good idea on child's clothing? Have you ever tried to do up "the impossible button" while the child is wriggling?

I have a two-handset cordless telephone system at home. You set the time on one handset, and it syncs across to the other. So why doesn't it do this with the phonebook also?

 

[Diego440]

I'd say Spanish architects are the worst in the world. How the hell would you be able to live happily in an apartment that's made only of hallways... that's all there is. Three rooms and the rest is hallways... and you have to walk sideways in these doorways, as wel. I've always said Europe (and Spain specifically) is one size shorter than I am.

Secondly, mouses... what happened to mouses? Did I miss a freakin' meeting with the mouses? In the older days, mouses had one or maybe two buttons. Then the scrolly thing came out and that was alright. Then the scrolly thing also pressed down and that was okay too.

But then came the thumb buttons, and the triple digit top with the pinkie side button and the scrolly thing with the hell of your hand, and the trackball for the tumb and to be honest, it's just too much. You can't browse anything without clicking it a gazillion times and even deleting some stuff unknowingly.

 

[V1P3R]

Aww... poor Diego not 1377 with a mouse no more. (sorry had to)

 

[Joey D]

On the TI-83 issues, WHY oh WHY an 83? 89 so much better... so much more wonderful.

I've had it for years and don't feel like spending the money on a new one.

 

[GT Pro]

On the TI-83 graphing calculator if you take the batteries out to replace them all the data is lost. How on earth are you supposed to replace the batteries? Yes I use my calculator a lot.

Yes, the T.I calculators seem to have many design faults. But I've suffered worse lately; my rather new TI-89 froze whilst I exited a game and the screen has subsequently been frozen (perpetually displaying the 'busy' sign) for about a week now. Too bad taking the batteries out did nothing, and the current area I'm studying in Mathematics DEPENDS on the calculator.

 

[Alfaholic]

The 10/100 base T connectors they use for UTP flyleads, with the plastic clip on the end that's always breaking off. They've been like that for over ten years, and noone yet has bothered to put a thin bit of metal or something in the middle.

Also, the packaging boxes that electronics goods like memory sticks and various cables come in nowadays. Are they really impossible to open without a pair of newly sharpened industrial scissors, or am I missing some operating instructions somewhere?

Finally, pretty much any bit of predictive software ever written. Why won't MS Word allow me to highlight a word, the whole word, and just the word? Why does it insist on also highlighting the space at the beginning or the end or both, or perhaps the whole sentence? On this very forum... why, when I am attempting to edit someone's quote, is it so hard to select and delete a lump of text without also deleting the ] defining the start of the quote?

Most of the time when some software, whether its on my computer, my TV, my phone... tries to predict what I want to do, it gets it wrong. Bring back the good old days when a computer would rarely do what you wanted it to do but would always do what you told it to. Nowadays it does what it likes.

 

[GT Pro]

Why won't MS Word allow me to highlight a word, the whole word, and just the word? Why does it insist on also highlighting the space at the beginning or the end or both, or perhaps the whole sentence? On this very forum... why, when I am attempting to edit someone's quote, is it so hard to select and delete a lump of text without also deleting the ] defining the start of the quote?

Definately true; I had to TYPE out this [/quote] code for the same reason.

Most of the time when some software, whether its on my computer, my TV, my phone... tries to predict what I want to do, it gets it wrong. Bring back the good old days when a computer would rarely do what you wanted it to do but would always do what you told it to. Nowadays it does what it likes.

Just goes to prove the theory that electronics, rather than making things simpler, makes things more difficult.