Bad Design in Everyday Things

  • Thread starter Sage
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Giancarlo
Stick to powder-like ones, no gels or clear sticks. Works for me.
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I hate the powder ones, but I'll try them out again.

Gil
Why design an engine installation that requires the vehicle be taken to the dealer, for the engine to be pulled out of the vehicle to get at the Spark Plugs on the back side of the engine?
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Yeah, that really sucks.
 
Duke
Because the alternative is to have a landlocked bedroom in the middle of the building, with no windows or natural light. There's only so much building perimeter to go around.
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Your point is valid. In plenty of buildings, there is no other choice. However, if the bedroom doesn't have to be next to the parking lot, then it shouldn't be. In the two places I've had, the layout could have easily been changed around without having to alter the structure or infrastructure. I don't have much to complain about here--my complex is very quiet--but I don't love waking up to people starting their giant diesel engines (though it does make me happy to know that there are people that have to get to work earlier than I do :D).
Gil
I'll START with Chevrolets.
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In driver's ed, we had a 1997 Cavalier. Much to my surprise, there was a metal electrical box directly above the brake pedal. As a right-foot braker, a high percentage of the time I hit the box instead of the pedal on my first attempt. I adjusted, but I thought "why the 🤬 is that box there??? That's an accident waiting in the bushes...". I'm not sure if this was actually Chevy, or a driving school addition for the extra brake pedal on the right, but either way, it was in the worst possible place.
 
I driven a lot of Cavaliers (not by choice) and I've never noticed that, I'm guessing it's a drivers ed thing. But I think you are justifiable with stating the Cavaliers in this thread.
 
One thing that really pissed me off the other day was how hard they make it to open CDs after you first buy them. They cover the case in those stickers that are so hard to peel off if you don't have chick-nails, and you're so worried about breaking the damn jewel case that it takes you five minutes longer to open it than it would if you just had to peel the shrink-wrap off...

Thank God the Rob Zombie CD had none of that...
 
YSSMAN
One thing that really pissed me off the other day was how hard they make it to open CDs after you first buy them. They cover the case in those stickers that are so hard to peel off if you don't have chick-nails, and you're so worried about breaking the damn jewel case that it takes you five minutes longer to open it than it would if you just had to peel the shrink-wrap off...

Thank God the Rob Zombie CD had none of that...
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👍

Even worse than that is when they have the packaging on online-bought items.
 
Duke
But on the subject of Microsloth, here are two of my design peeves from the "world's most integrated office production suite":
  • Why is there no keyboard shortcut or right-click for "Paste Special" in Word? It's a highly important command given the way that Word handles formatted text. There is a right-click for it in Excel... but still no keyboard shortcut. Why are they different?
  • Once you do waste the time to grab the mouse, pull down the Edit menu, and select "Paste Special", WHY does it default to pasting everything with full formatting, etc... which is exactly what the regular Paste option already does?!
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In Word, you could remap some of the keyboard shortcuts to get "Paste Special". I had to manually assign "Paste Special" to ctrl+shift+v, but once it's assigned, Paste Specialing was made much easier.
 
Actually, the worst thing about Excel is that they double up the short-cuts, while leaving paste special out. Control+2 and Control+B do EXACTLY THE SAME THING.
 
I hate when you buy something that has a build in rechargeable battery that you can't use while charging it... My electric air pump especially
 
Joey D
I hate and I mean absolutely hate the iPod and it's damn click wheel thing.
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Agreed. Only time I use my iPod is in the car and its impossible to select what I want without looking at it. I used to know exactly how many clicks up and down with my old MP3 player so I could find whatever I wanted without even taking my eyes off the road.

mnm_bmx
Wait,didn't they invented that in Japan already?
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They also have heated toilet seats! Much nicer than sitting on an ice ring first thing in the morning.

My pet hate is price stickers which rip when you try to take them off. Its impossible to get the whole thing off without the assistance of hot water and nail polish remover.
 
OpheliaMontague
My pet hate is price stickers which rip when you try to take them off. Its impossible to get the whole thing off without the assistance of hot water and nail polish remover.
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Agreed, I often buy a new DVD or whatever only to have a papery/gluey residue left on it after I take the price sticker off, which just pisses me off. :crazy:
 
Crash852
In Word, you could remap some of the keyboard shortcuts to get "Paste Special". I had to manually assign "Paste Special" to ctrl+shift+v, but once it's assigned, Paste Specialing was made much easier.
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Yup +1... it's called Macros, people... and I do so many custom macros that I can't remember my shortcuts, anymore!

I absolutely hate anything automated on Word or Excel... auto-this, auto-that, auto-spell, auto-date... I've unticked those options on my cellphone, too... and it pisses me off that whenever someone borrows mine, they return it with the auto-spell back on... :ouch:

------

+1 Ugh on modern mice. Give me a good-old ambidextrous symmetrical two/three button mouse, anyday. Makes for easier gaming when you don't have to watch where your fingers go.
 
YSSMAN
One thing that really pissed me off the other day was how hard they make it to open CDs after you first buy them. They cover the case in those stickers that are so hard to peel off if you don't have chick-nails, and you're so worried about breaking the damn jewel case that it takes you five minutes longer to open it than it would if you just had to peel the shrink-wrap off...
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I'm the same with DVDs. My wife cracks up as I open a DVD and go around for 15 minutes, slowly peeling each "Security Device Enclosed" sticker from all three sides. As for CDs, if you have ever seen the little CD openers that slide along the edge and have a very tiny cutting blade that just cuts through the plastic wrap, those will split the sealed stickers down the middle, lengthwise, so that you can get hold of it and gently peel it off. It isn't great, but it is easier.

On to DVDs. I occasionally get DVDs where the little alarm sensor is placed under the disc. WTF? That tells me that you have handled my disc and that any movement the disc may have done was against a piece of plastic touching the read area. I praise the people that just stick the piece of paper with the sticker on it behind the booklet.
 
FoolKiller
I want to know why I can't have the Paste Special on a keyboard shortcut in Excel. I probably Paste Special - Value about 100 times a day. I can expertly surf around my spreadsheets with a keyboard, but when copying values from a database with formulas to just a report format for management I have to stop, grab the mouse, right-click, select Paste Special, select values, and then select OK. Even when there isn't a formula it still takes formating, such as borders, with it if I just paste.
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Here, at least, I may have good news. I too got fed up with the long process required to paste special - values, so I recorded a macro of myself using paste special, then created a new toolbox with a bunch of new tools, and assigned my paste values macro to it. Now paste values is a single click away. Macros can also be assigned keyboard shortcuts but I tend not to do that because there are so many standard shortcuts and I don't know them all.

Other macros sharing that toolbox are one to paste transpose, one each to arrange windows vertically and horizontally, and one to toggle autofilter on and off.

EDIT: Oops just noticed Niky beat me to it.
 
land sea air
I hate when you buy something that has a build in rechargeable battery that you can't use while charging it... My electric air pump especially
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Yeah, me too. I was building some flat pack furniture the other day, when mid way through attaching a vital part to another vital part the powerdrill grinds to a hault. So, I plug it in, and of course I still have to wait for the battery to charge for an hour. I would have just stopped for a while and taken a break, but I knew if I let go of this particular panel, the whole thing would collapse and it'd take an age to put it all together again. That was a fun afternoon...
 
Jondot
Yeah, me too. I was building some flat pack furniture the other day, when mid way through attaching a vital part to another vital part the powerdrill grinds to a hault. So, I plug it in, and of course I still have to wait for the battery to charge for an hour. I would have just stopped for a while and taken a break, but I knew if I let go of this particular panel, the whole thing would collapse and it'd take an age to put it all together again. That was a fun afternoon...
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Were you drilling or screwing in a screw? I mean, if you had just gotten an old fashioned handheld screwdriver you probably could have gotten it to a point that you could have let go.

If you were drilling a hole, then I suggest going my route, with the removable battery, and a second one always sitting on the charger. I learned my lesson after trying to fix a warped board on my deck when my battery died trying to run a screw. Halfway in it slowed and stopped. So, for a day I had this screw sticking up about a half inch on my deck, just begging me to come catch some tetanus.
 
I was screwing in something, but I could only get it so far in by hand, annoyingly. It was a pretty tight fit (well I say tight, it was more forced than anything). As for the battery thing, I would, but the powerdrill I was using came from Woolworths about 6 years ago :P. I really ought to get a new one, actually...
 
I have a nice cheap black and decker power screwdriver that seems like it just won't die, but thats for the thread about GOOD designs...

I hate after market CD players that some how neglect to put a pause button or a button to scan for radio channels
 
My Universal remote always stops working right when I'm trying to change the channel. :yuck:Then I have to take the batteries out, put them in in the reverse order (but still in correct +/- configuration) and then it works. HELLO??? Last time I checked, battery holders are meant to keep batteries working until they die.

:-)
 
Driving Park
My Universal remote always stops working right when I'm trying to change the channel. :yuck:Then I have to take the batteries out, put them in in the reverse order (but still in correct +/- configuration) and then it works. HELLO??? Last time I checked, battery holders are meant to keep batteries working until they die.

:-)
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What impresses me is how inventive you must have been feeling at the time to have figured that solution out!👍
 
Same :lol:

Actually, now I'm on that subject, I hate TV companies that have like 1800 different remote IR signals. It's usually the smaller companies, I find. For example, I found it incredibly hard to find the right code for a Matsui (it's a company made specifically for sale in DSG retail stores over here, like Currys and Dixons) 14 inch TV when I bought a universal remote. It's understandable, really - there is no company called Matsui. They just use a multitude of Asian companies to manufacture their stuff and then rebrand it as Matsui. Therefore, there are lots of different companies and lots of different remotes.

By contrast, Toshiba are excellent at keeping to their codes. We had a 10 year old 28 inch CRT set, and then replaced it with one of their Regza 32 inch LCD models. To our surprise, we didn't need to reprogram the Sky remote to get it to work. Samsung, on the other hand, I've found to be more tricky. The remote from my 710MP worked on our school's 42 inch plasma, but not on a new-ish CRT combi they had in the science block. Why not?
 
Wallets. The average wallet has a inside big long pocket. If you put ANYTHING kinda hard in there you cant close it whatsoever. If you dont get what i mean, ill show you a photo of what i mean...
 
tri fold wallet, the long pocket is meant for cash only, unfortunately wallets and pockets clash often which is why a well-worn pocket can be a godsend
 
I've pretty much got control of my Windows XP Pro installation at home, but there are a couple of things about its design that irk me:

We use Fast-User Switching, I'm an Administrator, and my wife has severely attenuated rights. Yet she can shut down the box, even if my account is logged in. Shouldn't be allowed: what if I'm doing some adminy task in the background?

Secondly, when the box is idle, and neither user has an active session, the first one to activate their session gets all the alerts from the time that the box was idle. In the main, that's Susan, since she logs in in the morning, and many of the alerts wee generated by overnight scheduled tasks.

Oh, and what's with the interface differences between Excel and Word? :mad:
 

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