Examples of bad design

[johnnychips]

I have tried the search function to see if there is a thread on this, and I am very surprised I can’t find one. Probably within five minutes, somebody will, in which case, mods, feel free to delete or merge.

I have no doubt we have all seen pictures of individual cases of bad design, like a lamp post in a bike lane; toilet doors that open inwards so you have to squeeze to get in; bus shelters that have holes in etc.

What I was really thinking of was of things that are a bit more widespread, and badly designed, rather than the odd quirk.

I think we need to exclude railway related things as this is general discussion, so no exit buttons on Pacers, please!

I’ll kick off with certain types of paving stones. Councils seem to spend a fortune on paving slabs rather than just normal tarmac, yet quite often, as soon as it rains, they become really slippy and you have to tread quite gingerly. As soon as there is black ice, well…

Any other bugbears?

 

[Mcr Warrior]

Stainless steel teapots in cafés that dribble their contents everywhere when you try to pour out a cuppa.

 

[Cowley]

@johnnychips - I don’t think this has been done before and it’s a good idea for a thread actually.

I’ll add mine, those tin mugs with the lip that you can’t help dribbling tea when you drink from them.

 

[43096]

Taps on virtually every modern hand basin. There seems to be a fad for a vast basin with a tap that barely gets over the back edge so that when you wash your hands a significant amount of the water goes anywhere but the basin. It must be the creation of designers who never actually use the things. Today's designers need to follow the lead of the likes of Sir Kenneth Grange who believe ease-of-use is an important part of design.

 

[DaleCooper]

Automatic taps in public toilets. The sensor is never near the place where you naturally put your hands i.e. under the spout.

 

[johnnychips]

@johnnychips - I don’t think this has been done before and it’s a good idea for a thread actually.

I’ll add mine, those tin mugs with the lip that you can’t help dribbling tea when you drink from them.

Yes, actually, now plastic has been invented - I remember they were ‘essential’ when I was on Cub camp as they are unbreakable - they are annoying and pointless. All they do is burn your lips.

 

[32475]

Tinned food cans: some have a rip off lid and some don’t. Why can’t they all have rip off lids?

Plastic food packaging: why are non recyclable plastics used all too often rather than recyclable ones?

 

[BenS123]

Those 3 in 1 hand washing stations in public toilets - you weren't paying attention and missed the water and now you need to wait for the machine to go through the entire routine again!

 

[lxfe_mxtterz]

Those 3 in 1 hand washing stations in public toilets - you weren't paying attention and missed the water and now you need to wait for the machine to go through the entire routine again!

And even if you are paying attention, for some ridiculous reason they only spray water for a couple of seconds, meaning you're left to wait for another cycle regardless (with very soapy hands).

 

[dangie]

ProbablyI’ll kick off with certain types of paving stones. Councils seem to spend a fortune on paving slabs rather than just normal tarmac, yet quite often, as soon as it rains, they become really slippy and you have to tread quite gingerly. As soon as there is black ice, well…

When designing these paved areas councils choose some fancy paving slabs which look extremely modern on paper. In time when these slabs crack and break up which they invariably do, they are simply lifted up and replaced with tarmac. The result looks absolutely awful.

 

[BenS123]

And even if you are paying attention, for some ridiculous reason they only spray water for a couple of seconds, meaning you're left to wait for another cycle regardless (with very soapy hands).

Or they will give you around 3 seconds of low power air when you get to the drying stage meaning if you want to properly dry your hands you have to do the entire thing again!

Edit: the new Tesco self service checkouts are also poorly designed, once I scanned a coupon off my phone and it asked me to insert it! Worst of all, even if I could insert it (I wouldn't trust a self service checkout with my phone) there wasn't even a slot to insert coupons anyway!

 

[dangie]

Food packaging where the container can be recycled but the label can not.

 

[66701GBRF]

Tinned food cans: some have a rip off lid and some don’t. Why can’t they all have rip off lids?

Tinned food cans are a very good design regardless of one being easier to open than the other.

 

[DaleCooper]

Tinned food cans are a very good design regardless of one being easier to open than the other.

That's true except for corned beef tins. I've had to resort to pliers when the key didn't work.

 

[nw1]

One of my pet hates, this.

Many things seem to be designed to not open if you apply a little bit of pressure, and then break if you apply too much. And the window between "a little bit" and "too much" is very small.

One example I can think of right now is smoke alarms - as in, needing to open them to replace the battery when it starts beeping. Almost impossible to open, and I ended up breaking the opening mechanism (requring someone to fix it) on one occasion.

Surely if the desire is to replace the battery easily, they should be easy to open and not require ridiculous dexterity skills?

And that is just one example. This sort of bad design is commonplace.

 

[DelW]

Christmas lights (or indeed other small electrical items), which have battery compartments that:

• have the lid kept in place by a tiny Philips screw, needing an equally tiny Philips screwdriver, and/or
• have the batteries in such a tight recess that you can't hook them out with a fingertip, needing a tiny flat screwdriver to lever them out, and/or
• have three AA batteries, so if using rechargeables, many chargers can't be used as they'll only charge in pairs or four

(drafted before nw1's post, but agreeing with his point!)

 

[dosxuk]

Christmas lights (or indeed other small electrical items), which have battery compartments that:

• have the lid kept in place by a tiny Philips screw, needing an equally tiny Philips screwdriver

This is mostly to confirm with the regulations about preventing access to batteries by small children, especially coin cells / watch batteries, which look like sweets but the effects of swallowing one are horrific.

Used to annoy me too, until I looked into why it had become so prevalent, now I'm a full supporter.

 

[duncanp]

That's true except for corned beef tins. I've had to resort to pliers when the key didn't work.

Corned beef tins are an item that should be included in the Comedic Things You Would Ban thread.

I don't see why they are necessary in the first place, and I have never ever got that silly little key thing to work.

 

[66701GBRF]

Ah yes, I had forgotten about corned beef tins so fair point!

 

[DelW]

This is mostly to confirm with the regulations about preventing access to batteries by small children, especially coin cells / watch batteries, which look like sweets but the effects of swallowing one are horrific.

Used to annoy me too, until I looked into why it had become so prevalent, now I'm a full supporter.

I can see the principle, but there are better solutions out there. The ones on my Christmas lights were using AA cells, not coin cells, which I agree do need to be child proof.

Like many child-resistant closures (e.g. medicine bottles) they tend to be "oldie" proof as well - those tiny Philips screws are a challenge to my dexterity and eyesight .

 

[GRALISTAIR]

Standardize mobile phone chargers please. That would be good design!

 

[BenS123]

Can we talk about poor web design

 

[Strat-tastic]

Ah, my kind of thread
Beware triumphs of form over function, as I call them.
Adding to the tap angle, taps with no handle so you can't get any purchase with wet hands.
I mean, why?

 

[61653 HTAFC]

I've mentioned before a bus stop in Skelmanthorpe near Huddersfield, which has a Kassel kerb which is entirely blocked by a glass panel of the accompanying bus shelter- rendering it useless.

There was also Ben Elton's comedy routine about the "Ministry of C**p Design" with targets including those stainless steel teapots found at motorway services, which seem designed to send the hot tea everywhere except the cup!

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 29 Jan 2023 ==

Standardize mobile phone chargers please. That would be good design!

That's coming, at least in Europe!

 

[Mcr Warrior]

... those stainless steel teapots found at motorway services, which seem designed to send the hot tea everywhere except the cup!

Indeed. See post #2.

Didn't their designers ever try them out?!

 

[61653 HTAFC]

Tinned food cans: some have a rip off lid and some don’t. Why can’t they all have rip off lids?

Plastic food packaging: why are non recyclable plastics used all too often rather than recyclable ones?

Worst are packets that indicate that the "lid" will peel off neatly in one piece... yet they never actually do- and in most cases tear around the outside leaving the packaging still perfectly sealed, so you have to use scissors or a knife to get in!

 

[alxndr]

Edit: the new Tesco self service checkouts are also poorly designed, once I scanned a coupon off my phone and it asked me to insert it! Worst of all, even if I could insert it (I wouldn't trust a self service checkout with my phone) there wasn't even a slot to insert coupons anyway!

I don’t know if it’s just my nearest Tesco, but all of the new self service tills can’t get individual fruit and veg right. They go straight from selecting the item to wanting it in the bagging area without weighing it first. Of course the weight is then wrong and it complains about an unexpected item in the bagging area...

Worst are packets that indicate that the "lid" will peel off neatly in one piece... yet they never actually do- and in most cases tear around the outside leaving the packaging still perfectly sealed, so you have to use scissors or a knife to get in!

Or packaging that brags about having a resealable film lid, but it never sticks right again, and the slides of meat/cheese are always arranged so that you have to rip the whole lid off to get to the top slice. If they stacked them the other way you’d have to only unstick part of the lid to begin with and it would stay better sealed.

 

[JD2168]

New style Coca Cola lids where it is attached to encourage recycling, problem is it makes drinking it more awkward & fastening it back shut is rather awkward.

 

[pdeaves]

KitKat seems to have gone over to a new, poorer packaging design. First off, it's plastic (rather than easily-recyclable foil and paper). Second off, they're all-over red with 'flavour variant' printed on the front, and you have to turn it over to see if it's orange or whatever. Change for the sake of change, I say and the new design makes it very difficult to determine whether the item in my cupboard is the one I want or not.

 

[Altrincham]

Recently I’ve been finishing off Christmas chocolates and notice how many boxes of chocolates have the guide to chocolate on the bottom of the box.

The other thing that I constantly notice is the niggle that @61653 HTAFC mentions about plastic not peeling back as it’s intended to do.

Also some peel-and-reseal packaging that doesn’t actually reseal effectively. Completely agree with @alxndr.