[Closed] Nominations for the worst bit of design ever.

Not really, given the QWERTY layout was designed to make typing as difficult/slow as possible, anything would be better now!

Never heard that before and internet suggests myth
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QWERTY
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/Q/QWERTY_keyboard.html

the later says myth the former has more info and sort of supports the view

I have no idea as I said never heard that said before so still not sure if myth or fact

Any hand dryer apart from air blades. Who signed of the design?
'Does it work?'
'Oh yes'
'but my hands aren't dry'
'erm'

Air Blades? Shite! The modern powerful jet of air under which you can rub your hands is miles better.

<rant>
Roundabouts with traffic lights every 3 metres...if you want traffic lights build a crossroads, it costs less, drains water better, easier to design and maintain, less prone to jams because some muppet can't see the yellow box, aaaargh!

Mini roundabouts...universally ignored except by those that haven't a clue and just stop and look at everyone else. Who also stop because someone is on their right, aaaaaargh!

Stop signs at junctions. Pointless, giving way is quite adequate, thanks
</rant>

Can't stand the new jet hand dryers, so loud in a room which naturally has no soft furnishings to absorb. Almost tempted to take ear plugs when I'm off to the can at work. Blade ones a bit better but paper towels best for actually getting your hands dry although from what I understand not very eco. Back of the trousers it is!

Instruction manuals?

I mean, why bother? Nobody reads them, particularly car ones, particularly the section in them about how to change your light bulbs... 😉

Blade ones a bit better but paper towels best for actually getting your hands dry although from what I understand not very eco

Whats funny is I'm so used to the button-less sensor activated hand-dryers that when I last encountered a paper towel dispenser I found myself waving my hands vaguely underneath it wondering why the air wasn't coming out.

But to generally ineffectual hand driers I'd add an additional circle of hell reserved for the manufacturers of sensor activated hand driers where the sensor and blower point to different places in space. You wave your hands under the machine - its starts - you move your hands to where the air is coming out - it stops.

The standard airplane toilet

toasters

Stop signs at junctions. Pointless, giving way is quite adequate, thanks

I have one at the end of the road that is regularly ignored and is the source of numerous accidents as folk just ignore it. So much so that I end up stopping at a give way sign rather than roll the dice with other cars.
Oner driver once got out his car and screamed at me its a ****ing give way sign you idiot
I pointed to where he had exited and said - its a stop sign have you stopped?

Ge replied - pointing at my exit with its a ****ing give way sign what are you stupid?
I loled - he went ape shit - I laughed some more

Was it you*?

Thats my rant for today, to match yours 😉

171
You MUST stop behind the line at a junction with a ‘Stop’ sign and a solid white line across the road. Wait for a safe gap in the traffic before you move off.
Laws RTA 1988 sect 36 & TSRGD regs 10 & 16

* I see him dropping his kid of at school he wont even make eye contact with me

And the winner - the €

I'm honoured. 😉

Winston has a point but as a designer, fulfilling a clients a badly thought out or short sighted brief doesn't make it an adequate design. All it means means is you will get paid and for most designers that's the main goal.

My nomination isn't a product as such and does has some great touches, but considering the designers other remarkable creations, i'm at a loss as to what was going on here*. Mother nature, WTF?

[img] [/img]

*Only thing i can think of is an archeological prank. I mean, arms that can't reach any other part of the body?

Those daft toilet doors on trains that, unless you know which magic combination actually closes and locks the door, actually open to reveal the user on the pot.

There must be a name for the anticipatory terror experienced when nature forces one to use these monstrous piss-tardis exposé traps. You can't help twitching and looking wide-eyed at the door for the whole duration.

Please bring back old railway carriages, with wood, and ashtrays, and corridors, and little brass handles.

Gnome3.

Completely baffling. In the old days it had a "Hibernate" menu option to hibernate your machine. But in Gnome3 they decided that this feature was too "advanced" so it got removed. After a day of googling around I eventually found the configuration file you had to manually edit to re-enable it. And the rest is just as bad. There's some funky configuration thing you have to install and poke around with to make it work, but life is just too short. Aaarrgh!

Gnome2 used to be great, but I'm living with Xfce now because it's not Gnome or Kde.

The car.

IN 1885 Karl Benz constructed the first automobile.

It had three wheels, like an invalid car,

And ran on alcohol, like many drivers.

Since then about seventeen million people have been killed by them

In an undeclared war;

And the whole of the rest of the world is in danger of being run over

Due to squabbles about their oil.

If an alien was to hover a few hundred yards above the planet

It could be forgiven for thinking

That cars were the dominant life-form,

And that human beings were a kind of ambulatory fuel cell:

Injected when the car wished to move off,

And ejected when they were spent.

[url= http://peoplesgeography.com/2006/10/18/autogeddon-one-of-my-fav-poems/ ]'Autogeddon'[/url] (excerpt) by Heathcote Williams

[img] [/img]

Chiller cabinets without doors. Honestly, even before the green agenda really got going you'd have shops spending money on leccy to run the chillers whilst cranking the heating up so the staff didn't walk out. Barmy.

I work in retail construction and it is the one thing that always gets me. The client I work for will spend a fortune on green initiatives that will never really pay back, but avoid the obvious one for fear of it impacting on sales. Even the companies that make the refrig equipment keep telling them to add doors to save shed loads but they won't. If all the supermarkets did it, then customers would have no choice but to open a door!

It's not do much the staff that whine it's cold....it's the customers. As a result you have an open topped fridge / freezer with heaters underneath heating the isle. No one seems to see anything wrong with this apparently!

And yes those light bulbs are awful.

I'd also like to nominate buttons on baby grows....why? When you have a fidgety baby, buttons are the obvious thng to make life easy!

Knees.

Proof that the creationists idea of Intelligent Design is tosh wallops.
'Lets connect the two bits that let you run away from hungry beasts together with stretchy string, and cover the bits the touch in mildly tough jelly?'
'Now lets design the rest of the body to outlast them'

Combining a recline function and tray back table on an airline seat.

What could possibly go wrong? Giving one person the ability to tip scalding hot drinks into another person's lap by being selfish.

by being selfish.

I'd say designing a seat that you expect someone to sit in for 10 or 12 hours bolt upright where the only crumb of relief you can get is by reclining it slightly but risk being called selfish for doing so is bad design in itself. Yes, I know why (squeezing us all in to reduce costs/increase profits) but it's still not good enough.

I mean, arms that can't reach any other part of the body?

...you have to stop to see what is there in order to decide whether to give way...

I absolutely agree, but why do you need a sign? Give way is what you're doing, and if it's necessary for you to stop, then stop
It's like putting "Fog" on motorway signs. Really? Is that what that thick grey blanket obscuring my view is?

The problem is that people get nannied, if they [u]had [/u]to think then we might do a bit better

(and of course I'm a better driver than average, all motorists are)

High-heeled shoes in general. But this:

[img] [/img]

I'm not sure T-rex qualifies for bad design - It was a top predator and around for 2.5 million years - homosapien has only been here for 500,000 so far.

My top nomination would be most houses that have been built since the 30's. The design faults in our dwellings are so legion I don't know where to start.

After looking at iolo's thread about the phone dock/dog I'll nominate this. After all everyone needs a 3.5m high docking station in their lives.

http://jarre.com/products/jarre-technologies/aerodream-one

I would just like to point out that I am not responsible for any of these.

Yet.

And I shall be revisiting the thread.....when I've finished designing cheap solar garden lights for manufacture in China. 😀

Give way is what you're doing, and if it's necessary for you to stop, then stop

if they had to think then we might do a bit better

Its a stop sign its not complicated to work out what to do at it.
Its not an option its an instruction.

The button fly. Whoever thought that was a good idea was obviously never troubled by needing to go for a leak with numb fingers on a cold day.

The button fly.

Similarly, the fly on my jeans which has a little zipper garage flap into which the pull on the zipper slips while you're pissing and is then almost irretrievable, certainly without looking completely ridiculous.

I'd say designing a seat that you expect someone to sit in for 10 or 12 hours bolt upright where the only crumb of relief you can get is by reclining it slightly but risk being called selfish for doing so is bad design in itself. Yes, I know why (squeezing us all in to reduce costs/increase profits) but it's still not good enough.

I should probably qualify this. The act of reclining the seat is not selfish, but at least 50% of the people I have sat behind just recline their seat without even looking, let alone asking if it is ok. That's the selfish bit.

Original conti mountain kings.

Too thin, too tight on the rim, and triangular tread blocks just sliced through the dirt rather than gripping it. The worst tyres I have ever bought.

This bit of design quickly became very bad when rifles appeared.........

[img] [/img]

The bright white webbing cross on the front makes a handy aiming point as well.

Shimano dual control. A crap solution to a non-existent problem.

[img] [/img]

*note to self: never design anything for DannyH* 8)

*note to self: never design anything for DannyH*

You can. Just make sure it's not crap!

[img] [/img]

Did you spill my pint?

Technically, yes, but I just leant on the bar a metre away, physics did the rest.

Shame they overlooked one small exhaust port.........

[img] [/img]

Shame they overlooked one small exhaust port.........

I have it in confidence that the Imperial design brief originally neglected to specify 'at least half the size of a womp rat and protected in both directions by blast shields'

I'd totally go with the rightangled scart lead, and its accomplice, appliances with horizontal scart lead sockets- a combination perfectly designed to pull the cables out of the TV. Most French thing ever

I like Shimano dual control.

I'd totally go with the rightangled scart lead, and its accomplice, appliances with horizontal scart lead sockets- a combination perfectly designed to pull the cables out of the TV. Most French thing ever

Now that most people wall mount their tellies now (not me - CRT til I die or at least until flat telly stop being too ugly to look at) then I'd also nominate tellies where non of the leads can be plugged in or unplugged once the tv is fixed to the wall.

[quote=Mostly Balanced ]The button fly. Whoever thought that was a good idea was obviously never troubled by needing to go for a leak with numb fingers on a cold day.

What other options do you think the designer of that had?

I'm fairly sure this was a bad idea.

[img] [/img]

I do want to make a nice Cnc machined, cartridge bearing toilet seat hinge with slow close damper.
One day.

My chest right now seems the most infection prone thing ever. Crap design.

[img] [/img]

There's never enough water to wash off the soap, but you can't trigger the water again without getting yet more soap on your hands. Piss poor.

On closer examination it seems this one uses push buttons, it is the auto ones I am on about.

Magnetic entry cat flap:

[img] [/img]

Doesn't work, cat can't get in, and has to wait outside. What it is very good at is picking up random metallic objects onto the collar.

.. and cats seem to be able to lose the magnets within 5 minutes of them being attached to their collar.

[img] [/img]

Anyone with a child will know what I mean.

Toy restrained in a box like it's Chucky himself? Check.

Demo mode that's nice and quiet that gives way to ear splitting volume once toy is activated? Check.

Can't turn toy off. Check.

Can't use the volume function in certain 'play' modes? Check.

Can't take a ****ing telling and continues to beg for attention when even the small gremlin has tired of it? Check.

We are a supposedly advanced and intelligent species and we waste our ****ing lives deigning and buying shit like that??? WTF?

Vtech is a scam. A plastic shite toy pretend laptop that bleeps, has a tiny screen and plays a handful of awful games is like £100, when a real android tablet with 100x the power can be had for £90.

But it's "you know.. For kids!" So people cough up.

Any bike light with a single button that cycles through the modes, where someone decides that we need more than simply high and low.

My old ones were really irritating as they went high/medium/low/flash/high, the new ones (C&B Seen) are better as they just have high/medium/low, but a double click to switch low to high turns on the strobe setting. If it just had high and low, it would be one click to change mode, double click for strobe.

A huge amount of software out there. Travel agents seem to be the worst. Who knows why people think it is acceptable or the way it should be.

brant - Member

I do want to make a nice Cnc machined, cartridge bearing toilet seat hinge with slow close damper.
One day.

Vtech is a scam. A plastic shite toy pretend laptop that bleeps, has a tiny screen and plays a handful of awful games is like £100, when a real android tablet with 100x the power can be had for £90.

But it's "you know.. For kids!" So people cough up.

Tell me about it, mine is getting a laptop with the wifi disabled and some sort of child friendly linux distro. 1000x better than the Commodore 64 and Amstrad CPC6128 I had to live with (but no Roland in Time or Percy Penguin so maybe I win anyway).

4 pages in and no mention of Superstar brake pads or the Singletrack app?

My nomination for crap design is......toilet paper.

Is there a country in the world whereby a bidet is not considered a normal part of bathroom furniture, and with good reason ? Seems our culture is a bit too up our own bottom to accept them, so instead we waste forests in a poor attempt to solve a problem which comes back to haunt you at the most awkward times anyway. Terrible idea....

Bidet?

Like to see the reasoning behind that. How much energy do you think it takes to pump water? What's the carbon footprint once you factor in pressure loss in the pipe, energy conversion loss at the pump, transmission losses for the power transmission and thermal losses at the generation site? For the sake of getting a wet arse that you then need to dry, expending more energy. Oh, and you have to heat the water too unless you like bollocks the size of peanuts.

At least energy can be recovered from used paper in anaerobic digesters before it's used as fertiliser.

poke through accident?

so instead we [s]waste[/s] plant forests in a poor attempt to solve a problem

Ftfy

Lots of bathroom related bad designs on this thread, so what about the sink plug mechanism with the pull up/push down mechanism? Pretty much every hotel I have stayed in has a faulty one of these where you run the water for a shave and by the time you are foamed up the water has all gone.

[img] [/img]

Staropramen glasses. I thought it was just me that somehow always splashed beer into my own eye. Turns out it's the shape of the glass.

Our current flat has these Polypipe UFH room stats.

They're cabled - so there could be power running to them- yet they take 4 Aaa batteries.

[img] [/img]

Taps in general.

Dirty hand - use dirty hand to open tap.
Water runs for some time while warm water approaches - 5-10l wasted.
200ml of warm water required.
Rinse hands.
?Repeat - water continues to run entire time. Probably too hot at this point.
?Faff with other tap to add cold water.
Use clean hand to turn water off, by touching same part of tap as you stated with.

I WAS going to do my 3rd year Design Project on it, but was advised too boring.

One day I will make ALL the sinks.
And while we're at it, I'll flush the loo with grey water.
You will thank me 🙂
You're welcome.

I'm with you on GU10.

And also the original USB, with what feels like rotational symmetry, must must be plugged in the right way up. Shite.

Wash your hands in cold you fool.

some sort of child friendly linux distro

Kano?

As for button flys, they rule, if done properly.

Oh, and foot operated Taps, Italian style, rule.

What else? Oh yes, I have a slow closing closing toilet seat already. Silent.

Another one for toilet paper being a crap (s****) pointless design- and why do we need a 50ft section in the supermarket full of paper varieties. Why do we wipe our arse and spread fecal bacteria using dry paper - is it an ideal solution?, if so then why do we wash our hands with soap and water when dirty rather than attempt to rub them clean with a dry towel?.

Bidet, wet wipes or suchlike or perhaps a jug of water and soap thank you very much.

Kelvin, and molgrips [perhaps] falling for my trap, hhahaha....!
[b]

The 5 Fundamental Fallacies of Design:

(i) This design is satisfactory for me - it will therefore be satisfactory for everybody else

(ii) This design is satisfactory for the average person - it will therefore be satisfactory for everybody else.

(iii) The variability of human beings is so great that it cannot possibly be catered for in any design - but since people are so wonderfully adaptable it doesn't matter anyway.

(iv) Ergonomics is expensive and since products are actually purchased on appearance and styling, ergonomics considerations may be conveniently ignored.

(v) Ergonomics is an excellent idea. I always design with ergonomics in mind - but I do it intuitively and rely on on my common sense so I don't need tables of data.

[/b]

--Foot operated taps seem like a logical solution, yes?

But you're making a fairly serious assumption, the ability to press down on the button. Having entered a non-adapted toilet it's logical to assume most people have the use of their hands, for which a tap is well suited. However, the use of a leg to press down on the tap/button is not something that can be assumed to follow. the user may be in a wheelchair, the user may have a leg in a cast and the're unable to balance if they have to use the other leg to press down on the button....

RE - cold water - if you have only cold water, how is this going to affect older people, with poor circulation [aging population], those with arthritis, or just how do you think you'll feel yourself on a cold day? Are you even going to get a commission for the design if you exclude a hot tap?

Further - having taken this into consideration, let's say you've found a way to replace the taps, what about the space on the top of a standard sink? You're taking the taps away, but the sinks will come with holes for them. So now you need either a non-standard sink, or another item to fit into the holes in the standard sink you have been specified to use.

And then people go and say "These designers are daft"! 😀

[quote=gofasterstripes ]Taps in general.
Dirty hand - use dirty hand to open tap.
...
Use clean hand to turn water off, by touching same part of tap as you stated with.

Which is why the taps on our kitchen sink look similar to these:

[img] [/img]

which you can turn on and off with your elbows, thus avoiding the need to touch them with dirty hands. They're the only taps I've had to replace in our house, though if and when I have to replace any others it will be with something similar. So it is possible, but how far down I had to go in the image search suggests they're not very common.

^ those taps above
Bend down to rinse your face after washing
Both eyes poked out 😉

separate taps...useless design

They're the only taps I've had to replace in our house, though if and when I have to replace any others it will be with something similar. So it is possible, but how far down I had to go in the image search suggests they're not very common.

Bus stops.

Of focal points for ****wits to congregate round and block the pavement for everybody else.

Bus stops are a great idea. Roads that are built for cars not mass transit are a terrible idea.

Nonono you misunderstand.

Just the design of bus stops not the concept of people using public transport.

Or more specifically the bus shelter designed to half the useable width of a pavement and promote congregation on the other half thus blocking the whole pavement.

You're an edinburger i think Northwind south side of princes street opposite jenners. A classic example, a bus shelter takes more than half the pavement which is bounded by the metal railings, that section is extremely bisy, the shelter doesn't provide nearly enough shelter anyway and to physically get to it people have already been exposed to the elements. Made worse still when an actual bus arrives and every body crams in from 180degrees.

Literally bad design that does not take in to account the stupidity of a flock of humans.

A regular sight to see pedestrians resorting to walking infront of the bus shelter on the road or perhaps designing for mass transport is more important than pedestrian transport as I'm sure you're aware that section is car free and has to provide a route for a bus lane for stopping, a bus lane for moving and also accomodate a tram all on a street designed before the existance of motorcars.

joshvegas - Member

Or more specifically the bus shelter designed to half the useable width of a pavement and promote congregation on the other half thus blocking the whole pavement.

Nah, that's a perfectly decent design, squeezed into too small a space by the road

Which makes it a bad design for a bus stop. The road can't be any narrower the current "design" forces non bus stop users into using the road to bypass it.

A well designed bus stop would encourage pasengers to cue, the edge closest to uncoming bus should prevent people accessing the entrance to bus which with make it pointless to gather in a huddle a long narrow bus shelter would be a better design. Additionally the space in the lane infront of the bus is wasted space, a half lane thickening of the pavement would provide more waiting space out of the flow of fot traffic while still allowing busses to exit the stop and rejoin the moving lane in a merging maneuver.

And not building a stupid tram that would help too.

Topeak defender front. Honestly, do these people ride bikes or just look at them stationary? Did no-one consider that a full 6" of loose flapiness in both planes would not be desirable? Or do you just not give a shit, having already pocketed my £20?

Did no-one consider that a full 6" of loose flapiness in both planes would not be desirable?

if it was that obvious, why did you buy it?

Cos it was only obvious after I fitted it to a bike....

The act of reclining the seat is not selfish, but at least 50% of the people I have sat behind just recline their seat without even looking, let alone asking if it is ok. That's the selfish bit.

I've never understood this gripe. If the person if front reclines their seat (by the whole inch or so it moves), you can recline yours as well and you have exactly the same amount of space you started with. And if the reclining knocks over your cup, you're a buffoon for putting it there.

what about the sink plug mechanism with the pull up/push down mechanism? Pretty much every hotel I have stayed in has a faulty one of these where you run the water for a shave and by the time you are foamed up the water has all gone.

I'll see your uppy-downy plug and raise you the ones that are permanently attached on a diametric axle. So you get washed, dry your hands, then realise you have to fish about in the grubby water to push the side of the plug down and then dry your hands again.

Taps in general.

The ones the annoy me are the water-saving push-button ones you often get in public toilets. You know, the ones where the delay mechanism wore out long ago and shut off as soon as you let go of the bastard thing, so you can only wash one hand at once.