# baddesigns.com is badly designed, and bad, generally.
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baddesigns-com-is-badly-designed-and-bad-generally/332579
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [November 24, 2005, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baddesigns-com-is-badly-designed-and-bad-generally/332579 "2005-11-24T13:20:32Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2005, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baddesigns-com-is-badly-designed-and-bad-generally/332579/1 "2005-11-24T13:20:32Z")
Check this out:
[http://www.baddesigns.com/examples.html#intro](http://www.baddesigns.com/examples.html#intro)
A website by a self-proclaimed design troubleshooter, great idea, eh? I mean, the world is full of badly designed things, isn’t it?
Trouble is that this website is one of them.
Worse, too many of the criticisms are just whiny, ignorant rants about things the author was too stupid to understand, for example [here](http://www.baddesigns.com/tube.html), he complains that it wasn’t made abundantly clear that the inner foil cap on a squeeze tube of toothpast could be pierced using the little plastic spike on the plastic outer cap he had just unscrewed. :smack:
And he’s not even consistent with himself; in many places, he insists that, for example, button legends consisting of English words are only useful to English-speaking people; symbols should be used - fair enough - but in other places, he whines that symbols aren’t clear or unambiguous enough and they should be augmented by adding… a word of explanation… in English. :rolleyes:
Not everything you don’t (or can’t be bothered to) understand is somebody else’s fault; sometimes in life, you do actually have to use your brain.
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### Author:  [@velvetjones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/velvetjones)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2005, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baddesigns-com-is-badly-designed-and-bad-generally/332579/2 "2005-11-24T13:37:33Z")
After reading through about the first 6 or 7 of these I’ve come to the conclusion that the author is just really, really stupid. Really.
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### Author:  [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2005, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baddesigns-com-is-badly-designed-and-bad-generally/332579/3 "2005-11-24T13:49:32Z")
I’ve seen this site before (probably followed a link from here.)
Yeah, the guy’s either got serious cognitive difficulties or he’s not very good at deadpan humour.
The one that I remember best and think of surprisingly frequently is the complaint that a friction lid withn 1/8" lip around the top edge is a bad design because it encourages people to use it as a handle, and the jar might fall off. No, you knob, it’s a good design because it affords enough purchase with which the lid can be easily removed. That’s what it’s for. Only an idiot would attempt to carry a jar that size by placing their fingertips under this tiny rim.
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### Author:  [@Podkayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Podkayne)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2005, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baddesigns-com-is-badly-designed-and-bad-generally/332579/4 "2005-11-24T13:53:16Z")
Heh. I remeber stumbling across that site years ago. I remember thinking, “Oh, cool! A page about bad design and how they could be made better! This should be insightful and enlightening!”
Ehhhhh, not so much.
I wish someone _would_ do a good job of it, though! It’s really a cool idea for a website.
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### Author:  [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2005, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baddesigns-com-is-badly-designed-and-bad-generally/332579/5 "2005-11-24T14:03:54Z")
How stupid do you have to be for [this](http://www.baddesigns.com/doors.html) to happen to you? They spent several minutes trapped between doors and not once did they think to try to push them, and not pull them?
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2005, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baddesigns-com-is-badly-designed-and-bad-generally/332579/6 "2005-11-24T14:23:01Z")
> [@Dominic Mulligan](#):
>
> How stupid do you have to be for [this](http://www.baddesigns.com/doors.html) to happen to you? They spent several minutes trapped between doors and not once did they think to try to push them, and not pull them?
I would _love_ to work at that place. Every time would be as funny as the first.
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### Author:  [@Idlewild](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idlewild)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2005, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baddesigns-com-is-badly-designed-and-bad-generally/332579/7 "2005-11-24T18:01:25Z")
The doors. The signalling to people inside. The part where they couldn’t figure out to push the one that they had pulled from the other side.
:eek: 😃 It’ll be a while before I can stop laughing.
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### Author:  [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2005, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baddesigns-com-is-badly-designed-and-bad-generally/332579/8 "2005-11-24T18:28:55Z")
I too thought that the toothpaste example was bad. I don’t know when I first ran across this design, but it didn’t baffle me at the time and has never done so since.
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### Author:  [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2005, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baddesigns-com-is-badly-designed-and-bad-generally/332579/9 "2005-11-24T18:48:17Z")
I read through a dozen or so of this guy’s examples, and I have come to the following conclusion:
Anything that requires reading directions, paying attention to detail, or using any sort of thinking skills is “bad design”.
This guy seems to me to just be a really, really lazy person, who would much prefer if the entire world were designed so that he never had to use his brain.
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### Author:  [@VegemiteMoose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VegemiteMoose)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2005, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baddesigns-com-is-badly-designed-and-bad-generally/332579/10 "2005-11-24T19:33:56Z")
Paper books of matches say “Close cover before striking.” But then I can’t get the match out to light it.
Also candles should come pre-lit.
Can somebody tie my shoes for me?
:smack:
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### Author:  [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2005, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baddesigns-com-is-badly-designed-and-bad-generally/332579/11 "2005-11-24T19:56:15Z")
Wow, dumbasses usually aren’t so vocal about the fact they’re dumbasses. I especially like [this one](http://www.baddesigns.com/cuttingb.html) because of course it isn’t his fault for being a dumbass and putting (and continuing to keep) the cutlery in that particular drawer - it’s the designer’s fault!
I’d say about .5% are semiworthy rants. The rest are just dumbassery at its finest.
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2005, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baddesigns-com-is-badly-designed-and-bad-generally/332579/12 "2005-11-24T22:38:02Z")
> [@Idlewild](#):
>
> The doors. The signalling to people inside. The part where they couldn’t figure out to push the one that they had pulled from the other side.
>
> :eek: 😃 It’ll be a while before I can stop laughing.
Working in that place is now my personal fantasy; I would have a workmate called Dave and whenever stupid people got trapped in the glass walkway, I would stand outside on one side and hold up a sign that said “Dave, we have stupid people trapped in the walkway again”. Dave would be standing the opposite side and would hold up a sign that said “Release the badgers!”.
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### Author:  [@jasonh300](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasonh300)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2005, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baddesigns-com-is-badly-designed-and-bad-generally/332579/13 "2005-11-24T22:41:35Z")
Yes, this guy is completely incompetant to do much of anything. And I feel even worse for his poor wife who has to explain everything to him.
This must be the guy who wanted the “contents are extremely hot” warnings on the McDonald’s coffeecups.
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### Author:  [@jasonh300](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasonh300)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2005, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baddesigns-com-is-badly-designed-and-bad-generally/332579/14 "2005-11-24T23:01:27Z")
> [@TellMeI'mNotCrazy](#):
>
> Wow, dumbasses usually aren’t so vocal about the fact they’re dumbasses. I especially like [this one](http://www.baddesigns.com/cuttingb.html) because of course it isn’t his fault for being a dumbass and putting (and continuing to keep) the cutlery in that particular drawer - it’s the designer’s fault!
I liked this part of it:
> [@Dumbass](#):
>
> One solution is not to use the drawer for utensils that are needed while using the cutting board. However, that particular drawer is the most convenient place in the kitchen to keep the utensils.
Well, I’d say it’s **NOT** the most convenient place. He’s already described it as being inconvenient. Some people just can’t be helped.
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2005, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baddesigns-com-is-badly-designed-and-bad-generally/332579/15 "2005-11-24T23:24:38Z")
I have a feeling he’s missed the point entirely with [this](http://www.baddesigns.com/metron.html) one; I don’t think the fascia was designed to look like a dial by accident, I suspect it was designed that way to carefully divert your attention away from the otherwise plain fact that you’re buying a cheap-ass, crappy metronome; OK, it’s still ‘bad’, but not necessarily ‘bad design’.
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### Author:  [@TellMeI\_mNotCrazy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TellMeI_mNotCrazy)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2005, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baddesigns-com-is-badly-designed-and-bad-generally/332579/16 "2005-11-24T23:36:52Z")
I think the thing that drives me the most insane about this guy is that most of his problems would be resolved if he’d just Read the fucking manual. I’m not sure where he came across the idea that all products should be instantly useable - they come with instructions for a reason. I don’t think I can browse the site anymore, it’s gonna make me batty.
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### Author:  [@jasonh300](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasonh300)
#### Post date: [November 24, 2005, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baddesigns-com-is-badly-designed-and-bad-generally/332579/17 "2005-11-24T23:53:45Z")
_ **OH MY GOD!!!** _
[He’s taking flight lessons!](http://www.baddesigns.com/goorwoa.html)
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [November 25, 2005, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baddesigns-com-is-badly-designed-and-bad-generally/332579/18 "2005-11-25T00:18:54Z")
But if a young, foreign child had to fly this plane, without instruction, he would instinctively push the lever instead of pulling it, also, he would have trouble reading the legends on the dials, since many of them are complicated words, in English.
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### Author:  [@Cazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cazzle)
#### Post date: [November 25, 2005, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baddesigns-com-is-badly-designed-and-bad-generally/332579/19 "2005-11-25T00:57:08Z")
I like [this one](http://www.baddesigns.com/vcr.html).
The opening comment “This picture shows a top-loading VCR (video cassette recorder). You don’t see this style of VCR much anymore.”
I wonder why?!
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### Author:  [@Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troy_McClure_SF)
#### Post date: [November 25, 2005, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baddesigns-com-is-badly-designed-and-bad-generally/332579/20 "2005-11-25T01:27:16Z")
I have to say, I’m with him on [this one](http://www.baddesigns.com/slippery.html). There’s a bar here (I can’t remember which one- go figure) with round, smooth handles. Baffles me that someone that those up, and that other people buy them.
But yeah, most of that site is amusing but scary.
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