# Examples of bad design
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-bad-design/512109
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [September 30, 2009, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-bad-design/512109 "2009-09-30T15:28:02Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 7
### Author:  [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2009, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-bad-design/512109/121 "2009-10-04T01:57:42Z")
My candidate for bad design: I used to have a 1984 Ford Tempo with the horn button in a very unusual place - you had to push in the turn signal stalk on the left of the steering column. Very bad in an emergency, because instinctively you’re going to want to hit the center hub of the steering wheel where you would normally expect the horn button to be in a normal car. Why on Earth would a major automobile company such as Ford even consider changing the position of the horn? As far as I know, it was only done for the one model year, as my father had bought an '85 Tempo with the horn in the normal position. I jokingly told him, “Ford learns from its mistakes.” 😃
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### Author:  [@NinjaChick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinjaChick)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2009, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-bad-design/512109/122 "2009-10-04T03:15:16Z")
I have no idea when they started doing it or if they’ve (hopefully!) stopped, but at one point Dell started shipping desktop units with USB ports on the front. This was good. They were hidden under the [hinged light gray flap](http://ibmoutletusa.com/eBay/item_pictures/Dell/GX260withLCD/tower.jpg) on the front of the machine, which lifts maybe 60 degrees. The bad is that the ports themselves were, for some reason, on this angled little bit, angled about thirty degrees out from the computer. So, unless you get flat on your back and stick your head right up next to the tower, you _cannot_ see the port to plug anything in, you just need to grope blindly.
Oooh, also those (Dell?) laptops with multiple USB ports stacked right on top of each other, meaning…you can’t fit two plugs in the amount of space provided.
> [@Nava](#):
>
> They’re meant to have fuses inside.
>
> Yes, fuses.
>
> Yes, like the ones in the wall of the house. You know, those cilinders with the two metal ends which melt if there is a big power surge, so that the machinery plugged to your house’s circuits _won’t_ melt.
>
> Why? To protect the appliance.
>
> But why protect every freaking individual appliance? Well, you ever hear of when [London burned down](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Fire_of_London)? Them Brits take fire seriously; electrical stuff blowing up can cause fires, ergo electrical stuff should be prevented from blowing up as much as possible.
>
> So why put the fuses in the jacks? Because the other options would be putting them in the jills (which would mean requiring nuclear-rated fuses, as you wouldn’t know what would be getting plugged into any given jill) and putting them in the machine itself (which would be much more difficult for the manufacturers and also mean harder-to-replace fuses than by having them in the jack).
>
> Bloody big tho, that’s for sure.
I kind of doubt that a fire over three hundred years ago is the reason for modern British power cords. I don’t deny that the British government tends to go a little bit crazy with various safety regulations, but I’m having trouble attributing that to something that happened in the 1600’s. And regardless, those plugs are still terrible design - compare a British plug to a North American or continental European one, and the British style is just a pain in the ass. And as far as I’m aware, there’s no great plague of houses burning down across North America and Europe due to our more practical plugs. (And, uh, I may seem kind of worked up about this, but when I was living in Britain I was just constantly irritated by the plug design. It struck me as just obnoxiously large, and it was just one of those little things that grates on you relentlessly.)
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### Author:  [@The\_Vorlon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Vorlon)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2009, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-bad-design/512109/123 "2009-10-04T03:21:25Z")
Remember, we Americans use different voltages and cycles than others.
220V 50cy may do strange things.
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### Author:  [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2009, 5:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-bad-design/512109/124 "2009-10-04T05:20:18Z")
> [@Mangetout](#):
>
> Blue LEDs on bloody _everything_.
Man, I hate those. I have little squares of black electrical tape on devices all over my apartment. Designers, just because you CAN put little blue LEDS on anything doesn’t mean you SHOULD. The worst offender? The new DirecTV HD DVRs. They have a spinning ring of blue LEDs right in the middle of the face of the unit! Forget having this bad boy in your bedroom, especially if it’s recording something. It would be if the TARDIS was landing in your bedroom - over and over, all night long.
> [@Cardinal](#):
>
> My shower has no adjustment for water flow. You get full power at all times: on is on.
There are good showers controls though, but if you rent you might not have much choice. The ones I hate are those moronic “one knob” types - turn fully counter-clockwise for off, turn clockwise to go from freezing to scalding, all at the same volume. My brother the Master Plumber has installed Delta controls in the baths in my apartments, his home, all his rental properties and all our relatives. He really believes in this product. It has a [handle for volume and a knob for temperature](http://www.deltafaucet.com/bath/tubshower/filter.html?type=Tub%2FShower&presetFilterIds=11970845887&presetFilterIds=11378585745&presetFilterIds=11139497403&presetFilterIds=1435993777&presetFilterIds=1553648460&presetFilterIds=11379563088&selectedFilterIds=11145865068&selectedFilterIds=1900301656&selectedFilterIds=11490897879&selectedFilterIds=11473729761&x=85&y=14#11145865068_11490897879_). If you’re the only one who uses the shower, it’s always correct. You can turn it off, or turn the water pressure down, and the temperature won’t change.
> [@elbows](#):
>
> Since we’re on the topic, let me just give a great big shout out to the designers of the standard american style toilet. Clearly it was put together by someone who need never worry that they would have to clean it. Not the interior, the exterior. The entire thing is bad design and every woman knows it.
>
> The design insures it will be installed against a wall meaning you must get on your knees to clean the now almost unreachable parts. Cleverly designed with lots of nooks to catch maximum dust and crap. Oh, and make sure the bolts protrude so those little hood dealies can catch some crap too.
>
> Now let’s install it into it’s own little alcove to insure that cleaning it is yet more difficult than originally designed. I hope you all come back at maids at a cheap hotel!
Trust me, installing and fixing them is a nightmare too. The way they mount to the floor flange is mind-bogglingly stupid.
> [@KlondikeGeoff](#):
>
> For all those who suffer the myriad problems of multiple, hard-to-use remote controls, i have just two words: Harmony One
I have them everywhere. Brilliant design.
> [@NinjaChick](#):
>
> I kind of doubt that a fire over three hundred years ago is the reason for modern British power cords. I don’t deny that the British government tends to go a little bit crazy with various safety regulations, but I’m having trouble attributing that to something that happened in the 1600’s. And regardless, those plugs are still terrible design - compare a British plug to a North American or continental European one, and the British style is just a pain in the ass. And as far as I’m aware, there’s no great plague of houses burning down across North America and Europe due to our more practical plugs. (And, uh, I may seem kind of worked up about this, but when I was living in Britain I was just constantly irritated by the plug design. It struck me as just obnoxiously large, and it was just one of those little things that grates on you relentlessly.)
The European ones are smaller, granted. But the American plug is horrible! One of the two blades is hot as soon as the plug is partially inserted into the outlet. Which means that if your hand slips, you can shock the shit out of yourself very easily, and makes plugging in anything “blind” (like under a desk or behind a couch) a thrilling adventure. Both the British and European plugs I’ve encountered have pins that are mostly plastic with metal on the end only, so contact isn’t made until the pins are far enough in the socket so all the metal is no longer accessible. Perfectly safe.
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### Author:  [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)
#### Post date: [October 4, 2009, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-bad-design/512109/125 "2009-10-04T05:41:02Z")
> [@NinjaChick](#):
>
> I kind of doubt that a fire over three hundred years ago is the reason for modern British power cords. I don’t deny that the British government tends to go a little bit crazy with various safety regulations, but I’m having trouble attributing that to something that happened in the 1600’s.
It’s the explanation they like to give. And your other examples aren’t fused.
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### Author:  [@Kiwi\_Fruit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiwi_Fruit)
#### Post date: [October 5, 2009, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-bad-design/512109/126 "2009-10-05T00:27:11Z")
> [@NinjaChick](#):
>
> I kind of doubt that a fire over three hundred years ago is the reason for modern British power cords. I don’t deny that the British government tends to go a little bit crazy with various safety regulations, but I’m having trouble attributing that to something that happened in the 1600’s. And regardless, those plugs are still terrible design - compare a British plug to a North American or continental European one, and the British style is just a pain in the ass. And as far as I’m aware, there’s no great plague of houses burning down across North America and Europe due to our more practical plugs. (And, uh, I may seem kind of worked up about this, but when I was living in Britain I was just constantly irritated by the plug design. It struck me as just obnoxiously large, and it was just one of those little things that grates on you relentlessly.)
The Brit ones, though, are rated for 13 amps, and have a fuse inside them. Continental ones are 2.5 amps. (or 7.5 amps, depending on what reference you use.)
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### Author:  [@Kiwi\_Fruit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiwi_Fruit)
#### Post date: [October 5, 2009, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-bad-design/512109/127 "2009-10-05T00:34:53Z")
> [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](#):
>
> Visitors to the United States have to fill out an [I-94W](http://amsterdam.usconsulate.gov/uploads/images/P9Iq5HW2NS8hA2EWdGRSFg/I-94W.JPG) form. On the front of the form, you have to put your First name below your surname. On the back of the form, you have to put it to the right of your surname.
>
> On the new version of the form, there’s also a place to put your email address. There’s only about 12 spaces, though.
At least the date format is one most non-US citizens are familiar with, dd/mm/yy. Using MM/DD/YY is bad design, IMHO.
An aside: check box 5. What other sex would people put if they weren’t guided to choose male or female? Apart from the jokers who put “Yes, please.”
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### Author:  [@Lord\_Mondegreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Mondegreen)
#### Post date: [October 5, 2009, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-bad-design/512109/128 "2009-10-05T01:35:14Z")
> [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](#):
>
> Visitors to the United States have to fill out an [I-94W](http://amsterdam.usconsulate.gov/uploads/images/P9Iq5HW2NS8hA2EWdGRSFg/I-94W.JPG) form.
Ah yes, the good old I94W.
You’ve got to love a form which tries trick questions like, “Have you ever been or are you now involved in espionage or sabotage; or in terrorist activities; or genocide; or between 1933 and 1945 were involved, in any way, in persecutions associated with Nazi Germany or its allies?”
I can just see a terrorist thinking, “Damn, I nearly got away with it, but now I have to admit it.”
I’ve been sorely tempted to tick “yes” then cross it out and tick “no.” Never done it though, because on arrival in the US I could do without a couple of hours of questioning.
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### Author:  [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)
#### Post date: [October 5, 2009, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-bad-design/512109/129 "2009-10-05T01:45:50Z")
> [@Kiwi\_Fruit](#):
>
> An aside: check box 5. What other sex would people put if they weren’t guided to choose male or female? Apart from the jokers who put “Yes, please.”
Well, if you are gonna force people to put male or female you might as well do it as a tick box, but in other (typically somewhat less authoritarian) circumstances, some forms provide a fill-in-the-blank for people who do not identify as male or female.
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### Author:  [@Plan\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Plan_B)
#### Post date: [October 5, 2009, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-bad-design/512109/130 "2009-10-05T02:02:16Z")
My wife has a hot plate to keep her coffee warm. The on/off switch is about 18" from the late, meaning that depending on where you put it, the switch might be behind something else. Why not have it two inches off the hot plate?
Our refrigerator has an inane way of adjust the refrigerator and the freezer. If you turn up the refrigerator you’re turning down the freezer and vv. It’s impossible. In fact, I think I’m going to try to find an answer to this one this week.
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### Author:  [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)
#### Post date: [October 5, 2009, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-bad-design/512109/131 "2009-10-05T02:57:46Z")
Another nod to the overuse of bright blue LEDs. I have an el-cheapo disc player that has a blue Blu-Ray logo that lights up whenever it’s on. One might think that it would only light up when the machine was playing a Blu-Ray disc, but noooo… it’s on even when there’s a DVD or CD in the machine. And there are blue circles around the buttons as well. Bright blue circles.
And then there’s the computer disc burner that has three LEDs on the front that show what kind of disc is in: green for CD, green for DVD, and blue for BD (you saw that coming).These LEDs are behind a transparent plastic piece that blurs their light out to the sides and means that you can’t even completely isolate one LED from the light of the others.
And the external case I put it in has a big blue light on one side that stays on except when the disc is being accessed. I hope that’s just a question of something being plugged in backwards, because otherwise it and the disc-type LED go a good way towards lighting the room all by themselves.
> [@Lord\_Mondegreen](#):
>
> You’ve got to love a form which tries trick questions like, “Have you ever been or are you now involved in espionage or sabotage; or in terrorist activities; or genocide; or between 1933 and 1945 were involved, in any way, in persecutions associated with Nazi Germany or its allies?”
And putting “are you coming to the US to work” in the same question as “have you ever been ejected” and “have you ever tried to enter by fraud or misrepresentation”? :dubious:
There’s got to be some term for the statistical conflating of things that are unrelated to each other. I suspect some low-level minion ran out of space on the form while arranging the required content under a deadline.
And how many people even know what “moral turpitude” even is without checking a dictionary? Are there other kinds of turpitude? And does it have anything to do with turpentine?
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### Author:  [@Ruby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruby)
#### Post date: [October 5, 2009, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-bad-design/512109/132 "2009-10-05T03:34:27Z")
> [@Martini\_Enfield](#):
>
> My experience working in retail electronics was that Universal Remotes don’t work. None of them, except for one or two of the stupidly expensive Logitech remotes.
>
> We used to get so many Universal Remotes returned it wasn’t funny. Initially we thought it was customers too stupid or lazy to read the manual, or just "doing it wrong, but we tested them on the TVs and DVDs in-store and sure enough, none of the brands we stocked worked. The Logitech remotes did work, but they were so expensive most people figured that it was cheaper to buy another DVD player than replace the remote they’d lost.
We have a Harmony and love it love it love it. Agreed that most “universal remotes” simply don’t work but Logitech has made history with this one.
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### Author:  [@ChrisBooth12](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChrisBooth12)
#### Post date: [October 5, 2009, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-bad-design/512109/133 "2009-10-05T03:46:29Z")
> [@Driver8](#):
>
> Actually, this is a useful feature given the slowness of my player’s interface. Press the eject button, then do some other related stuff like go find the Netflix envelope, and only then walk up to the machine. By this time the disc may actually have ejected.
>
> That slowness is annoying but also is the fact that the player’s manufacturer wants you to perform periodic software updates. I’m not pleased that the appliance manufacturers are taking their cues from Microsoft or Apple. Appliances should just work, not require constant attention and tender loving care like a freaking pet.
except every body in this thread wishes they could upgrade their appliances to stop them from beeping and flashing LEDs
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### Author:  [@dynamitedave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dynamitedave)
#### Post date: [October 5, 2009, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-bad-design/512109/134 "2009-10-05T07:37:13Z")
Some SatNavs. The ones that require the street to be entered first. Some streets cross multiple suburbs, so I enter the street name and then I’m prompted with a list of suburbs the street crosses. Great, I’m not familiar enough with the area so I guess the suburb. Rats, the number range for that suburb is outside my required address. Lets go back a step and choose another. What, there’s no back?? Start again from the beginning!!
My SatNav got nicked a couple of weeks ago. Good job. With my new one I can enter the number first, then the street. No more foaming rage.
Regarding UK power plugs. My understanding is that the the outlets are/were ring fed with a 30 amp breaker. This meant an individual outlet could provide more that the allowable 10 (or 15?) amps the plug contacts can handle. The way around this was to require fused plugs. This wiring scheme was designed to save copper during the rebuild after WW2.
Agree on LEDs. I wouldn’t mind them if they weren’t so bright. At least mine convey possible semi-useful information (well except the rear case fan but that’s off at night). The only blue ones are on the switch and they’re enough to light my whole room at night.
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### Author:  [@Mops](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mops)
#### Post date: [October 5, 2009, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-bad-design/512109/135 "2009-10-05T12:58:27Z")
A lot of web sites that I just want to hit for the data that I need immediately, hide that information several layers deep in the navigation and have useless graphics/photographs instead.
A prime example a museum web sites. When I visit a museum’s site I usually want the following two pieces of information:
1. opening hours
2. location
Both are usually hidden two or more clicks away from the front page, often under menu items that don’t clearly indicate what’s hidden under them. For example on the English version of [this museum’s site](http://www.internationales-maritimes-museum.de/) the opening hours and location are under “Pay a visit”, not under “The Museum”. (I initally did not look at the “Pay a visit” item because I thought “who are they to order me around?”)
Why can a museum’s web site’s front page just say:
```auto
Museum's name
Opening hours: ...
Address: ... (click here for map)
Click here for more information
```
?
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### Author:  [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)
#### Post date: [October 5, 2009, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-bad-design/512109/136 "2009-10-05T13:30:11Z")
My old Nokia phone had the action button perform two functions when sending an SMS:
1. Spell word
2. Send
Thus fast fingers often sent a text before I’d corrected the autospell in the message.
I can’t believe the number of times I told my girlfriend that I wanted to kick her aunt.
::badoom-tish::
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### Author:  [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)
#### Post date: [October 5, 2009, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-bad-design/512109/137 "2009-10-05T13:35:43Z")
> [@NinjaChick](#):
>
> I have no idea when they started doing it or if they’ve (hopefully!) stopped, but at one point Dell started shipping desktop units with USB ports on the front. This was good. They were hidden under the [hinged light gray flap](http://ibmoutletusa.com/eBay/item_pictures/Dell/GX260withLCD/tower.jpg) on the front of the machine, which lifts maybe 60 degrees.
I was reading this thread again and thought of exactly this example. It’s one of my favorite design rants because it’s not just thick-headed or pointless, it actually significantly impedes the use of the device. WHAT is that flap supposed to do, keep out dust? How is every other manufacturer getting away without that, if it’s so important? My brother told me that in the US Army they just broke off the flap, they were so sick of it.
HOOOWW do you put the ports together like that and not actually take a guess at the max width of a flash drive to see if both can be used by flash drives at the same time? I mean, I’ve had a flash drive since about '03, so Dell knew that would be a common use.
And now I want to throw in one of my personal little niggles that may not resonate across the world: Toyota putting a steering wheel spoke at the bottom of the wheel. I want to put my hand on the very bottom so my arm can hang comfortably there instead of having to hold up my arm all the time. I end up resting my left elbow not too comfortably on the window sill and holding the left spoke of the wheel. It’s something I may actually pay a couple hundred dollars to get changed.
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### Author:  [@NinjaChick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinjaChick)
#### Post date: [October 5, 2009, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-bad-design/512109/138 "2009-10-05T14:11:30Z")
> [@Cardinal](#):
>
> I was reading this thread again and thought of exactly this example. It’s one of my favorite design rants because it’s not just thick-headed or pointless, it actually significantly impedes the use of the device. WHAT is that flap supposed to do, keep out dust? How is every other manufacturer getting away without that, if it’s so important? My brother told me that in the US Army they just broke off the flap, they were so sick of it.
Yeah, aftr the third or fourth time I had to crawl on the floor to plug in a USB drive at work, I ‘accidentally’ kicked the flap off. The ports are still at a stupid donward angle, though.
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### Author:  [@Chicken\_Fingers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chicken_Fingers)
#### Post date: [October 5, 2009, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-bad-design/512109/139 "2009-10-05T14:24:46Z")
Good handheld shower heads solve the shower pressure/volume problems.
Just don’t buy the kind I recently did. It’s got a dozen settings and it’s much bigger and heavier than its more basic model. Unfortunately it’s sold with the original model’s wall mount bracket, which is too flimsy to hold this shower head. It constantly leaps out of its bracket and beats us about the head and shoulders while crazily spraying everywhere.
Which reminds me of a design flaw in my male adolescent kitten.
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### Author:  [@DETXL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DETXL)
#### Post date: [October 5, 2009, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/examples-of-bad-design/512109/140 "2009-10-05T14:42:57Z")
Thought of another one. Turning off the screen, but not the phone, entails hitting the red “hang up phone button”. To turn off the phone or switch it into silent mode requires _holding down_ that button, for some length of time. How long? Who knows. When you want to turn it off or put it into silent mode, it’s anyone’s guess as to whether you’ll actually bring up the menu or just put the phone to sleep again. This is compounded by a generally dog-slow UI that also doesn’t give any indication of what the phone is doing at that moment, so swiping your finger could move the screen or could open an application; you won’t know for a while.
For that matter, one of the worst designs in computers has to be any program that queues up your keystrokes or mouse clicks. Click something, nothing happens… wait a couple seconds, click again and now your first click has gone through _and_ you have… selected another option in the menu that just popped up.
Also any applications that steal focus, particularly if they do so without an easy way to figure out what the hell they’re talking about. Alt-tab unfriendly computer games compound this problem. If they want to connect to the Internet, then my computer goes “President Windows!” “Yes?” “A game is trying to connect to the Internet” “SHUT. EVERYTHING. DOWN.” This pops up a window in the middle of my screen informing me that my computer has shut its ports down, which depending on the game I may or may not be able to alt-tab or task-manager to. Though now that I think about it not responding to this dialogue has never caused my games to stop working, so maybe it doesn’t matter.
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