Examples of bad design

[SomeUserName]

@Mangetout

Blue LEDs on bloody everything.

Especially things like monitors and TVs that the user spends time looking at.

Yes, blue is a pretty colour, but I don’t need an eye-searingly bright blue LED to tell me that the TV I’m actually trying to watch, is turned on.

Also, blue LED illumination of LCD panels is about the worst possible colour, in terms of readability.

I think blue LEDs are very cool technology. Back in the 1980s, when we only had red, green and amber LEDs, I craved blue LEDs. Now, I’m starting to despise them.

Oh good god this. My DVD player has a bright blue LED on the front that surrounds a knob. I don’t even know what the knob does. I have to cover the damn thing up with a cloth so it does not glare at me while I try to watch a movie.

Said DVD player also has no on/off button on the remote. WTF? If I am watching a a DVD and decide to go to sleep I have to get up and walk across the room to turn it off. 99% of the time I just turn off the TV and leave it on all night.

As soon as I can afford it that sucker is going in the trash can.

[Spectralist]

In Windows 7 Microsoft added a details pane to explorer and moved all the functionality from earlier Windows version’s status bar to it. The problem being that the details pane is more than two and a half times the size and displays almost the exact same info. They did almost the same thing with the new version of the menu bar, called the toolbar. Only you can’t, as far as I can find anyway, turn off the toolbar. And it has less functionality than the menu bar. So if you want all the functionality you have to keep them both on, wasting even more space, or enable to menu bar, use its features then disable it. On top of that the column heading uses more space pointlessly. Over all the mentioned UI elements use 89%(or 103% if you keep the Menu Bar on) more vertical screen space than in previous versions of Windows without really adding any more functionality.

The Playstation 3’s USB ports aren’t powered when it’s off so you can only charge its controllers through it when it’s turned on. On the bright side my cable box’s USB port is powered when it’s on or off so I can just use it to charge the controllers.

And I couldn’t agree more on the complaints of all the damned LEDs on everything. To make matters worse a number of devices have light scattering plastic over the LEDs such that you’d have to cover half the device with electrical tape to keep the light inside.

[Cardinal]

@BigT

I actually had to go in and shut this feature off. (Look it up. It’s not that hard.) They claim it was fixed in 3.5, but it wasn’t. In 3.0, there was actually a built in waiting period! They “fixed” it by shutting it off!

I use Oldbar to make Firefox act better: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/6227

[gigi]

@DigitalC

The handle on the microwave of our microwave/stove combo appliance breaks off when you boil things on the stove too often. When we called to complain they said we werent supposed to use it every day.

::boggle

[Sigmagirl]

@gigi

Don’t be embarrassed–measuring cups are perfectly OK for measuring liquids. In fact, the advantage is you can tell you have an exact cup without setting it down and bending over. The disadvantage being what you mentioned.

The other disadvantage . . . meniscus or no meniscus?

(I just like the word meniscus.)

[gigi]

Meniscus? He didn’t even know us!

[DMark]

@Lord_Mondegreen

Our last house had a dishwasher which would beep multiple times when it had finished. Now, when do people usually put dishwashers on? That’s right, just before going to bed.

Nothing like being woken up an hour after going to bed to be told by an appliance that my dishes were clean.

Just a word of warning - a woman I worked with did the same - turned on her dishwasher every night after she got hubby and kids to bed. One night, the damned thing caught on fire! It was a relatively new dishwasher, only about 2 or 3 years old, and the wiring somehow ignited the wood under the counter top. Luckily the smoke alarm worked, but they pretty much lost most of their kitchen.

Since then, I only turn mine on when I am awake and doing other things around the house!

[Sailboat]

I start my cell phone, like every other cell phone I’ve ever owned, by pressing the red-colored END button.

I know that, logically, they want the on/off to be a toggle, and it’s called END because it’s the “off” button. Still, the end result of this train of thought is that to start talking on a phone that’s turned off, I ignore the green TALK button and press the red END button.

---

The back of my DVD player, my stereo receiver, and my CD player, and the bottom of my battery charger are all black plastic, recessed, and tucked under overhangs or slid onto shelves facing away from me.

Each of these black plastic shadowy recesses contains detailed diagrams and instructions on how to hook up cables or insert batteries – diagrams and text depicted in slightly raised black plastic against a black plastic background in shadow, sometimes where you’re looking at them from an unusual angle.

The FRONT of these unites have color-contrasted text and logos that are easily seen. The FRONT has useless indicator lights. The part in SHADOW doesn’t have any lights or contrasting colored text.

[Ruby]

@Mangetout

Blue LEDs on bloody everything.

Especially things like monitors and TVs that the user spends time looking at.

Yes, blue is a pretty colour, but I don’t need an eye-searingly bright blue LED to tell me that the TV I’m actually trying to watch, is turned on.

Also, blue LED illumination of LCD panels is about the worst possible colour, in terms of readability.

I think blue LEDs are very cool technology. Back in the 1980s, when we only had red, green and amber LEDs, I craved blue LEDs. Now, I’m starting to despise them.

My DS charger has a neon blue LED base that’s on constantly as long as it’s plugged it. You could land small aircraft with this thing. Would it have been so hard to have the blue base lit only when there was a DS charging? Now I have to keep it unplugged until I need it which is, of course, annoying.

[Ferret_Herder]

@Ruby

My DS charger has a neon blue LED base that’s on constantly as long as it’s plugged it. You could land small aircraft with this thing. Would it have been so hard to have the blue base lit only when there was a DS charging? Now I have to keep it unplugged until I need it which is, of course, annoying.

Wow. I’m glad I just have a power cord to charge my DSi - we have enough LEDs in this house.

[AHunter3]

It’s been [del]years[/del] decades, but this turkey still owns the category as the WORST-designed piece of crap on so many levels that it will be hard to dethrone. The SummaSketch tablet circa 1994 for Macintosh.

When plugged in, it would emit a very high-pitched eeeeeeeeeee squeal that would gradually do a dentist-drill number on your brain.

The driver for it, rather than installing itself as an “INIT” (System Extension) into your Extensions folder the way Mac drivers of that era were supposed to, would make edits to the actual System file. That meant that every time you upgraded your OS (e.g., from System 7.5.3 to 7.5.5) you’d have to reinstall the damn tablet driver. This was in an era when Mac users never reinstalled anything. Not even when buying a new computer! We’d just drag all the extensions, control panels, and preferences from the old computer to the new one. So it was a totally foreign experience to have to hold onto the damn diskette and do reinstalls periodically.

The tablet’s surface area had to be mapped to your screen — when you first installed it (or reinstalled it, dammit), putting your pen in the far upper left hand corner of the TABLET did not correspond to moving the arrow cursor to the far upper left corner of the SCREEN. You had to set the x, y coordinates, using the control panel, until the point corresponding to far upper left on tablet was indeed far upper left on screen. Do you concede that this was pretty awful? Oh, but it gets worse.

You see, it’s the Control Panel I need to tell you about. If I may channel Sam Seaborn, it was oh so bad in so many ways. I have no true screen shot but here is the general idea of what you were confronted with when you brought it up.

a) Note the boxes containing the numbers. You might THINK that you could tap the far upper left corner of the tablet, see where the mouse arrow goes, then use the KEYBOARD to type in a number and hit enter and see where the mouse hops to, repeat with refinements, then hit Tab to go to the other axis and repeat. You might THINK that but you woud be WRONG. No keyboard entry accepted.

b) So upon realizing this you might THINK: “If I had to use the tablet & pen to enter the coordinates, that means the position of my cursor arrow on screen is NOT AT the far upper left, it’s in the middle of the Control Panel dialog making the adjustments. So how would I know when I’m at the right numbers?” And this time you’d be right. Oh, but it gets worse.

c) Notice the scrolly arrows, up and down, by each coordinate’s number. Imagine centering your cursor arrow over the downward pointing scrolly arrow in order to reduce the number for the X axis. One tap changes it from 204 to 203, the next tap from 203 to 202, and so on. So realizing this you might THINK “OK so I will first tab far upper left on the SummaSketch and SEE how far off from the screen’s far-upper-left I seem to be, then I’ll go to the Control Panel and tap the up or down arrow as many times as I would GUESS would move it that far, and then retest”. Well, an interesting thing happens on your third or fourth tap: your cursor, having moved one pixel to the left (or right) onscreen with each tap, is no longer on the damn arrow. Yes, your changes take effect as you make them. The OK button is just to dismiss the dialog when you’re done.

[Swallowed_My_Cellphone]

@DMark

Since then, I only turn mine on when I am awake and doing other things around the house!

I don’t turn on any major appliances I can’t supervise. Dishwasher? If something goes wrong and water gets everywhere, our hardwood floors could get ruined.

Washing machine? Just ask the dog. Our drainage hose fell out of the laundry sink and landed in such a manner that it was aimed at his doggy bed like a water canon. We came home to a flooded basement and the saddest looking, wet dog you’ve every seen. (But he smelled summer-breeze fresh!)

[matt_mcl]

@Swallowed_My_Cellphone

I don’t turn on any major appliances I can’t supervise. Dishwasher? If something goes wrong and water gets everywhere, our hardwood floors could get ruined.

Washing machine? Just ask the dog. Our drainage hose fell out of the laundry sink and landed in such a manner that it was aimed at his doggy bed like a water canon. We came home to a flooded basement and the saddest looking, wet dog you’ve every seen. (But he smelled summer-breeze fresh!)

Not so much bad design as boneheaded carelessness on our part, but in my first apartment, our washing machine had no drain, instead draining into the kitchen sink. We only flooded the kitchen once before realizing that it was essential to do all the dishes and plunge the sink before washing any clothes.

[BobArrgh]

We used to have a 1972 Olds Cutlass Supreme with two doors. And two children. When putting the kids into the car or taking them out, we had to open the door, fold the seat forward, lean in and over them to unbuckle them.

Doing this for the kid behind the passenger seat was no problem. However, doing this for the kid behind the driver seat was a joy, especially since the very act of folding the seat up would invariably cause the top of the headrest to bounce on to the horn. BEEP!

Then, combine black seats with dim lighting on a dark night. Reaching in to try to find the seat belt buckle and inadvertently falling against the folded-up seat.

HONNNNNNNNNNNNNNKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!

Woke the neighbors up many a time.

[Mangetout]

@Cat_Whisperer

Not at the moment - I’m having trouble adjusting to the new stove, but I haven’t actually melted any pots yet.

(I knew someone would go there - yes, I usually remember to move the pot or bowl to where I’m measuring. The operative word here is “usually.” Even when I’m measuring right at the pot or bowl, though, it’s still very sloppy.)

Alternatively, you could use the following handy conversion table:

2 half cups = 1 cup

[Mangetout]

@SomeUserName

Oh good god this. My DVD player has a bright blue LED on the front that surrounds a knob. I don’t even know what the knob does. I have to cover the damn thing up with a cloth so it does not glare at me while I try to watch a movie.

Said DVD player also has no on/off button on the remote. WTF? If I am watching a a DVD and decide to go to sleep I have to get up and walk across the room to turn it off. 99% of the time I just turn off the TV and leave it on all night.

Heh. My DVD has an eject button on the remote control.

I can eject the disc whilst remaining seated in the armchair. But now what?

[Zsofia]

I actually use that - sometimes a disc isn’t quite seated right and won’t play, and you can eject and reload and it will fix it.

[KlondikeGeoff]

@sharding

I have a Harmony and I kind of hate it. Mine’s an 880 – the One is better in some regards, but still has most of the things I hate about the 880. <snip>

OK, I absolutely should have prefaced my rave of the Harmony One by noting it difinitely is for geeks. Nothing I love more than tech toys, and solving computer problems. OTOH, once thie remote is programed, it makes turning on any set of devices easy by just touching one item on the screen.

I had a couple of problems programming the thing, and eventually fixed them, some only after calling customer support. I can definitely see why it would drive some people bonkers.

Logitech has excellent customer support, however, and they will talk you through any problem (much better than emailing).

One of the really cool features is the Help button on the remote. If anything is not working properly, hit that button and it will take you through a series of Yes/No questions, and it almost always fixes what is wrong.

As I said, this is for people who are frustrated by a drawer full of remotes, all of which have different button layouts, and confusing directions.

I still recommend this to geeks, and to others who are willing to spend a little time getting it programed. For others, YMMV.

[Cardinal]

My Treo charger continually lights an LED when plugged in just in case I was unaware that the house current is currently working, apparently. I’m sure it doesn’t signal that all the charging circuits are actually tested and working. I would about fall over in a faint if a company actually had done that.

[Bootis]

Violins sound just plain awful unless you take hours messing around with the thing to figure out how to make it sound right.