# Stupidest product design you’ve experienced **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 25, 2023, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621 "2023-03-25T02:57:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 75
**Author:** ![pirviii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pirviii/32/3233_2.png) [@pirviii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pirviii)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2024, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621/1481 "2024-11-30T03:46:19Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > if you were in a room, sitting at a desk for a few minutes, it thought no one was there, and turned the lights off. I worked at a place where they had these types of lights in the bathroom, and you would have to finish up in the stall in the dark if nobody came by when you were dropping the kids off at the pool. ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2024, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621/1482 "2024-11-30T07:20:57Z")
My work restroom has this. If you’re sitting on the toilet and nobody walks in after a couple of minutes the lights turn off, and the motion sensor to bring them back on is outside of the stall so you can’t actually activate it when waving from inside the stall, so you have to poop in complete darkness. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2024, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621/1483 "2024-11-30T17:10:44Z")
> [@pirviii](#): > > …when you were dropping the kids off at the pool. Now that’s the most inventive euphemism I’ve ever heard for defecation. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2024, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621/1484 "2024-11-30T17:35:01Z")
Flap the stall door, like a fan? ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2024, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621/1485 "2024-11-30T17:39:08Z")
Sure, you could do that, but it’s definitely a stupid design when the sensor looking if the bathroom is occupied is blocked by the stall door. Better just to let the lights stay on indefinitely. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2024, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621/1486 "2024-11-30T17:46:17Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > > [@pirviii](#): > > > > when you were dropping the kids off at the pool. > > Now that’s the most inventive euphemism I’ve ever heard for defecation. Taking the Browns to the Super Bowl? ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2024, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621/1487 "2024-11-30T17:50:29Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > Now that’s the most inventive euphemism I’ve ever heard for defecation. We had a thread about defecation euphemisms some years ago where somebody _really_ had a problem with this one. ---
**Author:** ![Dogginit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dogginit/32/16920_2.png) [@Dogginit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogginit)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2024, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621/1488 "2024-11-30T18:37:45Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Taking the Browns to the Super Bowl? OMG! Win of the interwebs, at least for this week! ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2024, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621/1489 "2024-11-30T21:32:28Z")
I’m very good at fixing things. Cars, houses, whatever. Changing a vacuum cleaner belt should not be a two hour task. Take the wheels off first? 7 screws? Turn it over and pry the top ‘lid’ off. YouTube recommended a magnetic screwdriver? The most common thing to break on any vacuum is the belt. This design just sucks. I told my wife that if this doesn’t work, it’s gonna have an Expedient Demise - XPD. ---
**Author:** ![leswax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@leswax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leswax)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2024, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621/1490 "2024-11-30T22:06:22Z")
> [@EinsteinsHund](#): > > because this machine requires Fn to activate the standard Windows functions of the F-keys which pisses me off. My hp laptop has “fn lock” on the left shift key to enable and disable this. It looks like other models have a padlock icon on the escape key for this and yet others have it as a BIOS setting. > **[How do I lock and unclock the FN key?](https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Notebooks-Archive-Read-Only/How-do-I-lock-and-unclock-the-FN-key/td-p/45847)** > > Hi, I have an HP Pavilian DV7 laptop, and I wanted to know how to lock the Funtion key. I have seen in other websites that they say to simply hold it, hit fn + num lock, fn + F11, and fn + scroll lock, but none of those work for me. Can someone... ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2024, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621/1491 "2024-11-30T22:49:59Z")
> [@Musicat](#): > > > [@pirviii](#): > > > > …when you were dropping the kids off at the pool. > > Now that’s the most inventive euphemism I’ve ever heard for defecation. Your post suggests this is something new to you? How about often heard in elementary school in 1966? ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2024, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621/1492 "2024-11-30T23:02:23Z")
I never heard it before. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2024, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621/1493 "2024-12-01T01:09:45Z")
I wasn’t in elementary school in 1966, so I missed some juvenile bons mots. In 1966, I was fighting for my country (hah!) in Vietnam by playing piano (more hah!). ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2024, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621/1494 "2024-12-01T01:10:58Z")
In a whorehouse I hope. Just don’t tell Mom. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2024, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621/1495 "2024-12-01T01:18:56Z")
Our brand-new Lenovo laptops at work have the Ctrl and Fn keys reversed. I was fucking up copy & pasting half the day before I realized why. Lenovo provides a way to switch it back, but WHY would they do that in the first place??? And now my keys have ugly labels stuck on them - the last time I tried to pry off a laptop keypad I broke it, so I’m not going to try to swap the keypads. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2024, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621/1496 "2024-12-01T01:19:24Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > I never heard it before. I heard it as dropping _a friend_ off at the pool about in that era. ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2024, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621/1497 "2024-12-01T01:23:21Z")
Here’s a link to an earlier thread: > [@What are your euphemisms for bodily functions?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-your-euphemisms-for-bodily-functions/967905): > > Riffing on [this thread](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prior-to-plumbing-what-were-the-american-english-euphemisms-for-urination-defecation/967904). For me: Defecation: downloading Republican talking points. ---
**Author:** ![Topologist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/topologist/32/3208_2.png) [@Topologist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Topologist)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2024, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621/1498 "2024-12-02T00:47:09Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I can’t find it now in System Settings, but maybe it doesn’t show up at all unless you have such a keyboard. On my Macs (macOS Sonoma 14.6.1) it’s in System Settings, in the Keyboard panel, where you need to select “Keyboard Shortcuts,” and then it’s under the “Function Keys” panel. Apple has gotten very good at hiding settings in non-obvious places. It’s gotten to the point where I rely more and more on the search feature in System Settings—I found this one by searching for “function keys.” I think I remember it being in a more useful place in an earlier OS. I suppose that complaint should go in the “Stupidest software design” thread, though. ---
**Author:** ![Al128](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/al128/32/16541_2.png) [@Al128](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Al128)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2024, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621/1499 "2024-12-06T15:09:17Z")
> [@Asuka](#): > > My work restroom has this. If you’re sitting on the toilet and nobody walks in after a couple of minutes the lights turn off, and the motion sensor to bring them back on is outside of the stall so you can’t actually activate it when waving from inside the stall, so you have to poop in complete darkness. I have a feeling (from the employer’s perspective) this is not a bug, but a feature. ---
**Author:** ![Heracles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heracles/32/487_2.png) [@Heracles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heracles)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2024, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621/1500 "2024-12-20T15:36:18Z")
On my HP Enterprise ZBook laptop, the function keys behave like this by default. But I can go into “Fn lock” mode by pressing Fn and the left Shift key at the same time (and a little while LED appears on the Fn key). In that mode, things get flipped around: F6 is F6 and Fn+F6 is Volume Down, etc. It’s pretty good, but probably nonstandard. (Sorry, ninja’d a few times.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621.md?page=74) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupidest-product-design-you-ve-experienced/981621.md?page=76)