The plastic guide on a hole puncher that snaps off very easily – Rubbish

Cars where you have to remove several bits of engine to access a blown light bulb – Rubbish

The “table” function in MicroSoft Word – Rubbish

The twisty bit at the business end of an old school presta bike pump. Rubbish.

The look of Mac Mail. Nasty.

And man nipples.

a cupholder in the car door beneath the window winder, so that if you have cup in it you can’t operate the window and because the you have to tip the cup to get it into the holder you can only put empty cups in it.

Cars where you have to remove several bits of engine to access a blown light bulb –

flatscreen tv’s with tiny fuses soldered onto the circuit boards

Teapots that don’t pour properly – usually silver and in cafe’s.

Designed to fail, because they aren’t designed to work.

The water container on a Philips Senseo “coffee” machine – unsealed floats are denser than water, so tell the machine it’s always empty (oh and the magnets rust)

Every water bottle I’ve ever bought that claims to have some sort of cap to keep crap off the lid, all of which have snapped or otherwise failed – rubbish.

Avid Juicy 3 brakes – rubbish.

My digestive system, I’ll spare you the details – rubbish.

Heater fan unit resistor pack on a Vauxhall Vectra. Buried so far into the guts of the dashboard that it takes a mechanic an hour to replace it. – Rubbish

I’d be inclined to begin a rant about SAP and IBM software at this stage but it’s probably best that I don’t. So very gently, the SAP graphical interface is absolutely, the worst design I have ever come across for any piece of software, ever.

Knees, they’re awful and my knees are fine on the whole, they’re just terribly designed.

The Blackberry dictionary

The iPhone spell check interface, it’s exactly the opposite way round to what it should be. I’ll press space to override what you think, all you should be doing is making a suggestion, not trying to better me.

Kettles that pour water anywhere but into the cup, it must be deliberate, bastards!!..
And shop staff who when you take the kettle back as unfit for purpose look at you like your a **** because you want your kettle to be able to pour water into a cup without soaking the kitchen top..

My old Samsung vacuum cleaner that won a Red Dot design award! Pull it along round a corner / thru a doorway, and it will always try to roll over. Upside down is its preferred state of equilibrium. Transfer of static shocks from the metal pipe is merely an annoying side effect.

The “rip cord” to get you into a pack of Tesco Custard Creams. – Rubbish

In a capitalist economy based on the model of constant growth, industrial designers have a duty to plan obsolescence.

One word. Joplin.

In a capitalist economy based on the model of constant growth, industrial designers have a duty to plan obsolescence.

On biscuit packaging?

The Human knee joint!

Upside down is its preferred state of equilibrium.

ooh yes, we have a vacuum like this as well. It’s almost purposefully weighted to tip over at the slightest nudge.

Derailleur gears, especially on a mountain bike. A gearbox completely unsealed and open to the dirt, with some of it on the wheel thus adding to unsprung mass.

A mobile phone that is impossible to grip without touching the antenna – utterly cretinous.

Ragley cable guides, utter gash!

and women, whoever wired them up wants shooting 😆

Unveiled in South Korea today….

😆 😯

The “rip cord” to get you into a pack of Tesco Custard Creams. – Rubbish

This is definitely in the museum… it opens badly and obliges you to eat the first three or four custard creams that, inevitably, have fallen out of the packet. 😉

In a capitalist economy based on the model of constant growth, industrial designers have a duty to plan obsolescence.

The obsolescence I can cope with – its the resistentialism that bothers me – how is that on the capitalist agenda?

A mobile phone that is impossible to grip without touching the antenna – utterly cretinous.

Speaking of which: sweaty palms. What doofus of an intelligent designer decided the one thing you really needed in a stressful situation was less grip on your hands?

I’d be inclined to begin a rant about SAP and IBM software at this stage but it’s probably best that I don’t.

Was about to mention Lotus Notes, but I’m not sure where design comes in to it. Cobbled together by a bunch of summer interns is my experience of it.

Arm rests in cars that block the handbrake.

The 2-3-2 layout on the new BA 380. I mean, who on earth wants to sit in that coffin like middle seat? It’ll be as bad as Cathay’s old herringbone seats. Why didn’t they learn! BAH!

The ISIS bottom bracket. How on earth something so fundamentally flawed ever made it into production…?

And bollocks. Who the hell put them where they’re so easily kickable?

Bite-valve on Source bladders. Rubbish.

The Bush freeview recorder attached to my TV that has dementia from new. Rubbish!

Heater fan unit resistor pack on a Vauxhall Vectra. Buried so far into the guts of the dashboard that it takes a mechanic an hour to replace it. – Rubbish

If it’s anything like the one in the Zafira, it takes about 10 – 15 mins to replace 😉
But it’s a rubbish design generally, which is why they blow so often. So keep the resistor in the museum.

String. What the F*** is the point of string? It has no structural properties; if you tie a knot in it it WILL work loose; it breaks if you look at it sideways; and to make matters worse you can NEVER find any when you want it!!

The “table” function in MicroSoft Word – Rubbish

Disagree. I like it.

The gear shifters on my wife’s bike; they work the opposite way round to those on my bikes, so if you want to shift ‘up’, they shift ‘down’ and vice versa. I sometimes use her bike and it’s a nightmare. Rubbish design.

That yellow pod thing might look a bit daft, but the concept is something that could be great for people who can’t use/don’t have their arms. So I don’t think it’s rubbish at all.

its the resistentialism that bothers me – how is that on the capitalist agenda?

In terms of biscuit wrappers, perhaps they could be made better but only at a cost the consumer isn’t happy to pay.

When talking about headlight bulbs that require engines to be removed, guaranteeing your dealer network continued after-sales service business is a good thing.

Not trying to turn the thread into an anti-capitalist rant; just pointing out that when the consumer is citing “bad design”, often they’re actually citing a good design, but one that meets a brief beyond their own interests.

Plastic bubble packaging that is so super tough that you need massive scissors or a sharp knife to open, invariable leading to injury. Often found on kids’ toys. Rubbish design.

The vast majority of “easy to open” bags of rice. Sainsburys actually sell one which is, so it must be possible – note to any supermarket product managers reading this, we buy most of our rice from Sainsburys, which sometimes influences where we do the rest of our shopping.

Top end Sram RED front mech with Ti cage too flexy to shift well on a compact.

Ford SMax – handbrake like an aircraft throttle that traps fingers. Rear seats that require two cords to be pulled at the same time to fold down, positioning your head perfectly for a blow so powerful when they spring down it knocks your specs off.

Airports – designed to trap humans for enforced shopping. Why not sort out check in/security/passport control in one go, rather than make people just join a series of queues for 3 hours. Full of people in new trainers drinking lager at 6am.

Arm rests in cars that block the handbrake.

replacing the handbrake with a button – then placing that button not where the handbrake would normally be, but out of sight, under the dash, somewhere halfway down your shin where you have to grope for it blindly.

The gear shifters on my wife’s bike; they work the opposite way round to those on my wife’s bike, so if you want to shift ‘up’, they shift ‘down’ and vice versa.

FTFY

When talking about headlight bulbs that require engines to be removed, guaranteeing your dealer network continued after-sales service business is a good thing.

Maybe, but those countries which legislate that you’re required to carry spare bulbs ought to also legislate that it’s possible to change bulbs at the roadside without any tools – any car which doesn’t meet this doesn’t get type approval. I’m not sure if it’s ironic or deliberate that French cars seem to be the worst for this.

Replacing a mechanical car key that slots into a mechanical lock with an electronic key that slots into an electronic slot.

A couple of months ago my Fedex driver lost a day’s work and £500 when the stupid electronic key on his Merc van refused to talk to the ignition system.

aracer; all the shifters on all the bikes I’ve had work the same way. Most of the shifters on other bikes i’ve ridden also work the same way. The ones on my wife’s bike seem to work the opposite way to 99% of all other shifters.

Rubbish design. It’s like swapping brake and accelerator pedals round on a car. Maybe not as dangerous.

SIS plastic drinks bottles that smell of plastic for months and months and months.

I’d use aluminium ones but I need to see how much of the Go stuff I’m putting in: too much could be fatal for someone of my age.