Nominations for the worst bit of design ever.

I’m fairly sure this was a bad idea.

I do want to make a nice Cnc machined, cartridge bearing toilet seat hinge with slow close damper.
One day.

My chest right now seems the most infection prone thing ever. Crap design.

There’s never enough water to wash off the soap, but you can’t trigger the water again without getting yet more soap on your hands. Piss poor.

On closer examination it seems this one uses push buttons, it is the auto ones I am on about.

Magnetic entry cat flap:

Doesn’t work, cat can’t get in, and has to wait outside. What it is very good at is picking up random metallic objects onto the collar.

.. and cats seem to be able to lose the magnets within 5 minutes of them being attached to their collar.

Anyone with a child will know what I mean.

Toy restrained in a box like it’s Chucky himself? Check.

Demo mode that’s nice and quiet that gives way to ear splitting volume once toy is activated? Check.

Can’t turn toy off. Check.

Can’t use the volume function in certain ‘play’ modes? Check.

Can’t take a **** telling and continues to beg for attention when even the small gremlin has tired of it? Check.

We are a supposedly advanced and intelligent species and we waste our **** lives deigning and buying shit like that??? WTF?

Vtech is a scam. A plastic shite toy pretend laptop that bleeps, has a tiny screen and plays a handful of awful games is like £100, when a real android tablet with 100x the power can be had for £90.

But it’s “you know.. For kids!” So people cough up.

Any bike light with a single button that cycles through the modes, where someone decides that we need more than simply high and low.

My old ones were really irritating as they went high/medium/low/flash/high, the new ones (C&B Seen) are better as they just have high/medium/low, but a double click to switch low to high turns on the strobe setting. If it just had high and low, it would be one click to change mode, double click for strobe.

A huge amount of software out there. Travel agents seem to be the worst. Who knows why people think it is acceptable or the way it should be.

brant – Member

I do want to make a nice Cnc machined, cartridge bearing toilet seat hinge with slow close damper.
One day.

(purple anodised please)

Vtech is a scam. A plastic shite toy pretend laptop that bleeps, has a tiny screen and plays a handful of awful games is like £100, when a real android tablet with 100x the power can be had for £90.

But it’s “you know.. For kids!” So people cough up.

Tell me about it, mine is getting a laptop with the wifi disabled and some sort of child friendly linux distro. 1000x better than the Commodore 64 and Amstrad CPC6128 I had to live with (but no Roland in Time or Percy Penguin so maybe I win anyway).

4 pages in and no mention of Superstar brake pads or the Singletrack app?

My nomination for crap design is……toilet paper.

Is there a country in the world whereby a bidet is not considered a normal part of bathroom furniture, and with good reason ? Seems our culture is a bit too up our own bottom to accept them, so instead we waste forests in a poor attempt to solve a problem which comes back to haunt you at the most awkward times anyway. Terrible idea….

Bidet?

Like to see the reasoning behind that. How much energy do you think it takes to pump water? What’s the carbon footprint once you factor in pressure loss in the pipe, energy conversion loss at the pump, transmission losses for the power transmission and thermal losses at the generation site? For the sake of getting a wet arse that you then need to dry, expending more energy. Oh, and you have to heat the water too unless you like bollocks the size of peanuts.

At least energy can be recovered from used paper in anaerobic digesters before it’s used as fertiliser.

poke through accident?

so instead we waste plant forests in a poor attempt to solve a problem

Ftfy

Lots of bathroom related bad designs on this thread, so what about the sink plug mechanism with the pull up/push down mechanism? Pretty much every hotel I have stayed in has a faulty one of these where you run the water for a shave and by the time you are foamed up the water has all gone.

Staropramen glasses. I thought it was just me that somehow always splashed beer into my own eye. Turns out it’s the shape of the glass.

Our current flat has these Polypipe UFH room stats.

They’re cabled – so there could be power running to them- yet they take 4 Aaa batteries.

Taps in general.

Dirty hand – use dirty hand to open tap.
Water runs for some time while warm water approaches – 5-10l wasted.
200ml of warm water required.
Rinse hands.
?Repeat – water continues to run entire time. Probably too hot at this point.
?Faff with other tap to add cold water.
Use clean hand to turn water off, by touching same part of tap as you stated with.

I WAS going to do my 3rd year Design Project on it, but was advised too boring.

One day I will make ALL the sinks.
And while we’re at it, I’ll flush the loo with grey water.
You will thank me 🙂
You’re welcome.

I’m with you on GU10.

And also the original USB, with what feels like rotational symmetry, must must be plugged in the right way up. Shite.

Wash your hands in cold you fool.

some sort of child friendly linux distro

Kano?

As for button flys, they rule, if done properly.

Oh, and foot operated Taps, Italian style, rule.

What else? Oh yes, I have a slow closing closing toilet seat already. Silent.

Another one for toilet paper being a crap (snigger) pointless design- and why do we need a 50ft section in the supermarket full of paper varieties. Why do we wipe our arse and spread fecal bacteria using dry paper – is it an ideal solution?, if so then why do we wash our hands with soap and water when dirty rather than attempt to rub them clean with a dry towel?.

Bidet, wet wipes or suchlike or perhaps a jug of water and soap thank you very much.

Kelvin, and molgrips [perhaps] falling for my trap, hhahaha….!

The 5 Fundamental Fallacies of Design:

(i) This design is satisfactory for me – it will therefore be satisfactory for everybody else

(ii) This design is satisfactory for the average person – it will therefore be satisfactory for everybody else.

(iii) The variability of human beings is so great that it cannot possibly be catered for in any design – but since people are so wonderfully adaptable it doesn’t matter anyway.

(iv) Ergonomics is expensive and since products are actually purchased on appearance and styling, ergonomics considerations may be conveniently ignored.

(v) Ergonomics is an excellent idea. I always design with ergonomics in mind – but I do it intuitively and rely on on my common sense so I don’t need tables of data.

–Foot operated taps seem like a logical solution, yes?

But you’re making a fairly serious assumption, the ability to press down on the button. Having entered a non-adapted toilet it’s logical to assume most people have the use of their hands, for which a tap is well suited. However, the use of a leg to press down on the tap/button is not something that can be assumed to follow. the user may be in a wheelchair, the user may have a leg in a cast and the’re unable to balance if they have to use the other leg to press down on the button….

RE – cold water – if you have only cold water, how is this going to affect older people, with poor circulation [aging population], those with arthritis, or just how do you think you’ll feel yourself on a cold day? Are you even going to get a commission for the design if you exclude a hot tap?

Further – having taken this into consideration, let’s say you’ve found a way to replace the taps, what about the space on the top of a standard sink? You’re taking the taps away, but the sinks will come with holes for them. So now you need either a non-standard sink, or another item to fit into the holes in the standard sink you have been specified to use.

And then people go and say “These designers are daft”! 😀

Which is why the taps on our kitchen sink look similar to these:

which you can turn on and off with your elbows, thus avoiding the need to touch them with dirty hands. They’re the only taps I’ve had to replace in our house, though if and when I have to replace any others it will be with something similar. So it is possible, but how far down I had to go in the image search suggests they’re not very common.

^ those taps above
Bend down to rinse your face after washing
Both eyes poked out 😉

separate taps…useless design

They’re the only taps I’ve had to replace in our house, though if and when I have to replace any others it will be with something similar. So it is possible, but how far down I had to go in the image search suggests they’re not very common.

If you google for hospital taps, you get this first hit:
http://www.bathroom2u.com/bathroom-taps-valves-medical-taps-c-154_1087.html?gclid=CPLcuLjh18ICFY3JtAodtA4ATA

Bus stops.

Of focal points for **** to congregate round and block the pavement for everybody else.

Bus stops are a great idea. Roads that are built for cars not mass transit are a terrible idea.

Nonono you misunderstand.

Just the design of bus stops not the concept of people using public transport.

Or more specifically the bus shelter designed to half the useable width of a pavement and promote congregation on the other half thus blocking the whole pavement.

You’re an edinburger i think Northwind south side of princes street opposite jenners. A classic example, a bus shelter takes more than half the pavement which is bounded by the metal railings, that section is extremely bisy, the shelter doesn’t provide nearly enough shelter anyway and to physically get to it people have already been exposed to the elements. Made worse still when an actual bus arrives and every body crams in from 180degrees.

Literally bad design that does not take in to account the stupidity of a flock of humans.

A regular sight to see pedestrians resorting to walking infront of the bus shelter on the road or perhaps designing for mass transport is more important than pedestrian transport as I’m sure you’re aware that section is car free and has to provide a route for a bus lane for stopping, a bus lane for moving and also accomodate a tram all on a street designed before the existance of motorcars.

joshvegas – Member

Or more specifically the bus shelter designed to half the useable width of a pavement and promote congregation on the other half thus blocking the whole pavement.

Nah, that’s a perfectly decent design, squeezed into too small a space by the road

Which makes it a bad design for a bus stop. The road can’t be any narrower the current “design” forces non bus stop users into using the road to bypass it.

A well designed bus stop would encourage pasengers to cue, the edge closest to uncoming bus should prevent people accessing the entrance to bus which with make it pointless to gather in a huddle a long narrow bus shelter would be a better design. Additionally the space in the lane infront of the bus is wasted space, a half lane thickening of the pavement would provide more waiting space out of the flow of fot traffic while still allowing busses to exit the stop and rejoin the moving lane in a merging maneuver.

And not building a stupid tram that would help too.

Topeak defender front. Honestly, do these people ride bikes or just look at them stationary? Did no-one consider that a full 6″ of loose flapiness in both planes would not be desirable? Or do you just not give a shit, having already pocketed my £20?

Did no-one consider that a full 6″ of loose flapiness in both planes would not be desirable?

if it was that obvious, why did you buy it?

Cos it was only obvious after I fitted it to a bike….

The act of reclining the seat is not selfish, but at least 50% of the people I have sat behind just recline their seat without even looking, let alone asking if it is ok. That’s the selfish bit.

I’ve never understood this gripe. If the person if front reclines their seat (by the whole inch or so it moves), you can recline yours as well and you have exactly the same amount of space you started with. And if the reclining knocks over your cup, you’re a buffoon for putting it there.

what about the sink plug mechanism with the pull up/push down mechanism? Pretty much every hotel I have stayed in has a faulty one of these where you run the water for a shave and by the time you are foamed up the water has all gone.

I’ll see your uppy-downy plug and raise you the ones that are permanently attached on a diametric axle. So you get washed, dry your hands, then realise you have to fish about in the grubby water to push the side of the plug down and then dry your hands again.

Taps in general.

The ones the annoy me are the water-saving push-button ones you often get in public toilets. You know, the ones where the delay mechanism wore out long ago and shut off as soon as you let go of the bastard thing, so you can only wash one hand at once.