There’s a fine line between designs that are jaw-droppingly original and ones that are truly awful. Unfortunately, a lot of people tend to lean heavily on the latter side of the line, so the world’s filled with design atrocities that will make you cringe. So bad they’re good? Nah. So bad they’re the worst.
The Crappy Design subreddit with more than 2.3 million members is home to the worst designs ever and we bring you the newest ones to scare your artistic friends with. Even if you know next to nothing about good design, you’ll intuitively shy away from some of these design choices. Scroll down, upvote your fave crappy designs, and let us know in the comments which ones you loved to hate the most.
When you’re done, have a look through Bored Panda’s earlier posts about the Crappy Design community here, here, and here.
This post may include affiliate links.
2 Butts 1 Plant
A Scene From An Indian TV Show
I mean to be honest this looks close enough. It's a movie, unless there are doctors watching nobody will know the difference
Previously, Bored Panda spoke to the Crappy Design moderators to learn more about their community.
“The original motivation for the subreddit was to point out crappy designs. Nowadays, most subscribers probably come here for entertainment,” the moderators told us that a part of their followers is there just to have fun and gawk at truly ugly design decisions.
“However, it is common to have meaningful discussion here on why or why not something is crappy design,” they pointed out that some of the members actively participate in in-depth chats.
Idk I'm European
This Captain Of The Submarine In My English Book
That's Not How It Works
Founded back in 2011, the community has flourished over its 9-and-a-half-year existence. Just a year ago, the Crappy Design subreddit had 1.7 million members and got more than 2 million page views each month. Those are huge numbers to be fair. However, since then, the sub has gained an additional half a million new followers.
But let’s hop back to what makes product designs good or bad. For instance, researcher Don Norman writes in his book ‘The Design of Everyday Things’ that good design is upfront and honest about what the thing does. No hidden purposes for Norman!
At the same time, he says that designs have to look beautiful and uncluttered while pushing the boundaries of what a particular object means to us. So we have to be innovative but simple while avoiding clutter and mediocrity. Quite a challenge, wouldn’t you think? No wonder there are so many bad designs out there.
They Said You Will Be In The Front Page, But Didn't Mention What The Title Of Next Article Going To Be
People Wearing Face Masks Looking Like Monsters
Meanwhile, the Interaction Design Foundation stresses that bad designs are often overloaded with useless info and make us waste time to figure out what the thing does and how it works.
So if you’re designing something, make it as intuitive and simple as possible—after all, you wouldn’t want to create something messy that’s bound to end up on the Crappy Design subreddit, would you?
They Stopped Construction On The New Burger King In My Hometown Because The Building Is Backwards. They Put A Whole Building Up Backwards!
Black One Is Salt, White One Pepper
This Isn't Even My Final Form
Welcome To “The Cut” Forest Recreation Area. This Font Threw Me For A Loop. Delete If Not Allowed.
Hiding Money Inside Something That Could Easily Wind Up In The Fireplace
We Cut Kids
Stay Home!
This Bath Bomb's Final Color
Social “Distancing”
This Graph
I Can't Read The Article About Pointless Monthly Subscriptions Without Buying A Monthly Subscription
Wow! What A Bargain!
Blobfish Supra
I’m Having An Aneurysm Just Looking At This
Accidental Venn Diagram
What's The Worst That Could Happen?
Finally A Deal That Suits My Acquired Taste
No Broken Legs I Know Of
In many countries local building codes would outlaw something like this.
We Don't Need That Corner, I Guess...
Can Someone Tell Me What This Jacket Is Actually Made Of?
Complex Oral Care
This "Muddy Waters" Poop Dress I Found On Depop
In Turkey, We Have Footpaths With Embossed Yellow Tiles To Help Blind People.
Almost Perfect
If those windows were centred on that fairly ugly building it would cease to be art and look like a prison.
No Entry, Entrance Only
I Mean, Of All The Design Choices, You Chose This
Ok... this is either to discourage clients to use the toilets so that you don't have to spend money cleaning them, either to not spend money cleaning the toilets because the clients won't see the difference.
These Bathroom Stalls
The see through glass is bad but what about the lack of space for your legs... and other parts of the body... like face. It will be sooo close... most likely pushed against the glass.
A Leaflet I Found In Work
Every Day I Am Thankful To Live In The Land Of The Because Of The Brave USA Free
Enjoy A Nice Massage In A Moving Car With Your Eyes Closed
You Had Me At Hell!
Went To The Park To Shoot Some Hoops Today...
A Solar-Powered Streetlight Under A Bridge In Hong Kong
A Photo With Keanu Reeves
This $4 Swan Pool Float From The Dollar Store
I Thought She Peed Herself For A Sec
You Thought Tide Pods Looked Like Candy.
The Braille On The "Alarm" And "Stop" Button On This Bus Are The Same
In all fairness, doesn't really matter which one you push, the driver will stop.
This Unnecessarily Zig-Zag’d Sidewalk
That's what I was thinking. It looks like a pretty steep slope. This would probably help wheelchairs slow down a bit.
Load More Replies... There's a heart in the sidewalk under the gate and a similar path on the other side. It might represent an EKG in front of a hospital. I think that's cute.
I thought it was for trees,because you can see the trees in the background.
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Certain regulations limit the maximum grade or slope of sidewalks. It appears this is going downhill and so the zigzags are probably so the sidewalks meet code.
And rollerblading. And those annoying electric scooters.
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I’m pretty sure that the sidewalk was designed this way for people in wheelchairs. If the slope is over a certain height, the builders have to add the zig-zags to reduce it. It’s much safer, albeit a bit of a longer trip, to mitigate a steep incline/decline this way. As someone who uses a manual wheelchair, I appreciate this safety accommodation, plus I get a nice aerobic workout at the same time.
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It looks like the reading from an EKG which looks at heartbeat and rhythm and the building ahead looks like a hospital
must be in Russia...because most people walk like that anyway
It must be because of the max slope on ramp after building regulations. Happends in projects sometimes🤷♂️😊 All for wheelchair users🤷♂️
Not unnecessary. Clever. Many companies have an exercise track around their building, on the sidewalks. To reach a certain distance not offered by straight lines, curves and zigzags are added to increase the distance and to make the walk/jog a bit more intense or interesting.
I'm surprised there's no worn out straight path for a shortcut, so obviously everyone really uses the stone path.
To slow down foot traffic because of the path, or to speed up foot traffic because there is room for more people to fit. I hope this is not a trend.
Looks like an EKG strip design...maybe a clever hospital art installment?
The client paid for a certain amount of concrete. The concreter is honest and supplied exactly the amount they paid for; no more, no less.
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If you look further down the sidewalk you can see that the clear intent is to make larger spaces for trees. Likely they went unmaintained and died.
i think this is for people to ride bikes/skateboards slowly around the campus or whatever that is
There was probably landscaping there when it was built but that's all gone now.
Because Why Pave The Actual Pathway
This Ad Bomb That’s Guaranteed To Wake Up My Baby
just install "ublock origin" browser extension and almost all ads on the internet will be blocked including youtube...
Note: this post originally had 110 images. It’s been shortened to the top 50 images based on user votes.
(this comment is for SaraOpse) wow, even the link sounds like f****r!
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I've been reading bored panda on and off for years but I've never made an account. I have just made an account to say that you guys really need to delete the inappropriate links that are probably being posted by bots. It's not good enough that they are downvoted so much. Some curious soul can still click on '...view more comments' and they'll copy+paste that link into their browser which probably contains not only naughty adult content but possibly viruses and spyware.
The first one is very obviously meant to deter bikers and skateboarders...but also to give an idiot an outlet for showing how utterly immature he is. He succeeded blisteringly well. The second one--the gardening service's truck---I don't see the problem. It's two hands together holding seedlings, with the shirt sleeves clearly visible above the heels of the hands. Anyone seeing something else isn't focused on the PRODUCT.
All the skincare efforts on my face are gone after laughing my tears off lol
As a Lions Club member I had to share the image of the Turkish blind walkway challenge for the blind. As a Lithuanian/American I am happy to see cool stuff coming from the land of my father.
this reminds me of when the government hired some people to cut some weeds in these planters on public sidewalks - they were overflowing and complained about - but a lot of the cleaning and gardening staff or whatever they are were laid off from COVID so someone came and cut ALL of the grass that was supposed to be there along with the weeds :/ can you tell it wasn't their job?
(this comment is for SaraOpse) wow, even the link sounds like f****r!
Load More Replies... I've been reading bored panda on and off for years but I've never made an account. I have just made an account to say that you guys really need to delete the inappropriate links that are probably being posted by bots. It's not good enough that they are downvoted so much. Some curious soul can still click on '...view more comments' and they'll copy+paste that link into their browser which probably contains not only naughty adult content but possibly viruses and spyware.
The first one is very obviously meant to deter bikers and skateboarders...but also to give an idiot an outlet for showing how utterly immature he is. He succeeded blisteringly well. The second one--the gardening service's truck---I don't see the problem. It's two hands together holding seedlings, with the shirt sleeves clearly visible above the heels of the hands. Anyone seeing something else isn't focused on the PRODUCT.
All the skincare efforts on my face are gone after laughing my tears off lol
As a Lions Club member I had to share the image of the Turkish blind walkway challenge for the blind. As a Lithuanian/American I am happy to see cool stuff coming from the land of my father.
this reminds me of when the government hired some people to cut some weeds in these planters on public sidewalks - they were overflowing and complained about - but a lot of the cleaning and gardening staff or whatever they are were laid off from COVID so someone came and cut ALL of the grass that was supposed to be there along with the weeds :/ can you tell it wasn't their job?
