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.
"Let's try to create a more naturalistic look to this concrete eyesore.... "
If the windows are any indication, I don't think I'd feel safe going inside
Thanks, I was going ro say exactly that. Who knows where else they were sloppy.
Load More Replies...Actually, that looks a bit nicer than just straight symmetric lines. Looks a bit more "organic" (kind of) that way
I can't be the only one who appreciates the abstractness of the thing.
Perfection is highly overrated. Inside the building non one will notice.
That looks as if someone was lining the margin of a page and didn't use a ruler.
for some reason I actually like this. It's such an ugly building that it almost feels fitting and awkwardly funny that they're all jagged like that.
Oh the beauty of the "big slabs" (or "panelak") architecture! 😆 Quite common in eastern Europe in 60s-70s. You can see the lines on the facade of this building - is where individual concrete panels or slabs are joined. Those panels would be premade in factories and delivered to be assembled on site. Not much care was put in to quality, hence results like this: Most likely, factory that made slabs for this building cut out holes for windows without measuring them properly and consistently. After assembling the not-so-big differences became more visible.
This is probably the same construction company that built the upside down Burger King.
if you scroll up and down the picture really fast, it looks like the windows are moving.
I'd definitely buy a Condo in this building...what possibly could go wrong!
this is lovely but they could invest in a third row of windows or make em bigger ...
If this for real I would guess anyone over 5 feet tall would not fit.
This may be a design feature as placing the windows in vertical lines can cause a line of weakness in the building - but not sure that is the case!
That might be deliberate... I mean, looking from bottom up: the windows are in pairs of two (two stories), then the alignment changes, again two, then it changes back.
This is what happens when you dimension window openings from wall finish. Doesn’t happen when you dimension centre of opening to grid...just saying.
It would have been better if they were off-centred more. This just upsets my OCD.
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
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!
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?
(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?