40 Designs That Are So Bad, They Deserve To Be Shamed In This Online Thread
Ever had a moment where you looked at a product and thought, "What were they thinking?" You're not alone. We believe that we've all come across things that seem so poorly designed that you can't help but wonder if the people behind them ever gave their creations a test run.
While many of us have encountered products that leave us scratching our heads, wondering if anyone on the design team actually tried using them, it's a sentiment shared by countless. This issue caught the attention of Reddit user u/Stay-Thirsty, who posed an intriguing question on r/AskReddit: “What product was so poorly designed that you suspect the team that made it never used the product?” People from all over the internet began sharing their stories of design mistakes, and the frustration flowed in like a flood.
Keep reading to discover the wild responses that rolled in. We’ve also reached out to Chris Wilson, a product design expert, to get his take on some of the biggest design errors. Scroll down to read the whole interview!
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Any sites with lots of text and ads in between. Scroll down, start reading, then the ad loads and your article shifts down a few inches. Go to click a link but suddenly the ad loads and you click that.
One of the biggest reasons I switched from iPhone to Android was so that I could use ad blockers on Firefox.
Pockets on women’s clothing.
Pockets on Women's clothing...What Pockets? Oh This? No, This is designed to only Look like I have pockets. These don't actually open so they can't be used as pockets...
Any stove or car with touch screens instead of knobs and buttons.
Chris Wilson shared that he studied Product/Industrial Design as an undergraduate in London. “The university had excellent links with industry and the degree course centered heavily around real-life clients, from well-known companies and brands, setting genuine briefs. There was always a real chance that what we were presenting to our clients may actually make it to production.”
Today, Chris mainly teaches Product/Industrial Design. He makes easy-to-understand YouTube videos that explain advanced design techniques, helping thousands of people around the world. We suggest you visit his channel to pick up some useful design tips and tricks!
Baby wipes.
Hey, you know when a good time to struggle with opening a package that says it has perforations but really doesn't?
You want one? Here's a chunk of 20.
You want a bunch? Here's a tiny ripped corner.
You have 10 left on a trip and need to conserve? Too bad mother f****r, here's the rest of the pack. Get your tired a*s to CVS.
Faucets that are so short that you can't fit both hands under them without touching the back of the sink. It's so infuriating how common this is. I have to contort my hands to use them.
Bonus: faucets (most common in public parks and such) that are push activated and last only one or two seconds. Clearly not designed for proper hand washing.
What about sinks so tiny that you can't wash your face without causing a biblical deluge on your countertop???
Any device that typically belongs in a bedroom that has an always on LED. I don’t need to see the LED at all times when I am sleeping.
If you don't have those lights how else am I going to be able to watch you sleep???
Design plays a crucial role in our everyday lives, from the products we use to the spaces we call home and work. However, it's not always perfect, and even the most experienced designers can stumble upon design flaws. We were curious to hear about some of the most common design flaws Chris has come across in his career. “The flaw I see most regularly, and maybe it’s something I just can’t unsee anymore, is any feature that suggests it’s the work of a self-indulgent designer,” Chris told us. “When a product stands out from the crowd because of features that are of little benefit to the user, I’m left asking myself why they’re there at all. Some designers like to throw everything into their designs – but why? Usually, the answer is more about themselves than the client or end user.”
Those sliding shower doors with an overlapping section that is impossible to clean without taking the whole door off.
All of the «tear here» markings on coffee packs, juice cartons, etc., mark the strongest/most tear resistant part of the package.
In the world of design, creating a product that works well and looks great is a true art form. But what are the most important factors that make a product well-designed? According to Chris, it’s simplicity. “Successful designs are those which are simple to manufacture, to understand and use, and to maintain. They have a minimal impact on the environment, in manufacture, in use, and beyond. A well-designed product makes someone’s life a little easier, without being at the expense of someone else. It may be a little cliché, but I always consider the key to be subtraction, rather than addition. Find ways to make your design more simple.”
Facebook. Used to be cool but now its 15 ads in a row and a rant from my friends friend from 3 weeks ago i already read a hundred times
Womens underwear. The part that is supposed to get dirty is never far enough forward to catch what its supposed to catch.
I have no idea what they're talking about. Have been an underwear wearing woman all my life.
My dishwasher beeps several times loudly when the cycle is done. Loudly enough that you can hear it outside the house. If you don't open the door, it will beep again 45 minutes later, and every 45 minutes forever until you do so. There is no way to silence this feature or reduce the volume.
Apparently there's no such thing as starting the dishwasher at night and then going to bed in these designer's minds...
When it comes to designing a new product, finding the right balance between looks, practicality, and ease of use can be a real challenge. Chris shared that it is always a careful mix. He emphasizes that design is often about finding a compromise. “I would put the needs of my client or end-user first and work closely with them to ensure that my ideas and their needs were in alignment. The successful designer will find ways to create an equilibrium. Equilibrium doesn’t have to consist of equally sized parts for balance to be achieved.”
Single ply toilet paper
I had an automatic litter box that was fine for pee but the motor was way too weak to scoop poop and regularly got stuck. Also, poop tended to stick to the tines and make a big mess. I called the (small) company. The rep told me that the box design was tested using water and was never tested in a real life situation with real cats as no one there had a cat. She didn't understand why this was a problem.
Toys that only have one volume: EXTREMELY LOUD!!!!
Whoever makes these does not have kids of their own.
My two sons had a few toys like this. One of them was a "sleeping box", the thing you put on the bedside table to make sounds and lights to help the kid fall asleep. One volume setting, yelling. This was deliciously ironic. I just soldered a resistor on one of the speaker wires and the problem was gone. Maybe I should create a "quiet module" with a variable resistor and two screw type terminals so everybody can do this without a soldering iron?
If you’re an aspiring product designer, Chris has some advice for you to avoid common design pitfalls and create more user-friendly products. “Understand the needs of your client and/or end user. Recognize and ensure that the focus is squarely upon them and their needs, not on producing work for your portfolio. Be noticed for your ability to answer the brief and become recognized for the skillful simplicity of your designs.”
To learn more about product design, check out Chris’s work on Instagram and YouTube! You can also support him at buymeacoffee.com!
The word "latinx" as a gender-neutral way to refer to Latinos.
Whoever came up with that nonsense had never even taken a Spanish 101 course. "Latinx" is simply unpronounceable in Spanish - even a 5yo speaker would know that - and the real gender neutral word would be "latine", but even that is very rarely used
Edit: stupid spelling
I've yet to meet anyone of Latin American descent that uses latinx. Or even likes it. I've met plenty of virtue signaling Karen's that adore it though. Spanish (like other Romance languages) has a gender for everything including people. Don't like the one you were born with? Let me know and I'll use the other one for you. And yes, I'm of Spanish heritage.
Sanitary pads
Especially ones advertised as "zero bunching" - they most certainly do bunch. They will go straight up your bum crack. They can only have been designed by someone who doesn't use them to have made that claim
Pots with handles which get burning hot when you heat the pot.
Software drivers for basically any HP printer made in the last three decades
"Hello, Hal. I'd print this for you but I'm sensing you bought the purple printer cartridge on eBay."
Okay, bear with me here... all these grocery items in plastic that have a ziploc closer as well.
The idea is great! Open, use, reseal.
But in my experience (and I'm not exactly old and weak) these don't work as planned. Frequently they have the perforated section you can rip off, supposedly to allow access to the ziploc portion. Many times there's glue holding pieces together and the perforated section never seems to extend past that.
Even when not glued, the ziploc is apparently held together by the weak nuclear force and will NOT come apart. There's never enough plastic to pull on, and when there is it's approximately as strong as wet tissue paper. So it just rips.
IMHO the worst offenders are deli meats, but it's been tortillas and more that have flummoxed me. Far too often I just take scissors to the package and then 'seal' it later with a clothes pin.
And when you do get it open, after pouring out some content you can't close it back up because there's gunk in the zip
If you’re short and left handed, pretty much everything. Scissors. Grocery aisles. Kitchen cabinets. Pants. knives and forks. Over-the-stove microwave ovens. There is no end …
Kids bubbles where the container is a test tube with a rounded bottom so it can never be set down unless the cap is on
Yeah! WTF is that about? Oh, right...dso the liquid leaks out and you have to buy more! 😡🤬
Just put some dishsoap and water in a tray or Mason jar. Save yourself the money and frustration. I loved it as a kid, I'm sure your kids will too
after you use 5 minutes of it then you can never use it again since the bubble juice doesn't touch all sides of the bubble wand
Containers are designed for ease of manufacturing, packing, shipping and storage.
Contacted a Dollar store about design of soap(bubble) container. Designed just like a juice packet that is popular now. They SAID they would change it???
Target is guilty of selling those test tube bubble kits - they change the design for every season. We have so many half used containers of them lying around. The summer themed one has a whale on the top. And coming up next will be the one with the pumpkin top! :)
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The trunk wont open on some Chevrolet cars if the battery is dead. There is no key hole, or physical release cable.
The battery is in the trunk.
You can jump it from contacts under the hood, sure, but that’s such an odd design choice to me.
RHD Skoda Octavia mk3 - the backup key hole is in the opposite door to the bonnet release. The bonnet release that you need if your battery goes flat but for security reasons is blocked by the deadlocked door! Skodas actual procedure is to snap the handle off, use pliers and then buy a new handle from Skoda!
Literally just printers in general. I’d be amazed if anyone here said they’ve had a printer thats always just cooperated and printed with no hassle. It’s always “no” ink, or can’t connect to printer, a jam, a power issue, simply not doing anything, etc.
The newly-built ladies toilets in our office building which had no space for the sanitary products bins. The bins ended up awkwardly shoved into the too-small gap with the net result of making the actual toilets too narrow to sit on. Fully expect those dimensions were drawn and approved by someone who had no use for the bins or didn’t even know they were present in every toilet.
Dyson vacuum cleaners. They may be great if you live in a pristine, lovely house - but when it's an old house and you add 4 cats, a dog and 2 children it's a useless piece of c**p where the cleaning head needs to be de-clogged every 10 minutes. And you almost need to be an engineer to disassemble, clean and reassemble it. I hate that f*****g piece of trash and am very, very sorry that I sold my reliable old Hoover. I am positive that Dyson and whoever else was involved in creating this masterpiece has never actually had to clean a house. Sucking up pieces of styrofoam at the testing clinics is not a real world example.
You want a Henry! I refuse to buy dyson as mr dyson is a massive brexit supporting prick.
Some road intersections make me wonder if the engineers have actually ever driven a vehicle.
Like the classic cloverleaf interchange. Sure it looks cool from the air, but I guess they never thought of people trying to merge off of one ramp while others are trying to merge on to another. I hate them. I spend more time making sure someone's not zipping down the ramp at 70+ mph so I can merge over in the 20 feet I have before I have to slow down.
The Apple Mac chargeable cordless mouse. Cos you can't use it while it's charging. Dumbasses
Whoever designed that is a genius: they force their costumers to buy two products instead of one. The dumbasses are the ones who buy it and keep calling it "innovation" while getting scammed.
Made it and don't use it? The metaverse
I just bought a waterproof cargo bag for the roof of my car that was fairly expensive
The Velcro that keeps the zipper protected was just GLUED ON, not stitched
The very first time I opened the bag all the Velcro came off because the attraction to itself was stronger than the adhesive bond to the vinyl bag
It’s like there was absolutely zero product testing, but I’m sure it was 5 cents cheaper to make it glued rather than stitched. How could something like this have ever been allowed to leave the factory?
My new £1000 washing machine. Does a great job washing clothes and is all singing and all dancing. But all this additional stuff adds complexity and is an absolute bastard to clean. The detergent draw has all this fancy stuff my old didn’t and I just get so much mold growing. Have to take it all apart and clean it so often. It’s so annoying.
Edit: everyone telling me to ‘leave the drawer and door open’….yeah I get that. But that’s why I answered the original question. Stupid design that I have to leave the doors open when not in use. It’s dangerous (with kids and cats!) and it gets in the way. Stupid design
Front loaders are a poorly designed washing machines. The mold is disgusting. I ripped out my counter top and replaced with a top loader. It's heaven and clothes get much cleaner as the tub actually fills with water. I can actually soak clothes if needed. And I don't miss the counter top - because I have a great washing machine now.
Plant pots with non drainage although they look like they did.
My new iron. Has a restart if you tip it over after it’s timed out. So if you accidentally leave it plugged it and it gets knocked over by accident (pet or child bumps the board, wind knocks something over knocking the iron over) it starts up while face down.
Bacon packages. Can I get a ziplock for it? I don’t want to eat 30 pieces of bacon in one sitting.
My kitchen trash can. It is one sold by Glad specifically for their bigger, extra strong 20 gallon trash bags. It is not particularly cheap.
It looks good, but the design of it is what you might expect if you told aliens what a trash can is and they designed one without ever seeing it. How it holds the bag basically causes you to lose 4 gallons of capacity and have to risk tearing the bag or spilling its contents every time you go to remove it. It also has a trash bag holder that is so narrow, you have to feed it trash bags one at a time, completely defeating the point. And if you try to compact the trash a bit, you're almost guaranteed to tear the "tear resistant" bag.
Such a poor design.
Edit: For everyone who keeps commenting about how I should recycle and compost... I do. That has nothing to do with my trashcan...
Most web sites, but for some reason especially those designed for use by elderly people such as medical sites and insurance.
It's like my son's Medicaid. Trying to view something and it pushed their app. Like you have no choice but to get the app. The app is essentially a web browser that shows the site exactly as it would on Safari, Chrome or Firefox!
The shift on a Nissan Pathfinder. Trying to get it into neutral is like a carnival game. Almost destroyed it trying to enter a car wash.
My refrigerator has a water filter that cannot be changed without turning off the supply... Which is behind the refrigerator. So you have to pull the multi hundred pound fridge (with all the food and such) out to turn the water off before you can change the water filter.. The old Maytag it replaced had no such requirement.
OR you can tunnel in from the other side of the wall behind it. Put a giant wooden frame around the hole and call it art
Cardboard tampon applicator
Note: this post originally had 50 images. It’s been shortened to the top 40 images based on user votes.
Makeup (foundation) in bottles with a pump action cap that cannot be removed. I have one now there is still makeup in the bottom of the bottle but the pump tube thingy doesn't reach that far down, so makeup in the bottom of the bottle is unreachable and wasted. Cap dont come off even with force using pliers. Gggrrrrr!!!
Heat the cap up carefully (I use boiling water) and pull while still hot, then use those tiny spatulas to get to the foundation. I get at least a week's worth! Of course wash the spatula afterwards and reseal the bottle with a ball of aluminium foil because the cap will break!
Load More Replies... Two Things: The headlights on new/newer cars that burn your eye balls out even when they are on low beams. Resealable food packaging be it animal or human that requires you to tear off the top before you can open the package. It almost never tears off cleanly and I end up resorting to a knife to open the sodding things.
Glass top stoves. They scratch and break way too easily, they take FOREVER to cool down, you can't leave anything on the stove unless there's an unused burner to shift it to or it'll keep cooking, and it stops working during power outages.
Yes! I’ve never lived with a glass top stove that I wasn’t deliriously happy to leave behind when I moved.
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I want to nominate the bus stops in my city, in front of the central station. they were newly build about twenty years ago. Nice, tall roofs against rain, but way too few seats. Each station only had two seats. and the bus stops had walls with art and info displays that where positioned in a way that when a bus stopped there, you only had about five feet of space to get on and off. really nice if you have a wheelchair or stroller and the a**holes outside are crowding the door trying to get in. And now, after just 20 years they are rebuilding the whole thing again, and the plans I saw don´t look good. Before, the stops where designed so that the bus came in and drove out in a straight line. The new design involves actual bays the busses have to pull into and then reverse back out. At least that what it looks like to me.
Every single chair in existence. I don't think I've ever sat in a chair that seemed designed for human beings. Either the seat cuts across the backs of my thighs or my feet are dangling like a small child's. No lumbar support. Chair back designs that are horribly uncomfortable to lean against.
My son does wood crafting - everything from furniture to carved wooden kitchen spoons and scoops. He's a real craftsman! He's built several Windsor chairs that are ergonomically crafted - every time someone sits in a regular wooden chair, then sits in one of his, invariably their response is a surprised "oh, my!". Amongst other things, he carves the seat to avoid pressure on the back of your legs, so you sit comfortably, and the back and legs are fit to you. I can sit in my office chair all day - better than the "real" office chair I used to use.
Load More Replies... Makeup (foundation) in bottles with a pump action cap that cannot be removed. I have one now there is still makeup in the bottom of the bottle but the pump tube thingy doesn't reach that far down, so makeup in the bottom of the bottle is unreachable and wasted. Cap dont come off even with force using pliers. Gggrrrrr!!!
Heat the cap up carefully (I use boiling water) and pull while still hot, then use those tiny spatulas to get to the foundation. I get at least a week's worth! Of course wash the spatula afterwards and reseal the bottle with a ball of aluminium foil because the cap will break!
Load More Replies... Two Things: The headlights on new/newer cars that burn your eye balls out even when they are on low beams. Resealable food packaging be it animal or human that requires you to tear off the top before you can open the package. It almost never tears off cleanly and I end up resorting to a knife to open the sodding things.
Glass top stoves. They scratch and break way too easily, they take FOREVER to cool down, you can't leave anything on the stove unless there's an unused burner to shift it to or it'll keep cooking, and it stops working during power outages.
Yes! I’ve never lived with a glass top stove that I wasn’t deliriously happy to leave behind when I moved.
Load More Replies... I want to nominate the bus stops in my city, in front of the central station. they were newly build about twenty years ago. Nice, tall roofs against rain, but way too few seats. Each station only had two seats. and the bus stops had walls with art and info displays that where positioned in a way that when a bus stopped there, you only had about five feet of space to get on and off. really nice if you have a wheelchair or stroller and the a**holes outside are crowding the door trying to get in. And now, after just 20 years they are rebuilding the whole thing again, and the plans I saw don´t look good. Before, the stops where designed so that the bus came in and drove out in a straight line. The new design involves actual bays the busses have to pull into and then reverse back out. At least that what it looks like to me.
Every single chair in existence. I don't think I've ever sat in a chair that seemed designed for human beings. Either the seat cuts across the backs of my thighs or my feet are dangling like a small child's. No lumbar support. Chair back designs that are horribly uncomfortable to lean against.
My son does wood crafting - everything from furniture to carved wooden kitchen spoons and scoops. He's a real craftsman! He's built several Windsor chairs that are ergonomically crafted - every time someone sits in a regular wooden chair, then sits in one of his, invariably their response is a surprised "oh, my!". Amongst other things, he carves the seat to avoid pressure on the back of your legs, so you sit comfortably, and the back and legs are fit to you. I can sit in my office chair all day - better than the "real" office chair I used to use.
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