“I Swear Nobody Tested That Product”: 30 Products That Were Made By Someone Who Never Uses Them
Legendary German industrial designer Dieter Rams, who has 'carved' many of Braun's consumer products over the years, developed the 10 principles of good design, sometimes also called the 10 commandments. These principles state that the end result has to be useful and understandable, innovative, aesthetic, unobtrusive, honest, long-lasting, thorough to the last detail, environmentally friendly, and involve as little design as possible.
However, as illustrated in one Reddit thread, many things that are being sold to us fall short in multiple of these categories. Started by platform user DongLaiCha, it asked everyone the question, "What products are clearly made by people or companies who never actually use them?" and people were quick to respond. From clothing items to food packages, here are some of the most popular answers from the discussion.
This post may include affiliate links.
Customer facing software. Developers should be required to hire grandmas under the explicit condition that if grandma can't look at a menu option and decide what to click without giving up and calling the help desk your functionality has failed.
Women's clothing in general. Sizing is always weird, and we never get enough pockets!
This is why, as a woman, I have always hated shopping for clothes as far back as I can remember. Not so much for tops but for jeans/pants. You have to try on every single pair even if it's the same brand.
Most online job applications. If you know, you know.
KAG25:
Upload resume, now fill out these 10 pages with the same stuff that was in the resume.
I swear that people who design some shampoo and conditioner bottles have never tried to use them while wet.
Bras with removable padding. I know exactly zero people who enjoy having to fish those pads out of the washer and or dryer and try to put them back in place. And someone even made a tool to re-insert them?? Just sew them in the first time, cowards!!
Also larger sizes with padding. Last thing I want is to make my boobs look even bigger!
So many baby products!
Baby gates - I don't want a baby gate that requires two hands to open, because one arm is busy *holding the baby*. Ideally there would be one with a foot operated lock/unlock mechanism, so I can hold the baby and (luxury!) up to one other thing as well. Baby wipes that stick together when you pull them out of the container, so you end up with a long damp string of wipes that you can't pull apart because the other hand is busy holding the squirming baby legs up off of the pile of diaper contents.
Strollers that require two hands to collapse, and assume that all parents possess the grip strength of a silverback gorilla. I want to be able to open and close that thing with one hand, people. One hand!
If you've found hacks to get around these issues that's great - my point is they shouldn't be issues in the first place. For the amount of money you pay for baby products, they should be designed in such a way that a parent *holding a baby* can actually use them.
How the heck does one keep a baby from unlocking a foot-operated baby gate?
Flour bags. Whose f*****g b******t idea was it to put the most powdery, messy substance in a PAPER BAG that I can never open without tearing a mile down the side? And *never* seals in a way that isn’t obnoxious and stupid.
Period products.
veggie_saurus_rex:
I've always thought this, glad there has been a call out! Blood and mucus are not easily absorbed like "mysterious blue liquid".
elfowlcat:
Stupid sticky wings that leave all the sticky on the outside of the underwear!
In education, the administration (especially the board of education) are too far from the work that actually goes on in the classroom. I've taught for a long time and have never seen a Board of Education member in a classroom. Principals think they know what's going on because they do observations, but the part they don't understand is how the layers of "c**p" they add to the workload affects the teachers...or how that eventually affects the students. Administrators add layers of c**p because they think that is their job. Instead, they should view their job as removing c**p so that teachers have the time and freedom to have the most purely academic and meaningful interaction with the students.
Ours has a couple MAGA members. Spend most of their time hunting for "woke" curriculum and using public whispers to crucify teachers, FOIAing personnel files, etc.. One interaction I had with one of them accused my co-worker of stealing a bag of soda cans (Michigan) from his place of business. When he first asked "who owns that truck?", he ASSumed it was a coworker who has lobe gauges. What a clown...
Proudly uneducated "political" extremists on school boards has become an epidemic in the US. Say what you will about the extreme right wing, they commit to their bad ideas with a lot of gusto and motivation. If the moderate left could muster half of that energy we might have a fighting chance at saving this country from it's own stupidity.
Load More Replies...Thanks to the NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND ACT! Federal monies given to SCHOOLS that pass a standardized dumbed down test. No creative teaching - although you can reach a math answer correctly Many ways, you must do it the way they are teaching it 'this round'. Middle school, my daughter received very low math grades because she could look at the equation and give the answer, her 13 year old brain worked. However the way they had to show their work made no sense to her - she wasn't dumb enough to be that convoluted finding the answer.
I think they should call on administrators as substitute teachers every so often. Bus monitors, aides, all of the "lowly" jobs.
My principal criticized me for teaching punctuation. I was an English teacher.
I'm sick of admins treating staff like they're commodities instead of people.
When I was a manager of a department in an academic library, I always said my job was to protect my staff from the upper administration so my staff could do their jobs.
yeah... there are a lot of problems with the education system (at least in my country)
Would it make more sense for the principles to have come up through the ranks, as in many other countries?
many principles have come up through the ranks but it doesn't take long to lose sight. plus a lot has changed in the last 5-10 years
Load More Replies...School is not "school" anymore. They don't teach anything...about 50% of the students are definitely "left behind".
Same for hospital admin! The nursing admin is so far removed from patient care they haven’t started an IV in 20 years. Hospital admin are business majors; never don’t patient care a day in their lives. Yet somehow they think they know how to do my job better than I do.
The small town school that I graduated from now has one of the teachers as the highschool principal, while still being a teacher. He was one of the best teachers and always cared so much about his students. The only way a student could actually fail his class was if they just didn't show up or do the work. If there were multiple ways to solve a math problem, he would show all of them, and you could do any of them unless the assignment was about using a very specific formula. A student could meet him before class began for homework help and he would re-explain it so patiently. Maybe that parts a small-town school luxury though.
At least my school district admin know what they are doing. Our superintendent knows all of the staff's names. There are a total of 8 schools in our district. Big ones too. Our HS principal is super cool, and actually cares. He very often takes into consideration the input of the teachers and even the students. The school board is mostly made up of parents of current students, a d they are good parents.
There's a temptation for Administrators to concentrate on whatever they can measure, and think that's the important factor. They can weigh paper but not measure children's happiness, confidence, initiative or courage, so they grade schools by the paperwork. See "Goodhart's Law" for the result.
They are elected members of the community? Why would you expect them to understand your point of view without talking to them. Like as a teacher you need to network and communicate with them.
They have more work than they are paid to do already, and you want to add more?
Load More Replies...It's just as bad when the government gets involved. Our newly elected government wants to force schools to ban cellphones in the classroom by making school admin collect all cellphones from students at the beginning of the day and handing them back at them end of the day. Imagine how long that will take with a roll of several thousand students - plus the liability issues. Teachers are perfectly capable of managing cell phones (or chewing gum, or magazines, or vapes, or anything else inappropriate to teaching time) without the government wasting time on unnecessary laws.
Teachers have enough difficulty with classroom behavior problems as it is.
Load More Replies...Those who can’t do, teach. Those who can’t teach, administrate. Those who can’t do either sit on the School Board.
I have no experience with the latter statements but the "those who can't do , teach" is absolutely false. Teaching is like being a one armed chainsaw juggler. Teachers deserve a whole lot more respect than what they receive.
Load More Replies...Child proof caps on arthritis medication. W.T.F.
If you take the child proof cap (that requires you to push down) off and smack the edge of it with a hammer you can separate the inner normal screw cap from its child proof outer layer. Then use as normal.
Economy airplane seats. I bet things would change if airline CEO’s had to spend 100 hours sitting in the economy seats they approved.
But they don't. And their aim would still be to make as much money per flight as possible.
Those toilet paper holder in public toilets that cut off at two sheets.
Not a product, but most laws meant to support low income households are designed by people who have no concept of poverty. The hoops you have to jump through are meant to be prohibitive, and the income thresholds for who gets help are arbitrary. Even in France and Germany, where I am and where there are lots of social benefits.
MY experience in the usa - many of the people who abuse the system - are members of the political party that accuses the other, for having welfare queens.
I can only assume cereal makers eat an entire box in one sitting, otherwise, they’d be on the phone to the ziplock people midway through their first bowl.
verydepressedwalnut:
While we’re at it, pet food bags. Why the fuck are those not resealable too? I promise my cats aren’t eating 16lbs in a day.
Paper straws.
I bought a package of reuseable straws in a kitchen-stuff store five years ago. Still using the first one - they're medical-looking rubber and they wash-and-dry very well.
Maybe a bit off topic, but in a meeting with a former colleague of mine, the person in charge of the metro for a nearby city admitted that he had never used the metro. Not that he didn’t use the metro, but that he had never used it in his life, even once. I suspect that this kind of thing isn’t uncommon for government services.
Bras.
Critical-Adeptness-1:
“Where is the most sensitive part of a woman’s breast?” “I’d say the nipple, sir.” “Great, thanks, I agree. So yeah let’s put the thickest, mostly bothersome stitch in the entire cup straight across where that nipple’s gonna be, ‘k? Cool, thanks team, get to work”
Strollers. I swear they only tested them empty or with a tiny doll inside a store while having nothing else to do.
Now, try to use it on a tilted pavement with a huge baby bag, 2 toys, an almost 2 years old, 2 big shopping bags, a car trunk to open with someone honking at you for your parking spot after having 2hours of sleep per night since months. And it's raining.
Condiment packets.
*Tear along this line*
The line is on the wrong spot!
The plastic line is too stretchy and didn't even tear!
The notch isn't even cut! My fingers are so greasy that I can't even grip it!
The jerk face who designed blister pack packaging.
Like why are the scissors in a package that requires tin snips to open and once opened will cut me like a knife?
I worked >10 years in printing of these evil things. You could tow a car with the blisters on some of these. We were supposed to collapse the blister and wrench it around to make sure that the package shredded before the blister came off, that was for the bulbs. You don't even want to know about the other stuff we made packaging for and what we had to put it through before we ran it. It's not your imagination.
New apartments designed to sell rather than be lived in.
I drove through an old (1980s) subdivision the other day and had a profound realization that we'll never have anything like that kind of living space again. Each house was different, the properties were big, high quality building materials. It just looked more like a neighborhood than a housing development. The new subdivisions like I live in might as well be cardboard sardines in a can. No personality, no space, just as expensive. All for the dollar of a small group of rich sociopaths. It's pathetic.
My over-ear headphones that for some unexplainable reason have touch, as in you have to swipe at the side of the earpiece to change volume, song etc. But it just doesn't work. 50% of the time when you want to turn up the volume you switch song. Especially when you are walking. Even worse, the headphones are unusable with a hood on because the touch reacts to the inside of my hood.
It's just horrible, and it serves no purpose! I swear nobody actually tested that product. STOP PUTTING TOUCH CONTROLS ON THINGS THAT DON'T NEED THEM!
Celebrity makeup and perfumes.
I doubt any of the celebrities have even tried them, let alone used them on a regular basis. Kylie makeup is the best example of this. Cheap makeup with an expensive price tag.
I have a hard time believing that celebrities use the boxed hair coloring you can get at any drug store. If I had the money, I would not be doing it myself and I would have a professional colorist. As a matter of fact, I don't believe it at all.
Plus sized clothing.
I don't understand how the boobage factor can be so small and the tent like dress part be sooooo tent-like.
Or that plus sized people don't get to have the same type of clothing pattern as a smaller piece of clothing.
I enjoy wearing really large T-shirts, but apparently the size is (most often) in width only, not length.
Paper towel dispensers (in public restrooms) that are operated by pulling on the paper towel itself. If you don't think to prep one before washing your hands, good luck pulling a whole sheet without it dissolving into tiny pieces of useless wet paper.
Tip - grab one before washing hands to turn off faucet, and use the 2nd one to open door.
The little foil seal (hiding under the plastic cap) that insists it's "for your protection" and requires needle nose pliers to remove. Bruh, I just want to add creamer to my coffee. And now my fingers hurt. 😫
Edit to include: and let's not forget the body jolting frustration that consumes you when you FIRST attempt to use/squeeze/pour said product only to discover your little foil friend has "safety first!" in mind.
Those pull tabs on the inside of the necks of olive oil bottles or sesame oil. So small, a finger barely fits in it, let alone grasp and pull it.
And the tab is too hard to grip and way too flimsy for the strength of the adhesive for the part that’s attached to the bottle. Plus, there’s usually plastic under the foil or cardboard, which itself doesn’t all pull off, so you’re left with a plastic seal that only has a tiny slit in it, after pulling everything else off—-and it isn’t easy to pull off either!
Those who make the "pull this flip to open" on plastic packaging of cold cuts.
jonnyoxl:
I don't even bother with bacon packs anymore.easier to just pierce the plastic with a knife.
Love that none of the english speaking people have noticed that is is horsemeat
Hospital beds. From the standpoint of the person who has to push it around and mess with rails that get caught in the mattress and plug it in with a long dirty cord that gets mixed up with another random cord that no one knows its purpose. No retractable cords so they constantly drag on the ground and try to trip you when pushing the bed. Brakes that are in the most awkward position that you have to invert your knee to reach with your foot. And worst, the screeching, ear-piercing alarm that they emit to “warn you” that the bed is not locked. Hospital beds are obnoxious.
Voice-driven phone prompt systems.
Note: this post originally had 65 images. It’s been shortened to the top 30 images based on user votes.
The new milk bottle top that are slightly frosted in appearance, I know some who look for the bottle top when it is on, try and pour milk with it on or spend time looking for it on a work top. Not ideal for the visually impaired. They used to be either blue or green but now they say it if for recycling but the previous caps could be too or were they lying by showing the recycle logo on them.
Microsoft Equation. Whoever invented that went to only one mathematics class in their whole life - and dropped out. I'm very tempted to say the same about major components of Microsoft Excel.
Care to elaborate? I love Excel. Way better than Google sheets.
Load More Replies...I guess having an opinion gets you down votes
Load More Replies...Feel free to bail out any time. It's just time wasting for bored people on the Internet. Clue's in the name 😂
Load More Replies...The new milk bottle top that are slightly frosted in appearance, I know some who look for the bottle top when it is on, try and pour milk with it on or spend time looking for it on a work top. Not ideal for the visually impaired. They used to be either blue or green but now they say it if for recycling but the previous caps could be too or were they lying by showing the recycle logo on them.
Microsoft Equation. Whoever invented that went to only one mathematics class in their whole life - and dropped out. I'm very tempted to say the same about major components of Microsoft Excel.
Care to elaborate? I love Excel. Way better than Google sheets.
Load More Replies...I guess having an opinion gets you down votes
Load More Replies...Feel free to bail out any time. It's just time wasting for bored people on the Internet. Clue's in the name 😂
Load More Replies...