“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.
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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!
On the plus side, the sticky wings can be used to give yourself an ad hock bikini wax
I was so happy to be menopausal to not need this c**p but now I have stress incontinence :(
Menopause... Yippee, no more period products. WTF.. !?!! now I have to wear a pad every dang day for slight incontinence. 🤦♀️😭
Load More Replies... February 2023!! Twenty! Twenty! Three!! That's the first time someone did a study on these products using something other than that blue liquid and more akin to what period blood actually is like!! 2023!!!! If men menstruated, that study would have been done 1,000 years ago.
If men menstruated, the human race would be extinct!
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This- I've had pads tear open bc the adhesive won't detach when I need to toss it
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I as guy can say that even stuff that is equal to the "mysterious blue liquid" in consistency won't be absorbed like advertised. (Needed to use pads to absorb wound liquids after surgery once)
Oh whew I did not think you'd be talking about surgical wounds.
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Well, they are better than when I was a kid. https://www.pinterest.com.au/ecomenses/vintage-pads-belts/
Yeah I second that as that's what my my mom used. But seriously we can put man on the moon but we can't manage to get decent period pads for women? It's almost like they don't take women seriously.
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It might be time for you to try a different brand name, because my sticky wings work as intended, as do my tampons. The only thing I'd like to point out is that even if you're wearing a tampon, you usually need to wear a pad or liner as well (this is directed at young people who are just starting on their tampon journey).
I agree Always double up! Tampon AND liner, anything less is just too risky for me LOL
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or the wings don't stick at all and the pad moves around or gets all squished up and the blood is smeared all over the underwear....
Oh & dont forget that they're made for petite women with no a*s & hips. I have to use extra long ones and put them extra to the front so they're where needed. & of course, since they're placed like that, the wings are an extra slice of hell...
The stupid pads with the really long front-to-back wings, but short side-to-side. They dont follow the curve of the underwear and just roll up, causing leaks when they fold over or move around because they're stuck to your thigh.
Folks, let's use menstruation cups and give up on all that trash that tampons come with!
Not everyone can ... And that has its own host of issues... Nothing like being in a public bathroom with access to a sink being outside your stall... Just saying.
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It seems that according to maxi pad commercials, Women are full of windshield washer fluid.
What’s even the point of the pad being subtle if the packaging is bright pink!!!!
How do you mean sticking out for a bikini wax? I fold those wings around the edge of my slip, so they stick up to the bottom, no problem
Hey, using "period producuts" is a heck of a lot better than using a washcloth or toilet paper. Although I could never get behind the tampons with no applicator...seriously, they're DRY and you need to insert them. If you lubricate them to insert them, you defeat the purpose. Just like, WTF?
half the time the sticky part doesnt even stick, menstrual cups can be a pain (no pun intents) to put in properly too, "super easy to insert" my a*s!
You're supposed to attach the sticky wings to themselves not your underwear that's why it sticks
Two words: Diva Cup. Saved my life and my sanity. And money. The money was secondary.
If the things you advertise as better make the thing worse, you should consider changing it. Those wings still slide out of place, and they’re more uncomfortable. Also, why are period products so expensive? Charging $8 for a small box of applicator-free cheap-to-make tampons, and if you’re having a heavy day you’re screwed because it’s near impossible to find the heavy ones.
whoever designed pads, I swear has never even MET underwear before.
Add incontinence products for old men. They were clearly designed by women for women, and are a total non-fit for the narrower hips of men. We had to give up on them completely and go back to cloth nappies.
Yes but in all that time since and considering there are massive companies dedicated to making tampons and sanitary products, you would think they could have altered their products to be a little bit more user friendly.
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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...
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.
Elementary state assessments. They are the most obtuse, poorly written, unrealistic questions on earth. They enrage me. They are clearly written by people who either have zero experience in elementary eduction or haven’t had any in a decade or so.
DistractedHouseWitch:
I have a BA in English and couldn't figure out one of the answers to my child's third grade ELA state test practice. I spoke to the teacher about it and she sounded so defeated about the testing. There's no way to prepare children for a test when the questions and answers are so poorly written that the students, their teacher, and the parents can't pick the correct answer.
Microwaves. Why does the beep not stop?
Just like the washing machine, a always tell it "Alright! Shut up!'.
Whoever makes the individual pill packs for hospitals - especially gabapentin. Good GRIEF those are impossible to open, let alone split off from the 10 pack. I swear some of my most annoying moments as a nurse is opening all the individual pill packets!!
WHEELCHAIRS. A friend of mine got a wheelchair recently and it’s quite hard to use on any terrain that’s not like smooth linoleum. There’s no mud guards (so mud that gets on the wheels will get on you) but there are arm rests that make it hard to reach the wheels, and the back of the chair goes up too far and limits upper body mobility. Unless you have a ton of money to shell out on a custom made chair, most basic ones on Amazon were clearly made with the assumption in mind that the wheelchair user will have someone else pushing them.
On most 'inexpensive' wheelchairs, the arms just slot in, so are removeable if you're not being pushed.
The “push here to open” spot on Kraft Mac and Cheese.
Reaper_Messiah:
Whenever I get a different brand I just punch a hole in the same spot out of habit. It’s about exactly as hard to do as with the Kraft ones. So they might as well take out the perforating step and save .001¢/box in the production process.
Why not just tear open the flaps of the box? It's not like you're making half a box of mac & cheese that you need to close it up.
Most sports bras. They often don't support more than a bikini. My favorite kind are the ones with a zipper in the frotn which keeps opening itself as soon as you move.
The guys who thought all of womankind NEEDED and WANTED flimsy pink plastic deli gloves to remove and *discreetly* dispose of their tampons.
I've never heard of that...but...yes...obviously designed by a man...possibly an incel.
Cars are designed by engineers that hate mechanics.
Cars are designed by engineers operating under duress created by accountants within the Good-Cheap-Fast triangle.
Microsoft teams.
Pratius:
Far and away the worst intracompany comms platform I’ve ever had the displeasure of using. Just ludicrously bad at what it’s supposed to make easy.
Touch-screen displays in general, but especially on chart plotter navigation displays for sailboats. Yeah it may be 'waterproof' but use that to navigate into a port in a blowing rain, with salt spray everywhere, freezing cold hands, low visibility... Nightmarish. Buttons & knobs please!
Those weird vertical blinds that snap off at the top so easily.
I swear, my kitchen was designed by a 6 foot 3 man who has never spent an hour in a kitchen in his life.
It’s not functional. I can’t reach anything. All if the cupboards are in each other’s way, and when you unload the dishwasher you have to put everything on the counter and close the dishwasher so that you can then get to the cupboards to put the dishes away.
The whole layout sucks and someday im going to demolish it and put in a new kitchen.
I already had a design in mind when I had my kitchen done some years back. Their designer came up with an attractive but functionally useless design. The key things I needed were to lift the oven up so I didn't have to bend. To add more storage, not more worktop. To make use of wasted corner space by moving the utility hole one place to the left. To get rid of the dusty cupboard tops by putting lockers on top that go to the ceiling. The two good things they came up with were the contrasting glass doors to go against the wood and the steps that slide under the plinth board.
Disposable coffee cups with lids.
We can put a man on the moon but we can’t make a coffee cup with a lid that doesn’t leak?
Most toasters sold in the UK are too small to fit the sliced bread sold in supermarkets.
Slow cookers with short cords. Try that in an office kitchen.
Most equipment for disabled people are made by able-bodied people.
My kindle's power button is on the bottom, so if I hold it over a table I need to hover it because it'll turn off if I try to rest it on the table. Ridiculous. This is slightly more annoying for me than removing page turning buttons, which worked infinitely more reliably than a touch screen.
Speculum.
Mariske:
I just learned that the company that makes speculums has had a monopoly on the design and any new inventions that are potentially more comfortable tend to get thrown out for fear of being sued by this company
wow it's almost like capitalism is f*****g evil and should be abolished.
Kids' clothing especially for newborns.
PrinceOfLeon:
Sometimes the quantity and location of button placement is more intricate to put on than the lingerie was that brought them about. The bad kind and the good kind respectively.
SharePoint, why are you sooooo slow at everything?
I think we all know why: it's because it's another poorly written and ill conceived product by Microsoft.
The "no-mess cap." I remember a time when I knew exactly what was going to happen when I squeezed the mustard. No more.
Side by side refrigerators - the freezer in particular. HOW THE F**K DOES ANYONE ORGANIZE IT WITH 4 f*****g shelves?? Its SO DUMB
It gets better if you get a larger one. I swore I'd never get one of them but I was limited by the top freezer options for what I wanted, the bottom chest models were much smaller and way more expensive, so the side by side vertical split one won and I've made peace with it now.
Any bathroom mirror with a touch sensitive light switch. As soon as the moisture levels go up, the switch will start activating.
Third party apps the company suddenly wants to change to that involves material acquisition, invoices, travel bills or anything that should help your day get more effective.
It never does.
That comment came from the soul - and I bet the new software is recommended / required by someone who isn't doing your job and never has
Bike lanes and bike racks.
If old towns with narrow streets like Amsterdam can do it, there's no excuse for anyone else!
The belts that secure child seats to the car. Ok to tighten, impossible to loosen.
Humidifiers. They are impossible to clean, no one would design anything like that after having cleaned one correctly.
We had to search for *so* long to find a particular type, because one of our cats became OBSESSED with knocking over the water tank so he could play with the water. You want to know how many apartment-size hunidifier models are out there with hidden tanks? Oy.
GOOGLE MAPS NAVIGATION.
F*****g thing reroutes me AUTOMATICALLY and then zooms all the way in to hide the evidence that it is no longer using the route I specifically told it to. Sometimes I don't realize until I've already missed the turn I thought it was going to remind me to take.
I set the route back, and within 5 minutes it reverts it again.
It especially likes to tell me to take a $10 toll road to save 15 minutes (and spend 30c/gal more on gas in the process). i swear the toll roads are paying google for traffic.
No f*****g way that anyone on that team actually uses the product (navigation mode).
Zebra printers. I swear Zebra customer service is useless. I've had to call the help desks for the specific companies I've worked for because the Zebra CS is just like "Huh!?".
All of those trendy new long stick vacuum cleaners with the motor at the top.
Gatorade bottles, I have a hard time opening them, and I'm not a wilting flower. I can imagine an older person or children trying to pry open one. Oh, and then the bonus are the ridges they put on the bottle top that are supposed to be helpful, tear apart your flesh, and you are left useless with an unopened bottle of Gatorade.
I've never experienced any difficulty opening a Gatorade bottle ever, nor have I met someone who did. No idea what this entry is about.
Dishwashers, particularly the bottom rack wheel/track designers. Mine is fine when empty, but as soon as there’s anything in it, it careens off the track every time you slide it.
Please ! My third dishwasher will be installed tomorrow, after two old ones leaked through the kitchen floor, onto the ceiling tiles in our basement. How can that happen? We’ve had 3 clothes washes, in the basement, on a concrete floor, right next to a floor drain. NONE OF THEM HAS EVER LEAKED !!!
Poo-pourri. The contortions you have to do when the bottle gets below halfway full is nuts.
That's oddly specific...why not just say spray bottles in general?
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
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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...