We've all heard about crappy design, something that turns a blind eye to user-friendliness, logic and common sense, aesthetics, and people in general. We’re talking billboards, TV ads, product packaging and product design, websites and apps, you name it.
The phenomenon of crappy design is that no matter how much our marketing strategies and advertising techniques have evolved in the past decades, it still finds its place in our daily lives. Check out some examples of crappy design in Bored Panda’s previous features here, here and here.
This time, we are taking a step further. Sometimes the design is so annoying, senseless and defunct that it seems like the brands are doing this deliberately or at least without shame. There’s even a whole corner of reddit dedicated to cases “when a*** design things.”
With a whopping 2.9 million members, the community pokes fun at the mentality that “nothing comes before profit, especially not the consumer.” Below, we wrapped up some of the evilest designs, so let us know what you think of them in the comments!
This post may include affiliate links.
Ah Station Design
Taxes
Appstore For You
Bad design can be found everywhere, from the products we use every day to the websites we visit. Poorly designed products can be difficult to use, causing us to waste time and energy. They can also be dangerous, as faulty product or packaging designs can lead to accidents.
Meanwhile, websites with bad design can be hard to navigate, preventing us from finding the information we need. They can also be visually unappealing, making us less likely to return. At the same time app can have a very bad user experience which means people will be reluctant to use it. From confusing navigation to cluttered layouts, anyone can spot a very poor design.
Brand New Protein Powder, Not Even Filled Half Whey
Felt Like This Sub Would Appreciate This Statement
Screw You Pinterest
Your content fills up and pollutes the search engine results yet people can’t even view your bulls**t user-submitted content without signing up for a damn account. Going to add to you to my Personal Blocklist so you don’t appear in my searches and waste my time anymore.
Pinterest is a cesspool. I found some of my facebook photos had been uploaded on pinterest. A girl (wannabe maker/influencer/scammer) reuploaded them with her watermark and used them as example of her creations. Had to subscribe to the website to report the images, and after weeks of waiting... nothing happened. Zero answers, support or even an automated mail. In the meanwhile those images were stolen by others and popped around for a while on other websites, mostly on ads of promoting scams. Stopped uploading my work anywhere.
Jerk designs seem to take a step further than simply bad designs and come across as downright unethical and immoral. They snuck their way into the products and services we consume, and sometimes we don’t even notice them.
According to Danny Sapio, the lead product designer at Method and cofounder of Confettihabits.com, shrinkflation is a classic case of less product and more profit. “Companies use this tactic to discreetly sell less of a product at the same price that it was before.”
Moreover, Sapio argues that “companies can do this through labeling by displaying “FAMILY SIZE” or “PARTY SIZE” despite it being the same amount as the regular item.” For us, the unsuspecting shoppers, it’s something that’s really easy to miss.
Trashy Company
Hellofresh. If I Don’t Need To Call To Make Orders, I Shouldn’t Need To Call To Unsubscribe
Also for people who have hearing/speech problems and can't hold a conversation over a phone.
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Spoiler alert - They are NEVER happy to help you cancel. They are only happy to use tricks to make you stay!
I swaped out my debit card in the payment part for a card that would be declined. After a couple months of no payment, my account was canceled. I am.not an introvert, but I HATE having to call places like this. I used an old visa gift card that had like $2 left on it. If you don't have a card to use that will be declined, you could go buy a visa gift card and load it with $5. I get at that point it would probably be easier to call, but maybe not for some of us. I fully admit, I would go get a new low balance card over calling, that is how much I hate it, and I am petty like that some times and want to beat them at their own game.
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You can unsubscribe from hello fresh on their website, not the app. Also they sent me 75% off coupons when I did. I would resign up, cancel, get the coupon a couple days later, resign up, cancel. Did this about 5 times until they stopped sending me coupons lol.
Yup! I'm currently in my 3rd round of using the service.
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There are so many companies that make you do this. It infuriates the hell out of me. I did find a way round it, just cancel the Direct Debit, it's funny how they cancel something without delay rather than let you get it for free.
They just say your subscription is unpaid and they then give you a credit default for the debt.
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You are so lucky! You should do a TED talk on the specific steps you took..lol...
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The "you can easily sign up online, but must go back in time, find a fax machine, and submit documents in triplicate to cancel" stuff is my pet peeve.
Lots of gyms and at least one membership based massage chain has everything automated to sign up or come in but you have to cancel in writing, possibly to a place other than the location you go to, in order to quit.
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My insurance does the same. I can do anything via the app EXCEPT cancel something.
I recently cancelled a membership. You can join online, but to cancel, I had to make an physical appointment to their location. The next "free time" was two and a half weeks out. The membership also included a bank account to which the bonuses were paid. They could not, for reasons still unclear to me, transfer the money to my usual account, but I had to withdraw it in cash.
This sounds really absurd, it's a kind of bureaucratic dystopia thing.
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They try to guilt you into staying. Offer you discounts, different plans, it was crazy!
So many things on here that happen in the US are literally illegal in Australia... I read these things and I'm in shock.
If you read anything online with any regularity, nothing should shock you about the US. It's all absurd.
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It’s great how a company will conveniently let you add services with a single click, but to delete services? “Please wait for the next available representative.” Increased profit at any cost to the customer.
A little over a year ago the FTC ruled that click to subscribe call to cancel is illegal. So many companies don't play by the rules but legally they have to offer the same option to cancel as they did to subscribe. Also only applies to web based service as far as I understand. Cable/utilities have different rules
They mean a customer service agent will nag and nag to make tou stay just so you dont get hassle of them constantly
I've cancelled with both the chat function and email when stuff like this has popped up. I just say I am NOT calling, I want to cancel and they do it
Yeah, you can pretty much always cancel in writing, although what they accept as "in writing" can be substantially different.
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Reminds me of what happened with a credit card. Someone on the other side of the country got my number, used it to buy 2 inexpensive children's books. When I received my statement for that month I called the company, explained to them what had happened, how it was impossible, they said fine, it was gone. A week or 2 later I received a letter from them saying they're reviewing it but they need a receipt from me for the sale of the books.... How the H could I have a receipt when I didn't buy the books? What is wrong with Bank of America? According to my son--everything! A few years ago he closed an account with them. A year later he receives a bill for $60! Seems they'd left a penny in his account & charged him $5. every month for interest. With the shouting match that followed they escorted him out of the bank with a security guard. In the end he did not pay the $60. BEWARE OF BANK OF AMERICA!
Go to your account and change your payment method to an old credit card that no longer works. They'll be calling you soon.
Counting on those of us who hate to talk to ppl. I don't like calling BC I'm hearing impaired. When l get someone who has an accent, whatever l have to handle with the company just got that much harder. So l frequently just hang up.
Call, push numbers, on hold for an hour, then get pressured to stay. No Thanks.
This completely defeats the entire purpose of online/delivery/app stuff: I don't HAVE to talk to anybody! Ever!
The other one they also like to use is only being able to cancel using an actual desktop to do so, not a mobile device. You can sure sign up real easy on a mobile device though, of course!
This annoys me no end. If I can sign up online, I should be able to cancel online.
If your service is bad enough to make me cancel, you definitely will not enjoy that phone conversation.
I swaped out my debit card in the payment part for a card that would be declined. After a couple months of no payment, my account was canceled. I am.not an introvert, but I HATE having to call places like this. I used an old visa gift card that had like $2 left on it. If you don't have a card to use that will be declined, you could go buy a visa gift card and load it with $5. I get at that point it would probably be easier to call, but maybe not for some of us. I fully admit, I would go get a new low balance card over calling, that is how much I hate it, and I am petty like that some times and want to beat them at their own game.
tactic 1.) making it hard to cancel. Tactic 2.) manipulating our perception to the value of money by claiming that this call (not a phone sex line) COULD OF cost money. Making us think there is some sort of savings being had.
… Say what? Ok, well, no hellofresh for me ever in my life. If I have to EXPLAIN myself for unsubscribing, then you’re out forever. And for everyone I know, who will also be warned about this búllshit. My god, the absolute audacity.
Because they want to talk to into remaining a customer. They will claim it is so that they want to make sure it is you unsubscribing.
That's just shitty. You can't force someone to call to cancel and give them no other choice. Just give them an option to cancel without calling!
Gyms do this. Planet Fitness let's you join online, but to cancel, you must go there in person or mail in a signed letter.
Reminds me of planet fitness, you can't cancel unless you go in person or hand pen and sign a letter. Calling would be awesome in comparison.
This is exactly why I don't sign up for any free trials of services I at all doubt I want to keep. They automatically charge you as soon as your trial ends for the next month and you have to jump through hoops to cancel.
I call it "Hell-No Fresh" since it was really unreliable for delivery. So unreliable that in Florida weather it would often sit on the truck for a day or more, spoiling, before I received it.
"Should" and "shouldn't" are among the most useless of words. Our economy is based on exploitation for profit. This is fact. Consider how even your righteous anger is further monetized by sites just such as this one. Half the posts here involve some permeative grievance or other, our reactions to which are cross indexed and further used to exploit us.
Home Chef just calls it "pausing your subscription" but you don't have to call.
An unusual twist! Most of the time no company wants to give you their support phone number, lol, they spam you with dO yOu WaNnA lIvE cHaT oUr RoBoT
Yeah, this is not actually a support phone number, and they will put you on a long hold if you tell the phone you want to actually cancel. Sometimes you can get around it by telling the automated system you want to add something and then the human who picks up almost instantly "I'm so sorry, I actually called to cancel and pressed the wrong button, can you help me?"
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Yes! it was extremely difficult to cancel hello fresh. I have to call 2 times and they don't just cancel right away, you still have to pay for a week or 2 more.
I've been in that kind of situation before. I find it easier to get banned.
Charities also do this. I still didn't cancel my yearly gift to a certain charity, although I want to for some time. I can't bring myself making that phone call, especially because they will probably try to guilt-trip me to make me change my mind. It's a vile practice, but it apparently works...
Cancel the direct debit order on your bank account - they'll contact you pretty quickly - I learnt that... Also a lot of places can't make outbound calls, I learnt that too trying to deal with a credit card company - phone you at a zillion £/min - nah, bro - you come to me.
Idea: record your voice saying "I want to unsubscribe" on loop and play that when they start doing their sales pitch when you call.
I wonder how long they have been doing this. I didn't have this happen when I cancelled.
Cashing In On That *cough*
Another great example of jer design practices is the use of lethal enforcers. They require the user to take the action that the company wants before they can do what they intend to do.
“Lethal enforcers are essentially a way that companies gatekeep the decision making for users. Instead of giving users a free choice, the company decides for the individual the decision that should be made then makes that their only choice,” Sapio explained.
An example of a lethal enforcer is when you want to write a review on Yelp but have to download the brand’s app first. “Or when a company suppresses relevant search results to display sponsored products or content.”
I Want My Money Back
I Chose The Bottle Because A Tube Wasn't Enough! This Trojan Trickery Is An Abuse Coming From A Brand With Recognition
Well here’s a company that cares FA about both its customers and the environment.
Bought These Sticky Notes Cause I Thought The Gold Border Was Nice
Sapio also urges to look out for one of the trick questions known as the loaded questions. They take an advantage of our good nature. “We assume that we don’t need to read the entire question because we’ve already collected the information we need to answer it.”
Natural Is A Trademark
So It Was A Lie
Really?
Another very shady design practice is throttling. “Throttling is when a company intentionally downgrades the service or product with the hopes that the customer upgrade. This is different than forced obsolescence because the product still works; it’s just much slower and shittier than it used to be,” the product designer explained.
It turns out that even giant brands like Apple have been found guilty of this. Apple has settled a class-action lawsuit over its practice of slowing down older iPhones, agreeing to pay up to $500 million to impacted consumers.
“Another example is ‘unlimited’ data providers that sneakily slow down internet speeds once they pass a certain threshold of data usage,” Sapio concluded.
Youtuber Gets Every Single Video On His Channel Copyright Claimed Despite Having The Rights To All The Music In His Videos
This Mcdonalds Menu
Just hold up the queue on purpose till the ad finishes, so you can choose what you want!
Both Weigh 500g But The Green One Is In A 30% "Bigger Bag More To Share"
Customer: it's a bigger bag with more chips. Company: no no, it's just a bigger bag
Cup Design That Makes The Drink Look Like It Has Actual Fruit
Disney Leaves The Inside Of Their $6 Icecream Hollow
The Sticker Was A Lie
Amazon Prime Video Doesn't Tell You If A Show Is Unavailable In Your Country Until After You Subscribe To Amazon Prime
This Design Pisses Me Off Every Single Day
Unremovable Ads On My $2,500 Samsung Smart TV
Spending $175 On A Textbook Only To Receive A 2 Inch Stack Of Unbound Papers. Binder Sold Separately!
Dislikes Helped You Know If A Video Was A Scam, Misleading Or Had False Information
Read: We intend to continue to host questionable content as long as it generates revenue for us, and no, we’re not going be transparent about it, because that will obviously also affect our revenue.
Literal Hell For Budget Flyers - Standing Seats
Hey This Hotel Room Is Only $99 A Night, Great Deal!!!
They should have just said the hotel is FREE, then charge the $99 as a booking fee or something. Who wouldn't like a FREE hotel, eh?
They Replaced Half The Mirrors In My Local Shopping Mall's Bathroom With Advertising Boards!
Heard We Are Having A Rigged Democracy Binge
The Fact That You Can't Uninstall Facebook On Certain Phones
They Decided To Completely Cover Their Tenants' Windows With Ads Because Who Needs Natural Light And Fresh Air?
My Work Place’s ‘Low Plastic, Recyclable Eco-Pens’ Have A Secret At Their Core
My Age Preferences Are There For A Reason, Tinder
Keurig Sensor Blocks Your Brew Unless It's "K-Cup Compatible", Aka Has Scannable Foil. Slap On An Old Foil To A 3rd Party Cup And Suddenly No Issue
Such A Great Deal!
My Chinese "Smart TV" Plays A 15 Second Chevrolete Commercial Every Time I Turn It On
Perfectly Fine Lighters With No Way To Refuel Them... Planned Obsolescence Is Asshole Design And Terrible For The Environment
As**ole School System Charging Kids For Lunch And Then Blaming Parents
My Printer Just Did A Firmware Update And No Longer Recognizes My Third-Party Ink
Shrinkflation Used By Cadbury To Literally Cut Corners. The Bottom Chocolate Bar Is More Than 8 Percent Smaller
Mess with my sandwich, mess with my glue… BUT DO NOT MESS WITH MY CHOCOLATE
5$ Pen Size vs. Ink
Designed For Dissuading The Homeless. Literally Just Uncomfortable For Everyone Else
Why do people do this stuff? Like, if you dont want people to sleep on the streets, there are infinitely better things to do
8% Alcohol Or
Food Delivery Service That Tells You “Someone Is At The Door! Okay We Lied”
I Wish My Professors Graded Like This
Press Dismiss To Update This Printer
Facebook, I'm Beyond Words
Tenerife Airport Shows Ads On The Flight Information Screens Every Few Minutes (For At Least A Minute), So If You're Unlucky You Have To Wait Before Knowing Which Gate To Go To
F**k You Vegas
Makes Me Want To Cancel Even Harder
They will try to offer the craziest deals if only they can get you to stay. It took me 20 minutes to finally cancel.
I Love Ads On My £250 Console That I Continue To Pay £6 A Month To Play On
New Instagram "Feature"
I quit Instagram last week. The new shenanigans are more than I can take. I just don't need that much advertising for overpriced t-shirts
I Would Like To Thank Suave For Increasing The Size Of Their Bottle By -17%
They Knew What They Were Doing. It Was Perfectly Placed In The Box
By Opening The Envelope For The License Agreement, You Agree To It
My $2,500 TV Has "Sponsored Content" Built Into The Menu
That show is really awesome(I love Lucy) but the advertisements put a damper on it. Honest question, why are they doing this? It's not like they are startups
Wanted To Cancel My Subscription... Now I Have To Talk To Someone
Every country should have a law that states that ending an account/subscription must be as easy and convenient as it is to starting it.
My $200 Textbook Won’t Let Me Copy Paste More Then 84 Words To Make A Study Guide
Price Was $5.76. Can Only Pay With Quarters
Sony's $330 Headphones Doesn’t Work With A Ps4
Chipotle Goes All-Out Advertising That For The Next Week Delivery Is Free, And Then Casually Makes The Delivery Menu Priced Higher Than The Regular One
These Bluetooth Headphones Have To Be Permanently Plugged In To Provide Power
That one's arguably the stupidest and most impudent so far: You specifically buy bluetooth pods so you're not leashed to your phone and they not only kill that single advantage but have the audacity to advertize with "never needs charging"! OF COURSE I DOESN'T IF THERE'S NO BATTERY AND IT'S CONSTANTLY PLUGGED IN!
Apple’s Proprietary USB A Extension Cable
The $20 Toilet Paper My Auntie Bought (On The Right) On Amazon Compared To A Normal Roll (On The Left)
Powerade Is Using Shrinkflation By Replacing Their 32oz Drinks With 28oz And Stores Are Charging The Same Amount
Youtube Lets You Purchase A Movie, But Still Age Blocks You
Well lol, if you are age " blockable " you shouldnt be buying anything online, because lets face it, there is 99.9% chances you're using your parents card, and they should be the ones buying it.
Packaging That Tricks You
Can We All Agree Having To Pay For A Human Necessity Is A Major As**ole Design?
No, we can’t. The toilets are always kept clean, an attendant is always on duty and no-one is ever just hanging around in there doing god knows what. If the bogs are open, an employee is there somewhere. It’s also a lot safer - I’d rather use a paid toilet at the railway station late in the evening than anywhere else.
2k19 Is A Retail 60$ Game. They Put Non Skippable Ads In From Another Company
Apple Using Different Wallpapers And Trying To Make Us Believe The Pro And The Pro Max Has No "Notch" Compared To The Base Model
You Can't Play Doom I And II Offline On Switch Without Creating A Bethesda Account
They Took Away The In-Store Signage To Force You To Download Their App
Um...no. I despise Walmart, but this isn't even remotely true. The circled area highlighting the missing price tags is an overstock area. You can clearly see the price tags on all the other shelves. That...and this photo was posted on Reddit 2 years ago.
Can we talk about the horrific design behind the downvoting system on this site? Down votes are not dislikes, downvotes get you suspended and then banned. And there are anonymous trolls who follow popular Pandas and downvote comments for no rhyme or reason.
I got banned for a day last week, I backtracked my comments and I hadn’t written anything polarizing or remotely vulgar/offensive etc. i still for the life of me can’t figure out why I was banned and I tried to ask BP for clarification but zilch
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Screw this. This fight against greedy capitalistic demons will never be won if our only hope is waiting for gov official to protect the people. We need to bring back the guillotine and go all french on these bastards.
Bad sirs, you sit on a throne of lies. Thirty percent more lies, to be exact.
Can we add Amazon delivery times to the list? (or did I miss it?) So many times I see "Buy within the next 3 hours to receive it TODAY" So i buy it as i really need it quick only to see. . "Estimated delivery time: TOMORROW". . . Why Amazon? WHY?
The main problem is that it isn’t sustainable to expect people who are poorly paid and poorly treated to bring you whatever you want on the same day you order it.
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1> It took a site 30 seconds to start sending spam to my email, but they want up to 10 days to make it STOP? 2> "... and other natural flavors" - wtf?
One of my favorites was the label on a Mr Goodbar. It proudly proclaimed, "Now! More peanuts!" I suppose it wouldn't help sales if they advertised it as having less chocolate.
Dumb design: Disney Plus doesn't even have all the Disney / marvel movies and it makes me mad 'cause like??? Why does it cost that much then, if you're gonna make people pay to watch the movies that aren't there too- Signed, a girl who got bored and thought she'd watch Spider-Man, the old ones OR into the spider verse and none were there
Can we include Youtube thumbnails for videos that do not feature in any form whatsoever within the video.
I can see why you'd consider it humiliating, but all I thought was how impressed I was that you were willing to give the inside view. Super bad s**t can happen to anyone, and we only think we have control of our situations.
Stellar journalism as always: 1) Report on what someone said 2) Report on what a bunch of nobodies ("Twitter user Katy") said about it. 3) Publish it under the assumption that it qualifies as journalism.
And yet with a quick scroll through you’ll easily find Japanese companies, U.K. companies, Chinese, American, and a few that have no clear country. If the agenda is attacking the U.S. then they are certainly mixing plenty of other nations in there. As for anti-capitalism that’s because these issues relate to being conned by companies, perhaps if they put customers first rather than profit they’d represent capitalism a bit better? It MAY be that capitalism isn’t as good as it could be? It MAY be that you are sucking a bit too much from the capitalism teat? Defending the big business who’ll strip all of your assets is a little hmmm sheepish ain’t it?
Load More Replies... Can we talk about the horrific design behind the downvoting system on this site? Down votes are not dislikes, downvotes get you suspended and then banned. And there are anonymous trolls who follow popular Pandas and downvote comments for no rhyme or reason.
I got banned for a day last week, I backtracked my comments and I hadn’t written anything polarizing or remotely vulgar/offensive etc. i still for the life of me can’t figure out why I was banned and I tried to ask BP for clarification but zilch
Load More Replies... Screw this. This fight against greedy capitalistic demons will never be won if our only hope is waiting for gov official to protect the people. We need to bring back the guillotine and go all french on these bastards.
Bad sirs, you sit on a throne of lies. Thirty percent more lies, to be exact.
Can we add Amazon delivery times to the list? (or did I miss it?) So many times I see "Buy within the next 3 hours to receive it TODAY" So i buy it as i really need it quick only to see. . "Estimated delivery time: TOMORROW". . . Why Amazon? WHY?
The main problem is that it isn’t sustainable to expect people who are poorly paid and poorly treated to bring you whatever you want on the same day you order it.
Load More Replies... 1> It took a site 30 seconds to start sending spam to my email, but they want up to 10 days to make it STOP? 2> "... and other natural flavors" - wtf?
One of my favorites was the label on a Mr Goodbar. It proudly proclaimed, "Now! More peanuts!" I suppose it wouldn't help sales if they advertised it as having less chocolate.
Dumb design: Disney Plus doesn't even have all the Disney / marvel movies and it makes me mad 'cause like??? Why does it cost that much then, if you're gonna make people pay to watch the movies that aren't there too- Signed, a girl who got bored and thought she'd watch Spider-Man, the old ones OR into the spider verse and none were there
Can we include Youtube thumbnails for videos that do not feature in any form whatsoever within the video.
I can see why you'd consider it humiliating, but all I thought was how impressed I was that you were willing to give the inside view. Super bad s**t can happen to anyone, and we only think we have control of our situations.
Stellar journalism as always: 1) Report on what someone said 2) Report on what a bunch of nobodies ("Twitter user Katy") said about it. 3) Publish it under the assumption that it qualifies as journalism.
And yet with a quick scroll through you’ll easily find Japanese companies, U.K. companies, Chinese, American, and a few that have no clear country. If the agenda is attacking the U.S. then they are certainly mixing plenty of other nations in there. As for anti-capitalism that’s because these issues relate to being conned by companies, perhaps if they put customers first rather than profit they’d represent capitalism a bit better? It MAY be that capitalism isn’t as good as it could be? It MAY be that you are sucking a bit too much from the capitalism teat? Defending the big business who’ll strip all of your assets is a little hmmm sheepish ain’t it?
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