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
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
Fly with Sardine Can Airways, where we have a saying "social dista-what? Germs are good, and comfort is nothing but western decadence!".
Load More Replies... Don't worry, this thing is not compliant with *any* airline safety regulation *anywhere*. Those are usually presented at trade shows as concept designs by some "smart" startup that will inevitably fail to survive the next two years until the next trade show appointment.
They are highly underestimating how much people hate standing. There will be rioting in the streets. Or sit-ins lolol 😂
Yeah, the last time there were sit-ins (which are legal) the cops heavily sprayed them in the eyes and kicked a pregnant woman in the stomach, causing a miscarriage. Gee, I wonder who they would arrest for that 'abortion' these days? Because most miscarriages are called abortions. God, how low can this country go?
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Whoever designed this should be forced to travel a round trip to Australia and back, from UK
Oh lovely, experience a wedgie for however long. (Or lower back pain, or knees going numb depending on your height)
Nope. Airbus invented in the early 2Ks, Ryanair promoted it in the 2010s.
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What do you mean "standing seat" - you're either standing or you're seated.
They already cram economy seats together without personal space, so this will just make them lose customers who will fly with a more humane company. Idiots...
This better be transparent when booking a ride. Let me know in advance if I'm sitting or standing so I have the choice of going thru another airline.
People are being treated more and more like diseased cattle and dollar signs. It’s just awful
What kind of sadistic demon has this type of sadistic idea puke out of their skull?
How quickly can everyone on the plane exit during an emergency? Will there be more emergency exits?
Not a single person on the decision to use these seats would EVER fly on them
Do they come with a bidet?
Maybe it's because the undercarriage of the plane falls off/away midflight. This way you get the scenic view from above effect!
My proposed FAA regulation: "Whenever someone in management in any area of the airline industry flies - on business or pleasure - they must be restricted to sitting in the cheapest seats on the plane."
they should add a manufacturing belt to that so we can work during the flight too
What they aren't showing are the pedals. You will be generating the energy for the plane.
All people have to do is boycott the airlines for two weeks and they will go bankrupt
Am a retired aircraft mechanic (A&P) and can just hear the passengers howl. This is to put more bodies in an airplane for revenue and nuts to their comfort. If I entered a cabin to fly and saw this I'd get off the aircraft and find another carrier.
Those guys presenting these monstrosities at this trade show should be required to sit in them any time they're at the booth.
No way this will ever fly (pun intended) in the US. It's a grotesque violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
...handicapped people who are as a majority living in poverty level to be able to qualify for any "help/financial assistance" would have to do what now?pay how much for different classes of seating?
It’s like there’s a lab somewhere where the entire focus is discovering inventive ways to brutalize travelers
Flying would be so much more enjoyable if airlines would abandon the pretense of consumer for customers, and simply restrain, blindfold, and gag us all. At least then we might be the object of some flight attendant's fantasy, rather than brutally exploited consumer dupes.
But do you get to hold your hands up in the air like a roller coaster?
What is the point though? Making those seats wouldn’t be very different from making sitting seats!
Sadly this will become the norm when airline companies increase prices to be astronomical, pandemic faux inflation coming soon….
Jokes I you airlines, I'm only 5 feet, we doing criss cross applesauce on those
There is no way that they could actually be proud of reverting to pre victorian levels of discomfort and market it like a great idea.
If I at on one of those, people would be tripping over my long legs. Normal seats are bad enough
LOLOLOLOLOLOLOL!!!!!! They're trying to so hard to cram people into a narrower and narrower space just to make a few more bucks. God I hate Capitalism!
why not have people climb on then raise them to the ceiling and have another row come out of the floor?
all the suits that come up with these 'ideas' should be fired
That can't be legal for take off or landing. It's a prototype and it will never pass FAA
I am only five foot one, so I would be hanging from these seats, not standing.
I'm short - that would be extremely uncomfortable, and dangerous for those with bad blood flow.
It never got IATA/ICAO/FAA or others approval due to packing too many people onboard and emergency evacuation requirements not being able to be met.
So, f there is standing room only on the plane, those people lucky enough to have the ticket will get this stand 1st, next sit seat? I think it i a concept whose time shouldn't haave come. Looks like torture, let's call them, Gauntanamo seats.
Pretty soon the airlines will be having people sitting on the laps of other passengers so they can cram twice as many people in. Absolutely disgusting.
Went to Paris by plane before covid. Never again. I'll take the train from now on. Being at airport hrs early to check in bags. Flight delayed. Going through customs and the waiting game starts. Finally 3hrs after I arrived at the airport we took off for a short flight Amsterdam - Paris. Landed had to wait for the plane to be unloaded. Then we were send ti the wrong exit. My fiance was waiting elsewhere. Finally I found her and then we needed to get a taxi back into Paris. I left home in the morning and it was evening when we finally reached her sisters appartement. Took the high-speed train the Thalys this summer. Left home took the first train to Amsterdam Central Station. Waited 15min for the Thalys to arrive. Bagage in the bagage compartment. Small bag with me to my seat. And about 3hrs later we drove into Gard du Nord Paris. Took my bag from the compartment. Walked out the station and stood in the middle of Paris. With a subway station right underneath the train station 🚉 > ✈
When your plane seats look more like the seats on an amusement park thrill ride, it doesn't exactly scream "safe flight".
They're training people to accept the next innovation: peddles to power the plane. Those things look like bicycle seats.
The idea is not that bad, if the tickets are indeed cheaper, and flight is not long. But I wonder how it adjusts to different height of passenger and how do they fare in terms of safety.
You have GOT to be kidding me! Lol. So they save a few hundred bucks on the missing seat parts and charge their customers less for the inconvenience and burden of standing during the flight?? Doesnt this violate safety standards on take-off? This seat better be on a flight of no more than a 10-minutes.. hahaha
Is this an airplane or amusement park. What happened to please take your seat for landing and departure
Its coming soon! They're designing it this way so they can stack them ontop of each other. The other option is first class
Step 1: Install these in every prison on earth. Step 2: Watch recidivism fall immediately. Step 3: Finally enjoy a world free of crime.
And how do disabled travelers fly with them? I can't stand up and my legs don't work but I still fly and like to travel! Or are they going to have accessible seat at the front (which thankfully by law they can't charge extra for!)
Better be one of those Kardashian 3mins flights! But of course, you probably won't know it's those seats until AFTER you book and get to the airport the day of your trip. :/
Well I don’t know, this doesn’t look so bad. After all, there is a complimentary crotch-buster built in to those seats. 👍
That guy with his hands over the back of the seat? Propseat? Looks like he's saying ."are you. Joking with me?"
I'd like that, I never sit in a chair. I either stand or sit on the floor. So more comfort for me and it comes at a reduced price, yay! Oh and probably the place next to mine won't be taken as well.
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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