There’s good design. There’s bad design. And we can usually intuitively tell the two apart just by looking at it. But wait! There’s also ‘design design,’ a really weird category that straddles the line between quality aesthetics and truly awful taste. Some designers just don’t know when to stop designing their designy designs and go way overboard. Are we starting to sound redundant and over-complicated? Good, now you’re getting it!
The best (worst?) of these ‘designy designs’ end up being shared on the r/DesignDesign subreddit, an intriguing online community that both celebrates and criticizes these errr VeRy InTeReStInG aNd ArTiStIc ideas for products and furniture. We’ve collected some of the most bizarre and original pics to share with you, Pandas.
Scroll down, upvote the designs that really had an impact on you, and if you love what you see, consider becoming a member of the subreddit.
Bored Panda reached out to Matt Johnson, Ph.D., the host of the Consumer Psychology Blog and the Human Nature Blog, for a few insights on the importance of finding the right balance between the designer's vision for their product, as well as what would appeal to consumers. He told us that, at its core, user experience is about empathy. Johnson is a professor of consumer psychology at Hult International Business School and Harvard University, and the author of 'Branding that Means Business.' Read on for our interview with him.
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Wall Outlets With Extension Cords Built Into The Wall
Stacked Seating At A Restaurant
Their slogan? "You're gonna fall for our food!" There are no hand rails.
Can you imagine a family with like 4 kids seated above you? Chicken nuggets and corn falling on your head. No No No.
Children used to feeding the dog at home fighting over who wins 'I get the outer end.' and feeds the people below. That's great if it's peas and carrots.
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I looked at it and immediately imagined the smell of feet. I'm guessing it's not actually any worse than anywhere else, even when you're sitting below someone else, but this this must have been designed by someone who has never seen slush or worked with food
I'm imagining hearing the vibration from the seat above my head when the person sitting there farts right on top of me. That's just how my luck goes.
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Both the stairs and the upper chairs should have handrails and guards to be code compliant anywhere in Europe and USA.
I think its Indonesia. majority is mulsim so no alcohol
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I wonder if the restaurant makes them sign a waiver to not sue if they fall.
Or if a waiter/waitress drops something (esp something hot) from up above. But, since it's not the US, probably not.
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I wouldn't want to be the waitress in this restaurant. Going up and down delivering food and taking away dirty dishes! But other than that, it's kinda cool!
I would hate to be a waitress and have to climb the stairs with food trays! I see no handrails for the customers or wait staff?
Imagine this idea was for the restaurants with waiter staff in rollerblades 🤣🤣🤣
All good and well, till person above doesn't have diarrhea and stuff... :-D But otherwise that is one way to get more out of limited space.
Seems claustrophobic to me. And I would spill something or trip on those stairs.
That's a bit like a restaurant chain here in Norway called Egon. The tables you sit at there are at different levels (wider apparat than in this picture) which means that the waiters have to walk many steps😆When you arrive you find a menue and a table. When you've chosen what you want, you go to the counter, give your table number, order and pay. Then a waiter will bring your food to your table
Quirky concept but I feel sorry for those who have to deliver the food and clear the tables!
Would be a hard pass for me on the upper level - I see no banister on those stairs.
Ide love ti visit here. I js wouldn't order very much food (as for the waitresses must have a difficult task to get the food to the tabel)
DISGUSTING that most of the men have NO TABLE MANNERS - wear hats at a meal table !!!!!!!!
That is so cool! I feel bad for the waiter though. If you go here, tip extra!
That's incredibly creative and I'd definitely want to sit in the top level
Makes more usable space but there are those people who would sue the restaurant if they didn't watch where they were going and fell off.
You would hope the People sitting above you didn’t have any Gas problems…
I’d be like- MOM CAN WE EAT UP ON TOP and her and my sister would be like NO then my dad would be like YES
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I bet the servers have fun going up and down those stairs with huge tray of drinks.
That's kind of awesome.. I'd just hate being a server if they have to go up and down all night. Cleaning the place would suck too.
Is this an ableds-only restaurant or do they have separate seating for wheelchair users, mobility aid users (e.g., cane, walker), blind people, etc.? My mom is a full-time electric wheelchair user, and pictures like this just remind me of how excluded she is from the world in general.
I feel for the wait staff. But very cozy. Don’t get drunk if you’re not on the ground floor.
"Would you like another cocktail and risk falling to your death from stairs without handrails?"
Love the sense of privacy and the ability to add more tables to less space. But I'd have to used one of the lower tables!
Two things - the upper level has to be a pain for the wait staff & busers. I would always want to sit up high so that I wouldn't have something dropped or spilled on me.
I like the look of this as a customer.. as an employee I would have to keep myself from gratuitous violence on the designer
been somewhere that was sort of like this but in a very different way. it was almost like bunk beds.
No, my upstairs neighbor would drop a bowl of soup on me or something. Can you imagine being the server? No
I worked as a server for years. Stairs are a huge issue for me.. I LOVE the idea. But, those of us that suffer from osteoarthritis would never be able to do those stairs. There's no cure for osteoarthritis nothing, that suppresses it.
That would be a pain to get food up there. And I'd hope the person above me doesn't fart 😆. Or spill a drink.
Nope. Not for me. Too old. Unsteady & 1/2 blind. At least I’m self-aware & know that it’s a big honking NO !
While space saving and visually pleasing, this arrangement quickly becomes unsanitary because the upper table areas are so hard to access that they are hard to thoroughly clean. Also it makes working as a server much more difficult.
Someone is trying this double-decker idea with airline seating design. It's tighter and sillier. But I feel for the lower restaurant occupants when someone loses balance and tosses a try in while opting for the nonexistent handrails and for the person who can't grip thin air.
Just imagine be drunk af and trying to walk down the stairs. How does the ground fast 😂💀
That would suck if you were drunk and coming down the stairs and fall
A lot of thought went into this. It is a clean design, it makes use of otherwise wanted space. The only thing they probably didn't think of were the poor servers that will be adding extra calf pain to their end of shift foot aches.
"Okay, Grandma, when you get to the top platform, I'll be right behind you and we'll all daisy chain the food and drink up to you. You will have to set the table. We're going to start with pitchers of drink first, so be careful. They're heavy and slick. Yes, I can see that there are no handrails. You used to be so nimble... about 80 years ago. Where's your sense of balance... I mean, adventure? What do you mean modesty? Now who would want to look up your dress Grandma? So what if they take pictures? The children are getting cranky and you are going to have deal with them at the top, not I. So up, up, up."
How you supposed to get food up there? I'm just telling you right now I foresee a lot of spilled food.
Some notes: I will fall down the stairs, please put something soft at the bottom for me ahead of time. Also like, if someone in the top booth toots, do you think that sound just resonates throughout the bottom? I don't want to hear other people offgassing in a restaurant.
I fear it might be noisy. And i definitly wouldn't want to work as a waitress there!
I think Casa Bonita had this type of design in 70-80's made to look like was made of rock caves & had waterfalls. Had little 3 piece band that went around singing. It was so cool.
I really, really like this arrangement. I like how it allows for privacy. More wear and tear on the wait staff, but a real bonus for diners.
Oh my gosh I feel so bad for the servers that have to take MULTIPLE trips to just get the food up there
How do the diners on the upper levels get their food? Yeeted up to them, or does the server climb up and down the steps each time??
Kinda iffy if I like it. The concept is good specially for space but would I feel comfortable with someone sitting above my head
That's not a fire escape hurdle at all, they can just jump in case of a fire, and where is this that there are no max occupancy rules
But.... There's holes for the food to fall through. Thanks, but no thanks.
There is a place like this near me… if they seat you upstairs, don’t drink
As an introvert this appeals to me a lot! I hate going to a restaurant or cafe and it's quiet yet the waiting staff or other customers decide to totally IGNORE the 20 empty tables and sit at the table right next to me. At least with this set up there feels like space between my table and the next.
I've been to a restaurant that had something similar for seating I'm glad they sat us on the lower level because my mom can't do stairs
And as a wheelchair user I can't eat there at all. I suppose I could be perched at the end like the high chair but that wouldn't be ideal.
Someone will trip on those stairs, get hurt, and sue. Restaurant closes. Assuming this is America.
I've been to one of those, it's an extreme sport to come down those stairs after you had a couple of drinks!
I mean the upper level would be a workout for customers and waitstaff…but it looks awesome
I don't envy the people who have to carry plates up and down the stairs.
It looks aesthetically pleasing, but must be a royal pain in the a**e for the servers.
What the hell BoredPand!? Did you honestly just censor A-R-S-E!? Enough with the disgusting censorship on this damned site.
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I'd hate to be the staff. Carrying trays of food to upper level.
Wouldn’t that be hard for a waiter or waitress to serve food to the “upper” folks🤷♀️🫤?
Fart is hot air, so it drifts towards the ceiling. It's more of a problem if the people sitting below fart!
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This is cool, my kid would love it, just no wine with dinner for mom because i would fall up and down these steps
If only the gap between the seat and the wall as closed - you can clearly see the legs of the person on the left above the lower wall. About serving: Maybe it's an order at the counter place (still tables need to be cleaned). It is a nice idea if you don't have horizontal space and only vertical space. I don't think it's meant for long sittings, as the seats don't look comfortable enough for that.
Imagine one of the top chairs breaking and all the person's gonna get below then is a face full of butt 🤣
In North America I see about 20 Building Code violations most blatantly no stair rails. This is an accident (and lawsuit) waiting to happen.
I can just imagine how much fun it is to haul food and drinks up those steps multiple times per table each night. Makes my legs Charley horse just looking at it!😖
Not gonna lie - I hate it. I'm not feeling good about sitting beneath someone with an open while I eat. No thanks.
This is a server and busser nightmare... not to mention a liability claim waiting to happen
NO. It looks beautiful, but what if you're a server, have knee issues, use a cane, or a wheelchair?? What if you're scared of heights or have a small child??
Why not just an entire second level? While this might look good staff have to run up and down a lot of extra stairs without spilling anything.
Hidden Fire Extinguishers
We were interested to learn more about the balance between what a designer wants from their product and what consumers look for. We asked Professor Johnson about what can help designers maintain a more grounded, user-friendly perspective.
"Ultimately, good UX is an act of empathy. You have to filter your creative vision for the product through the lens of the consumer’s needs, unique preferences, and tendencies. This means creating a balance between your own aspirations for the product (e.g. what you think it could be), and how it will intuitively seem to the end user (how the user will actually be used)," he explained to Bored Panda.
"Practically speaking, by inviting the consumer into the design process and getting feedback along the product development journey, the end result is much more likely to strike this balance." However, if there's only poor communication, you might end up with a disconnect between the two. Something that Piterskii-Punk-Wall accurately showed in their comic right over here.
Found On The Designp**n Frontpage
Ok I Think I Found The Ultimate Decanter. This One Keeps Me Awake At Night
Drink The Rainbow
Johnson, the host of the 'Neuroscience Of' blog, told Bored Panda that the best and most beloved products integrate both perspectives: that of the designer, as well as of the consumer.
"If the balance is tilted too far in the direction of the creator’s vision, as opposed to the user’s intuition and needs, it comes off too much as a standalone work of art, and not as a functional product," he said.
"This feels immediately obvious to the consumer: it's something that reflects an idea from a specific individual, but lacks the necessary translation to the broader world. In a word, it feels too much like ‘art,’" the professor told Bored Panda. He noted that this is perfectly fine and valuable in its own context. However, when it comes to the world of consumer products, there's a necessity for this additional layer of consumer empathy.
A Nature Inspired Bathroom
Imagine Going Through All The Trouble Of Publishing Just To See This
Frankly. I’m not sure whether you’ve been ripped off or not. (Edited: Changed ‘what her’ to ‘whether’)
Swinging In The Conference Room
As we see it, there are two main issues at play here when we’re talking about designy designs, aka over-designed products. Both explain, at least in part, why some creative professionals go completely overboard.
The first is a question of theory vs. practice and how even the best-laid plans don’t necessarily translate into reality. The second is about the relationship between the designer and their (real or imagined) audience—aka the end-users and consumers.
You might have an utterly amazing idea for a product or piece of furniture in your mind. Maybe you’ve even sketched it out! But even though the concept looks amazing on paper, it might not be the best fit for consumers. Something that any creator would be terrified to learn only after launching the idea into the market.
A Car Fender Bicycle
Possibly One Of The Worst Staircases I've Ever Seen
Door Knob Design That Gives You A Fish Eye View Of The Room Ahead
Maybe what you’ve come up with is more akin to art and is radically impractical to use every single day. Or the item is incredibly complex and unintuitive to the average shopper on the highstreet: something that you might not realize because you’ve spent so long on the design, you know it like the back of your hand. It’s a case of design short-sightedness where the professional can’t see the forest for the trees.
Meanwhile, the professional in charge of designing the product might be completely disconnected from their intended consumers. This might happen due to a lack of information on buying trends or because of less-than-stellar communication between them and their customers. That means that the designer is essentially stuck inside a bubble with only their own ideas to consider, with very little (if any!) outside feedback.
Holy F**king S**t
I don't see the problem. If this was mine, it would always look precisely like that! That's because I poop shiny little crystals. /jk
No Way This Can Go Wrong
Apartments In Amsterdam
It will be beautiful when plants will start growing in the terraces.
However, another possible explanation for this disconnect between designers and consumers can be attributed to a more human factor. Namely, arrogance. It’s perfectly fine, even praiseworthy, that you’re confident about your work and that you feel pride in what you’ve achieved. Unfortunately, this can sometimes overshadow the end goal of what’s being sold, namely, that people want to buy and use what you’re offering.
Perhaps the creator feels like they have far better taste than the would-be buyers. So they want to ‘enlighten the masses’ (or something equally as pompous). Here’s the thing, though. Even if it’s a well-intentioned idea to want to educate people about good taste, there are different ways to go about it.
To put it mildly, it’s not the best idea to go about bragging to everyone how much more educated and intelligent you are while poking fun at them for being tasteless. However, when you come from a place of humility and a genuine desire to help, others are more open to what you have to say.
Imagine What It Looks Like In Fall
Another Silverware Set... Another Useless Spoon
A Banana Slide That Trains Your Determination. If You Get Lost, Your Crotch Will Die
At the same time, no matter how successful and well-received a designer’s work might have been in the past, it doesn’t guarantee that their next idea will be good. Multi-functional furniture might not have the mass appeal that they hope it will, meaning it’ll remain a niche product for very niche buyers.
Similarly, even if your lovingly-crafted set of cutlery is pleasant to look at, it might be utterly atrocious to eat with, so you’re left with a decorative piece that very few people actually like.
Injury Attorney’s Dream Staircase
Just No
This Is The New University Building Of Freiburg That At The Same Time Blinds The Road Traffic
The r/DesignDesign subreddit was founded a few years ago, in mid-July of 2018. Since then, they’ve amassed a following of 120k redditors. The moderators running the whole show stress the fact that the pics shared by the members of the community have to be, at the same time, examples of good and awful design. There should be a balance between the two.
Found On Fb... I Can Hear This Image
Books And Bath
One minor earthquake and you'd die in the bath, crushed under an avalanche of books. Wait, can I request that?
Let Me Just Find My Keys
Meanwhile, the mods also ask their members to avoid reposting other people’s photos too much. “Reposts are OK as long as the post hasn't been submitted in 6 months or more than 3 times,” they set out the rules. That way, the content’s kept fresher and it helps avoid people farming attention just for the sake of attention.
A Balcony Without Sun Or Fresh Air Is Just A People Shelf
Oh Yes, Reverse-Lamp
These Would Be Awful To Use
Broadly speaking, taste might be subjective (e.g. preferences for minimalism or maximalism), but there are many things that we can agree on that do and don’t make much sense. If a product is user-friendly, ergonomic, intuitive to use, and matches our expectations, then we can say that it’s an example of good design.
Just No
For Me, The Juicy Salif Is The Pinnacle Of Design Design
This is a Philippe Starck's design for the Italian brand Alessi, I have it, and I love it... And, if someone is wondering... Yes, I used it. And, yes, it's a total mess!
This Hallway Must Have Looked Awesome On The Blueprints
On the flip side, something that’s more like a puzzle that requires an IQ of 160 to figure out won’t get many smiles from the crowd (unless they bought it specifically because they love over-designed, over-complicated stuff). Put the user first and you can’t go wrong. Put your designs above them and you might end up in the grey zone where quality and awful taste meet.
Does This Count?
Reinventing The Pint
When You Want The Guarantee Of A Broken Neck From Your Staircase
This Fire Pit That Doubles As A Side Table When You Tip All The Ash On The Floor
Splash-Proof Urinals
W Fart Free Water
The Lucky Knot Bridge In China
Why? Just Why?
Thanks I Hate It
A Bookshelf To Store Some Pebbles Or Something
Because A Hat Would Be Far To Complicated
This Sink. Spotted On A Facebook Ad
A Maze Of Concentric Circles On The Back Of The Phone Fitting Its Earphones Perfectly
This Luxurious Toilet
Clocks
Dear God I Just Needed To Pee
Love Designy Cumbersome Roundware
Saw This On Insta
Oddly, if you know how to read a clock, they don’t even need numbers, so why bother?
That Looks Comfortable
Stock Market Bench
Oh yeah, now it's not only homeless people who are banned from sleeping on it, it's also everybody else who can't use it. Next level bench! /s
Note: this post originally had 120 images. It’s been shortened to the top 50 images based on user votes.
I don't think any of the designers seem to know that disabled people exist. As an ambulatory wheelchair user/walking stick user loads of these would be a nightmare for me.
Many of them would be dangerous to 100% able bodied people too.
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Regarding all the stairs: Do they not have building codes? They are death traps.
I've reached the end!!! And I am absolutely mentally exhausted. I need a glass of wine.
I think the majority of the first half of the list were awesome designs!
Love this BP thread. Great to see so many people thinking outside the box. So far outside the box that they fall off. Brilliant for claustrophobics, space saving, sometimes environmentally friendly. A great reminder that my designs aren't so weird after all.
Surely you didn't need all the fingers on that one hand?
Load More Replies... Going thru these was fun. However now I'm worried about the 2 hours of my life I'll never get back. But this was one of the better BP offerings.
A few of the ones at the top were pretty cool! The rest, though….
Smart home a to z https://comfortablelife4u.blogspot.com/2023/02/building-smart-home-a-to-z-guide.html
I don't think any of the designers seem to know that disabled people exist. As an ambulatory wheelchair user/walking stick user loads of these would be a nightmare for me.
Many of them would be dangerous to 100% able bodied people too.
Load More Replies... Regarding all the stairs: Do they not have building codes? They are death traps.
I've reached the end!!! And I am absolutely mentally exhausted. I need a glass of wine.
I think the majority of the first half of the list were awesome designs!
Love this BP thread. Great to see so many people thinking outside the box. So far outside the box that they fall off. Brilliant for claustrophobics, space saving, sometimes environmentally friendly. A great reminder that my designs aren't so weird after all.
Surely you didn't need all the fingers on that one hand?
Load More Replies... Going thru these was fun. However now I'm worried about the 2 hours of my life I'll never get back. But this was one of the better BP offerings.
A few of the ones at the top were pretty cool! The rest, though….
Smart home a to z https://comfortablelife4u.blogspot.com/2023/02/building-smart-home-a-to-z-guide.html
