Bad Design List

So things that people design, invent or engineer aren't always successful. But the number of those that make it to market and are terrible sometimes surprises me. It can be as small as a location of a pin to it missing something. If its missing that crucial thing its a bad design. At the end of the day it comes down to ergonomics and how they play a role in the usability of the item. (This of course is purely subjective and has no bearing on the amount of effort the company or firm put into designing the item.)


So let's begin

HANDLES...WHERE ART THOU?

Ok so my girlfriend has a 2000 Mitsubishi Galant. Drives well for its age, its an entry level family sedan, so not expecting a lot of luxury here. Has a good stereo system, interior material are par and engine is smooth. There just one thing that consistently drives me nuts. It doesn't have above the head handles for the for the front passenger, and even worse yet for the entire car. Its such a small thing but irritates every time I get in and out of the car. I don't know why, and im guessing because in EVERY single car I've driven or ridden in has them and I just expect it now like bucket seats on a car. Picture this, you pull the seat back lever and recline back, then you say hey I want to get out of this position. Hmm, what am I going to choose to anchor my upper body so that i can take the weight of the back seat? I know the above the door handles, ... what the where the,... this is stupid.


Then you rotate and grab something like a door handle, which mind you is not somthing you can wrap your hand around, its the cupped handled that 95% of vehicles should stop using but still have. All that would be needed is the handles and it would make my day.












FAIL...PLAIN AND SIMPLE

I was in the supermarket, and getting ready to enter from the outside where it said enter, but near it was a a sign that said do not enter. I got confused for a second and seen that one of the signs was specifically to prevent people from using the door as an exit. I didn't remember to take a picture at the time but found a picture similar to the situation online. In the picture above they don't want  you to use the entrance as an exit, for a reason i can't currently rationalize, but the enter sign is double sided which makes for a confusing door. T You wouldn't enter outside, but just as equally putting do not "enter" on the door with a double sided enter sign doesn't eliminate the confusion that much more. A simple fix would be to cover the appropriate side. Out of curiosity I wonder if that do not enter sign is double sided as well.





IRRITABLE VENETIANS...

So we all have,seen or have encountered Venetians blinds once in our lifetime. For those who actually use them know how they are operated, know that it requires a rod to change the angle of the blinds and string to pull the blinds up. One thing that bothers me a bout these is that requires two strings to lift up the blinds equally, not that you would want to do it any other way. A simple clip would suffice to prevent this and it would be extremely cheap to make and because it requires so little material, it can be taken from reused metal scrap..


This is no good.

WHY THE EXTRA WEIGHT?

So I consider my self an entry level audiophile. I love crisp clear music and enjoy listening to and feeling the bass of music. Since i'm always moving around headphone have come in pretty handy, so I try to buy the best headphones I can afford. I recently had a pair of Phillips noise over the ear headphones. There were comfortable, clear and inexpensive. Then my brother broke them. I resorted to Sony ear buds, which don't provide the clarity I like but have the bass I need to "feel" a song. I recently got for my birthday from my girlfriend of noise cancelling ear buds. :) Phillips too. So i was excited as I'm taking it out the box I noticed what looked like a box and a battery?

Ok, so i know noise cancelling requires power to turn on the noise cancelling but ear buds are way to small to do so i figured this is where the battery must go. Sure enough it was and I was in awe the amount of noise it could cancel knowing how small the buds were, thinking about where they could have put the microphone for the noise canceling. Then i got the chance to take it with me on the road, while taking the train home. They were very irritating, I understood that a battery was needed but  whats with the extra gerth aside from the battery. It weighed on my neck everywhere I went and bugged me out that the cord from the headphones to the bar was too short to fit in my pocket, relieving the weight, for me to stand up straight. This was irritating, especially for inexpensive noise cancelling buds, that have really good sound quality for the price. Plus no clip say to pinch the bar to your shirt or magnet to help hold it up in place.

All things aside I can see why it difficult to have these without the extra weight, if you want the functionality of the noise canceling. To be fair Sony noise cancelling bud have the same weight but I have a feeling they are not as heavy as the phillips.