Stupid Design

[AngryZealot]

I'd like to make a list of things that qualify as inexcusibly poor design. These are things that are clearly stupid to the point of being irritating, yet not so terrible that they interfere with the function of the object in question. If it would take more work to implement this bad design than to forget it, all the better. The best example I can think of right now is this:

Adobe Reader will place a new shortcut on your desktop when it updates patches, because everyone needs a shortcut for Adobe Reader !

Actually, I can come up with many examples from Adobe, but actual physical objects (not just computer software) work too. So what are some design decisions that you find incredibly stupid?

 

[Tycoon101]

Websites that allow flaming idiots to post in their off-topic sections.

 

[Cutlass]

Microsoft Windows.

 

[Thorvald of Lym]

Microsoft Windows.

Roflz.
Pwnt.

 

[taper]

The interface hall of shame.

Linux can replace Windows for many users, and foxit can replace adobe acrobat for almost everyone. Choice is a good thing.

 

[nonconformist]

The Titanic seems to have had a pretty major flaw in it.

 

[Cutlass]

Many cars have stupid design aspects. Engines that can't be serviced without major disassembly of the car. Things placed in stupid and inconvenient locations.

 

[El_Machinae]

A lot of food comes in masses of preshaped containers that aren't all that compresible. The average pound of hamburger seems to contain more container than food, causing tons of permanent garbage.

 

[History_Buff]

The Vasa is a particular favorite of mine.

 

[El_Machinae]

I'm irritated by the new buses which tend to face into the isle, instead of forward. It's much harder reading on them

 

[Cutlass]

qwerty keyboards

 

[Valka D'Ur]

The fact that most women's pants have no pockets. I don't wear either jeans or track suits, and the "pockets" in dress pants are barely large enough to hold a paper clip.

Women's shirts are even worse.

 

[Simple Simon]

I love best a little kitchen gadget for opening cans AND bottles my mother has. They made it so that you need to change hands twice if you open a can, and that you need two hands to arrange it before you can open the can. Also, the bottle opener works just fine - and then you spend 15 minutes trying to get that bent crown cork out of the can opener part

 

[Simple Simon]

The fact that most women's pants have no pockets. I don't wear either jeans or track suits, and the "pockets" in dress pants are barely large enough to hold a paper clip.

Women's shirts are even worse.

Men's wear is made to be practical and hide the male body from view.

Women's wear is made to hide the female body from view while also displaying it to the maximum effect. Bulging pocket do not look sexy - period!

Sorry for you!

 

[Arwon]

A universe with ever increasing entropy.

 

[nonconformist]

A universe with ever increasing entropy.

Prove the universe is a closed system

 

[Leifmk]

The humany anatomy has a number of features that pretty well prove the case against "Intelligent Design". A few examples:

Main food intake right next to air intake (choking hazard).

Knee joints (very prone to problems).

Spinal column (obviously a kludge where a system suitable for quadripedal locomotion has been field-adapted to a bipedal stance; problem-prone).

Eyes (retina basically attached backwards).

Along with lack of redundancy for some critical components such as the heart, all of this would be grounds for a whopper of a class action suit against a putative designer.

 

[Traitorfish]

A joke which I shall proceed to butcher:

Three engineers agree that God must be an engineer, but dispute which kind. The first, an electrical engineer, asserts that God followed his specialty, as evidenced by the amazing complexity of the human nervous system. The second, a mechanical engineer, disagrees, proclaiming that the effectiveness of the human muscular structure indicates that God was a mechanical engineer. The third shakes his head, saying that God, like him, must be a civil engineer, because only a civil engineer would place an entertainment area right next to waste disposal.

 

[echinococcus]

The humany anatomy has a number of features that pretty well prove the case against "Intelligent Design". A few examples:

Main food intake right next to air intake (choking hazard).

But on the other hand, its quite practical to smell something closely what you are going to stick into your mouth.


Awesome thread btw.

Some other examples: Car bumpers. They are damaged to easily, requiring exchanging the whole part. Important business for the manufactures, but very annoying.

My Nokia 6230i cant distiguish between last an first names of contacts. Solution: use your mobile for dialing only.

 

[Alpine Trooper]

Japanese engineers are the absolute worst people to design a car.

They have forever purposely forced the removal of parts on their vehicles which should not have to be removed to remove another part. This is of course to encouarge you to visit their dealership for repair. Why on one of the most popular vehicles in North America, a Toyota Camry, do you have to remove the rear engine mount that the constant velocity shaft travels through, to do maintenance on the shaft or even remove it. Or why on most Japanese vehicles do they bolt their rotors to the hub assembly of the vehicle with thin wall bolts.

Im really pointing the finger more at Honda and Toyota, Mitsubishi isn't nearly as bad in design.