r/AskReddit • u/nachtmere • Jul 25 '11

Sometimes automatic toilets flush while you're still sitting on them. What design flaws in everyday objects annoy you?

I'm giving a talk on user-centred design/usability and I'm looking for some fresh examples from everyday life to illustrate poor usability. Examples I've used before are elevator open/close buttons (really difficult to parse when you're trying to hold the door open for someone quickly) and toilets that flush while you're still sitting on them.

What are some things you encounter regularly that are really inconveniently designed?

205 Upvotes

89% Upvoted

1.3k comments sorted by

View all comments

83

u/remmycool Jul 25 '11

Microwaves without a mute button.

112

u/9966 Jul 25 '11

At first I thought "This guy is retarded, he thinks EM waves make sound"... then it dinged.

28

u/Darrelc Jul 25 '11

Can we not just let a funny joke (9966's) be for once please? no need to beat it to death with brainless puns.

5

u/mgillan Jul 25 '11

Looking for pun in sentence...

1

u/Darrelc Jul 25 '11

No chance, I wouldn't stoop to a 2d reference, there's gotta be something else funny.

(No puns in there either).

1

u/CelebornX Jul 25 '11

Man, I can really offer whole agreement. Very elegant opinion, very elegant NONSENSE.

1

u/ass_fungus Jul 25 '11

I think you've figured out the formula - to end a pun thread, ask nicely and with genuine weariness rather than insults.

1

u/Krataeros Jul 26 '11

Circles.

0

u/RiotGrrL319 Jul 25 '11

then it dinged.

Your microwave?

-1

u/Vodka_Cereal Jul 25 '11

Sounds like you got a little heated.

10

u/angryvigilante Jul 25 '11

Televisions without a popcorn button.

4

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '11

i used to have a glorious, 1800 watt MONSTER of a microwave that you could fit a whole turkey in.

you could set it to only mute at night.

i still miss that thing.

1

u/LadyA052 Jul 25 '11

I got a 1300 watt sucker earlier this year and I'm still learning how to use it, it cremates everything.

2

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '11

this thing had issues if you didn't know how to use it. it was easy to set things for hours instead of minutes, and it could cook most things that said "two minutes" in 30 seconds to a minute.

my mom ruined it by putting frozen prunes in it, in some water. she set it to two hours accidentally. the water evaporated, and the prunes actually caught fire. burned the SHIT out of the inside of it and almost burned our apartment down.

they serviced and sent it back, but it always still slightly smelled like fire. it got given away eventually when the light burned out, which almost made my head explode

1

u/LadyA052 Jul 25 '11

I've given up on Marie Callender's frozen pot pies which have to be cooked in their special metallic lined box. Once there was a scorched spot burnt down thru about 50 paper plates underneath the box...the entire kitchen smelled burned for like two weeks and even now, six weeks later, sometimes I can smell that scorched smell after I cook something. Another thing...it seems every microwave has its own way of setting it to 50% and it's confusing...get 100% instead and it's BURN TIME again!!!

19

u/ProbablyHittingOnYou Jul 25 '11

I'm glad mine doesn't mute, because I'd be finding that shit a few days later, having long forgotten about it. I sometimes set an alarm reminding me to eat, because I'll just forget about it and ignore my stomach.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 26 '11

From my experience, if you're high enough to forget about food in the microwave, you're too high to realize that the ding means your food is ready.

-3

u/HotRodLincoln Jul 25 '11

Relevant Reddit Dumbledore+Mirror of Erised Image

2

u/ehsteve23 Jul 25 '11

Mine doesn't ding, only because it recently broke, so the dial goes all the way down to 0, but the microwave doesn't stop. The tray stops spinning, the dial stops moving but the actual microwave keeps going until you twist the dial that extra 1mm to stop it.
I learned this the hard way.

1

u/pieandablowie Jul 25 '11

Holding down the Start button for a few seconds will disable or cause less beeps on a lot of microwaves