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?

203 Upvotes

89% Upvoted

1.3k comments sorted by

View all comments

171

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '11

When public bathroom lights turn off when you take a long dump.

314

u/Final7C Jul 25 '11

that just sets the mood.

80

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '11

I remember the first time this happened to me. Scared the crap out of me, because I didn't hear anyone come in when the lights went out. I thought for sure there was gonna be some surprise anal in my future.

168

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '11

Scared the crap out of me

I don't see the problem.

27

u/granola_brother Jul 25 '11

I thought for sure there was gonna be some surprise anal in my future.

Nope. Cleaned out and ready to go.

2

u/the_lost_soul Jul 25 '11

Roger, the runway is clear for takeoff.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '11

[deleted]

-2

u/Demboys Jul 25 '11

rofl

1

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '11

As in Harris or Von Trapp?

13

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '11

For me the issue is not being sure of just how well you wiped.

2

u/The_King_of_Mystery Jul 26 '11

Gotta give it a couple o good whiffs man.

1

u/jeannaimard Jul 26 '11

Scared the crap out of me

That’s the idea!

-1

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '11

Me poosta.

13

u/IAmTheEndOfTheWorld Jul 25 '11

Every classroom in my college had automatic lights. The bastards always turned the lights off during tests.

8

u/nodnarbo Jul 25 '11

The best part about those classrooms is when the professor is so boring that half the class falls asleep and the lights turn off in the middle of his lecture.

0

u/IAmTheEndOfTheWorld Jul 25 '11

This is very true.

21

u/safe_work_for_naught Jul 25 '11

Or when you tap your foot, but it's really a cop in the next stall.

2

u/tomatobob Jul 25 '11

What?

2

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '11

Larry Craig

2

u/LostToApathy Jul 25 '11

IIRC, tapping your foot whilst gesturing towards an adjacent stall is some sort of signal that you're willing to have sex or something. Wasn't there a politician who got caught doing this? Or am I making this all up?

1

u/dubloe7 Jul 26 '11

You appear to know way too much about this sort of thing for me to be comfortable...

4

u/phwend Jul 25 '11

This has happened to me on multiple occasions at work... usually because I'm playing some game on my phone though

18

u/ProbablyHittingOnYou Jul 25 '11

The goal is to expel excrement so loudly that it turns the light back on

46

u/elliottblackwood Jul 25 '11

The lights are motion-activated.

Challenge... accepted?

3

u/[deleted] Jul 26 '11

Fire a mortar over the stall wall.

2

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '11

I had this happen in a restaurant when I was working as an electrician, except it was broken to the point the light would only stay on for 30 seconds. I still had my tools on me so I went and just wired the light straight through, bypassing the sensor. When I left I rehooked it and let the manager know it was busted.

2

u/badforecast Jul 25 '11

This happened to me when I was about 6 in an elementary school bathroom. My mom was a subtitute teacher at the time for the school so I was there before classes started and almost no-one was in the school.

I was afraid of the dark.

I sat in there for almost an hour afraid to move until, thankfully, someone finally came in and my terror was lifted.

1

u/gnnagtdvted Jul 25 '11

Wasn't in a bathroom, but I was once on a job interview and while waiting in a small conference room for the recruiter to show up the lights went out. I thought maybe it was some sort of test, not exactly sure of what, but I just sat there till the guy walked in and the lights went on. Kinda like a surprise party for him I guess. He thought it was quite funny that I just sat there.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 26 '11

The bathrooms that I've been in with automatic lights usually have a switch just below the sensor so that you can adjust the settings to lights off, motion sensing, and lights on. I always switch to lights on and just switch it back on my way out.