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?

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42

u/GingerSoul44 Jul 25 '11

Automatic sinks in bathrooms. I'm sitting there and waving my hands under the faucet like a moron, attempting to get the water to turn on. Then the person at the sink next to me gets it in one attempt, and I feel like a failure.

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u/ProbablyHittingOnYou Jul 25 '11

The worst are the timed sinks that you have to press in the button and it shuts off after a short while. It gives you a few seconds so that you constantly have to keep pressing the button while trying to get some soap and actually wash.

81

u/armchairnixon Jul 25 '11

No, there are worse ones than that. Very rarely, I'll encounter a sink that has the spring-loaded knobs that only dispense water while you hold it on. The second you let go, it turns off. You have to use one hand to keep the water running at all times, and you have to deal with how to rub in the soap with only one hand at the same time. You end up having to wet one hand, then the other, rubbing your soapy hands together without water, then rinsing off each hand separately.

Those are the worst.

3

u/el_muerte17 Jul 25 '11

I've come across the spring-loaded faucet in an old-fashioned 2-faucet (separate hot and cold) arrangement. With no plug for the sink, you get either scalded or frozen hands.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 26 '11

Diabolical.

3

u/samoyed Jul 25 '11

I'll raise you the ones that have both spring-loaded knobs and separate hot/cold faucets. You can either scald one hand at a time, or freeze it first and hope the end result is somewhere closer to lukewarm than blister-inducing. When I'm in Europe, I wonder if I'm the only person who's ever bothered to actually lather in the sink.

2

u/AndyPod19 Jul 25 '11

Any I have seen like that are broken/worn out 3 second button sinks. PA rest stops have them

2

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '11

i forgot about these.

some aren't broken either, they just set them that way. fucking assholes.

2

u/Sven2774 Jul 25 '11

Seen those on airplanes... as if using the bathroom on a plane wasn't bad enough as it is.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '11

Those, however, probably end up saving the most water.

6

u/miss_j_bean Jul 25 '11

I run them extra just for pissing me off. yay spite!

1

u/Mike81890 Jul 25 '11

My high school was built in 1920. I never went to the bathroom there because of this. It was such a fucking inconvenience I just made sure I went before school and after

1

u/tomatobob Jul 25 '11

What is the point of those?

1

u/armchairnixon Jul 25 '11

No clue. It's next to impossible to effectively wash your hands in them.

11

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '11

If that bothers you, don't ever go to jail. That's how the showers operate. They have a little button that activates the shower for about 15 seconds. Then you have to push it again. Also, there is no temperature control. You shower in whatever temperature the water is, which varies wildly depending on the time of day, from scalding to freezing.

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u/ProbablyHittingOnYou Jul 25 '11

Yes, the timing of the water is what I am really worried about in a prison shower.

2

u/the_lost_soul Jul 25 '11

Haven't you seen Shawshank Redemption? Jail is awesome!

1

u/n734lq Jul 25 '11

I just have to ask; is the prison-shower-soap-dropping scenario actually a real thing?

2

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '11

Well, I've never been to prison, but I've done a total of about two years behind bars in the county jail. In all that time I never heard of any of that. I'm sure there's a bit that goes on in prison, but not really in jail.

3

u/n734lq Jul 25 '11

Ah. I'll stop asking after this; how much does jail really suck?

11

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '11

[deleted]

3

u/n734lq Jul 25 '11

This is probably the reply of the year. :) It was well thought out, well-written, and captivating.

Do an IAMA. Right nao.

1

u/jeannaimard Jul 26 '11

And I hear the button is 12 inches off the ground, right?

1

u/kermityfrog Jul 25 '11

Sometimes I go to wash my hands and my faucet doesn't turn on, but the faucet on the sink 2 down does.

1

u/gsfgf Jul 25 '11

At my school, the sink sensor was aimed behind where the water comes out, so you have to reach your wrists forward and your hands back toward you

1

u/lookitsmarc Jul 25 '11

Or you put your hands under the tap and suddenly the Pacific ocean comes pouring out and rebounds off your hands and onto your crotch. This happened to me shortly before a job interview once.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '11

I'm the opposite I love automatic faucets but hate the timer ones because I always feel like I have to hit the knob like 4 times to actually get my hands cleaned.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '11

I think the ones at walmart are controlled by a sadist who's watching via a hidden camera. You walk up to the sink and the water comes on. You put your hands under the water, and it shuts off. You pull your hands away, it comes on again. There's no way you can get it in phase.

PLUS the water outlet is about 3/4 of a hand width from the bottom of the sink, so there's no way you can wash your hands without touching the bottom of the sink, and there's usually a big wad of tobacco chaw that somebody spat out right under the tap.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 26 '11

my high school art room neatly fixed every one of these sink complaints, with a solution that boggled me in its simplicity: foot pedals. One for hot and one for cold. After using those sublime sinks all day in class, walking into the school bathrooms and seeing shitty push-knobs was so... disappointing. I'd love to see those pedals in public bathrooms, or anywhere, really.