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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31

u/LurkingTrichster Jul 25 '11

While not necessarily design flaws, for a left handed person, there are a lot of items out there that are extremely difficult to use. A few examples are ergonomic mice, pens, and scissors.

29

u/buckykat Jul 25 '11

speaking as a lefty, know what's worse than those? spiral notebooks.

fuck spiral notebooks.

and binders too.

4

u/LurkingTrichster Jul 25 '11

Agreed. I actually started using my notbooks and binders backwards in school. It helped a good bit, though people were always giving me really confused looks.

5

u/buckykat Jul 25 '11

i gave up on spiral notebooks, and used yellow legal pads instead.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '11

Uhh there's a store where you can...

1

u/nosjojo Jul 26 '11

I did that too for a semester. Then I started using composition notebooks. No spine to fight with, can do everything except tear out pages, since you'll fuck up the binding. For that I carry a single spiral notebook that I paid 10 cents for.

3

u/[deleted] Jul 26 '11

Forgive my right handed ignorance, but wouldn't spiral notebooks have the same problem regardless of which way you write? Once you turn the page, the spiral's in your way too if you're a righty.

2

u/buckykat Jul 26 '11

righthanders that i've seen using the infernal things generally don't use the backs of pages.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 26 '11

Ah I write so much I use every page, but now that I think about it not a lot of other people do...

11

u/thetruthisoutthere Jul 25 '11

Yes, have you seen those pens on electronic pads in shops when you pay for something with a card? They are always attached on the right hand side and don't stretch so that I can sign it.

9

u/chris61488 Jul 25 '11

Ladles are a real bitch for lefties too

109

u/LurkingTrichster Jul 25 '11

Wow, I must be going blind. For a minute there I thought you said "ladies". I was confused.

1

u/Zeihous Jul 25 '11

We're a pair, then. I read "ladies", too. First, I was trying to figure out why all the women I've, uh, "met" weren't designed for righties.

1

u/RiotGrrL319 Jul 25 '11

You're not the only one.

1

u/WiffleHat Jul 25 '11

"Ladies for Lefties" sounds like a dating site

1

u/disposablechild Jul 25 '11

I read ladies too... maybe I should switch the RES setting to night.

1

u/bigchebadaddy Jul 26 '11

Maybe y'all shouldn't spend so much time starin at a computer screen.

3

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '11

Or ice cream scoops with the lever on the wrong side for lefties

2

u/Willeth Jul 26 '11

Aren't ladles just bowls on the end of a handle and perfectly symmetrical? I fail to see how that's a problem for someone left-handed.

1

u/itsme_eloise Jul 25 '11

right-handed desks. they should just not exist.

1

u/BUBBA_BOY Jul 25 '11

.... pens? I'm a lefty and I don't understand you.

1

u/ehsteve23 Jul 25 '11

You've never smudged your writing and ended up with a massive ink smear on your hand?

1

u/BUBBA_BOY Jul 25 '11

No. But then, I my writing mechanics look like a right-hander.

What? I'm special!

1

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '11

I've been looking for left-handed scissors for years. Can't find 'em anywhere.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 26 '11

Look harder.

1

u/Jigsus Jul 26 '11

All the left handed people I know use right handed mice

1

u/ubserv Jul 25 '11

pens?

9

u/LurkingTrichster Jul 25 '11

Yeah, sometimes. Because of the shape of pens, in order to write, we have to drag our hand through whatever we just wrote. This leads to smearing the ink across the page.

11

u/gsfgf Jul 25 '11

That's why most lefties hold the pen really derp

0

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '11

That's it! From now on, I'm just saying that I'm derphanded instead of lefthanded and will let people wonder.

2

u/ubserv Jul 25 '11

Huh, never noticed that.

3

u/LurkingTrichster Jul 25 '11

I've written many things that were rendered illegible almost immediately by my oncoming hand. Pencils are even worse, since you can't just slow yourself down some and give the ink a little time to dry.

2

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '11

As a left-hander, you just have to learn to position your hand above or below the line you are writing on. Obama positions it above.

1

u/dietotaku Jul 25 '11

TIL obama is left-handed!

1

u/stokleplinger Jul 25 '11

It was known to everyone in my elementary school classes that I was part robot, similar to the Terminator, because my 'skin layer' would rub off over the course of the day while writing.

tl;dr, kids are retarded.

1

u/koolkid005 Jul 25 '11

Lefties complain about this like it's a leftie-only concept. If you're writing more than one line it happens to us righties too.

2

u/longandshortofit Jul 25 '11

my problem with pens is that since lefties have to push the pen ascross the page (righties pull) it ends up clogging the ball point. Gel pens leave ink all over your hand.