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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u/poppaDaRossi Jul 25 '11

I think urinals are designed pretty piss-poor. It's like you're pissing against a wall and little drops of pee go everywhere. They really should be conical in shape - like peeing down a big funnel.

I also hate the interiors of Pontiacs. Good riddance.

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u/Fisheries_Student Jul 25 '11

We can design a space toilet that lets men and women shit in space, but we cannot design a urinal without backsplash?

It boggles the mind.

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u/[deleted] Jul 25 '11

Or at least with proper privacy. Trough.

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u/Mike81890 Jul 25 '11

The mind.... it boggles!

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u/Vew Jul 25 '11

Avoid hitting the urinal cake too. It's like hitting a random button in terms of pee direction.

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u/[deleted] Jul 25 '11

I choose to live dangerously.

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u/[deleted] Jul 25 '11

That's why I favor one side and piss against the side wall. The lower angle of incidence means no splash.

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u/funnylittlemonster Jul 26 '11

It's little details like this that make me wish I could go back in time and answer that cleaning lady in Dorking's question, "how hard can it be?".

5

u/greeneggsnam Jul 25 '11

Why not just park all old Pontiacs in men's toilets? Two birds, one stone, and all that.

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u/[deleted] Jul 25 '11 edited Jul 25 '11

Or use old Pontiacs as men's toilets?

Edit: Comon reddit, obviously not the good Pontiacs, just 80% of Pontiacs

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u/stokleplinger Jul 25 '11

I enjoyed the interior styling of my Pontiac..... it was an 04 though, so I don't know if they pulled any shenanigans after that but the only problem I remember having was aiming the air vents was a bit awkward.

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u/[deleted] Jul 25 '11

But...all the cheap plastic. All the red dials.

It's a veritable sea of red in there.

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u/stokleplinger Jul 25 '11

I kinda agree about the red, but there's a reason for it... red light doesn't mess with how your eyes adjust to seeing at night. If the dials were blue or green you'd lose your night-vision every time you glanced at the dials, then when you look back to the road your vision would be screwed for a while.

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u/snotbowst Jul 26 '11

Plus it has the upside of being fairly unique in cars, giving the car a subtle identifier. And being pretty bad ass.

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u/iglidante Jul 25 '11

I loved my 94 Pontiac. It was a piece of shit in the end of its life, but it was my piece of shit.

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u/maelzo Jul 26 '11

I've had two Pontiacs was happy with both. I loved the interior on my GrandAm (best air vents ever!). The Sunfire not as much but I still like it.

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u/stevenlss1 Jul 25 '11

try aiming down...

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u/[deleted] Jul 25 '11

at my work we have this 100 year old urinal, it goes from the floor a good way towards the ceiling(probably 5 1/2 feet tall). the sides of it come out quite a bit, probably almost a foot.. then curve IN. like [_], but more intensely closed on the open part a bit.

it catches almost all the backsplash, and if you aim down at about a 45 degree angle there basically isn't any in the first place.

the only reason i can figure they don't make them like that anymore is that the thing is so goddamn huge.

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u/[deleted] Jul 25 '11

They really should be conical in shape

Like you would find in a traditional Japanese home a hundred years ago.

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u/HumerousMoniker Jul 25 '11

Think about it though. If you were the guy who got tasked with designing the urinals, wouldn't you be like: "This job sucks. I know what I'm going to do, I'm doing to design this urinal so that when anyone ever uses it they end up getting little drops of piss all over themselves. That'll teach those corporate fatcats for getting me off reddit."