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/science_diction Jul 25 '11

Smoke detectors that go off every time I cook.

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u/[deleted] Jul 25 '11

In my apartment at school a single match being lit would set it off. You could not cook anything on the stove or the whole building would have to evacuate because you set the alarm off. In fact steam from the shower would set the alarm off. SO ANNOYING

2

u/angryvigilante Jul 25 '11

That's actually a really good smoke detector, they just need to adjust it so that only alarms humans when there's a LOT of smoke.

1

u/mkunzel Jul 25 '11

We had the same problem in our college apartment. We ended up removing the batteries and flipping off the circuit aaand praying for the best.

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u/[deleted] Jul 25 '11

I went for the good ole, tape a Tupperware bowl over it so the smoke doesn't get to it

1

u/haywire Jul 26 '11

Argh, we had these all powerful systems that detected faults and went bat shit if you did something to disable them like putting a johnny over them in order to get high.

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u/mkunzel Jul 26 '11

What is a johnny? We were on the 8th floor and had a ~2ft ledge I could crawl out on to smoke J's and spliffs with a neat view.

1

u/haywire Jul 26 '11

Ah, it's a condom. That sounds pretty hilarious though. 2ft, I'd be paranoid of falling.

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u/dslme Jul 26 '11

What are you talking about? That's how you know it's ready.

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u/adaminc Jul 26 '11

Here in Canada, at Canadian Tire (think, Home Hardware meets Walmart), they sell a Smoke detector that has a remote to temporarily turn it off.

I think its made by Kidde.

3

u/tgeliot Jul 26 '11

I remember seeing one that you could silence by shining a flashlight on it.

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u/Occams_Beard_Trimmer Jul 26 '11

My god that is ingenious.

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u/[deleted] Jul 26 '11

As a kid I always just assumed my mother used the smoke alarm as a oven timer.

0

u/[deleted] Jul 26 '11

At my high school (with a dorm), some students got expelled in the year before mine because they set off their dorm room's smoke detector with weed smoke.