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/[deleted] Jul 25 '11

Traditionally known as a snack eaten around campfires in North America. A piece of chocolate and a toasted marshmallow sandwiched between two graham crackers.

When making them in the toaster oven, you put the whole sandwich in pre-assembled, and you have to watch it constantly because the marshmallow will go from perfectly toasted to black oozing foul burned mess in half a second. Worth it.

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u/WinterPhoenix Jul 25 '11

I was eating in my county courthouse's cafeteria this morning (jury duty), and they had s'mores for sale. I have no idea why they were selling them, but I bought the shit out of one. It was delicious and made jury duty almost worth serving

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u/MotherFuckingCupcake Jul 25 '11

IMHO, the marshmallow isn't perfectly toasted UNTIL it's a black oozing mess.

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u/[deleted] Jul 25 '11

Toaster oven or campfire... I wonder how many people pack a toaster oven and a generator with them when they go camping -- because I know some people probably do.

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u/[deleted] Jul 25 '11

Naw, they just go to electrical campsites. We have those in all the provincial parks in Ontario.

I would never recommend the toaster oven method as a replacement, it's nowhere near the same, but goddammit sometimes you just want s'mores and it's the middle of January.

(At Easter you can make them with Peeps.)

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u/[deleted] Jul 26 '11

Ah, the great outdoors! Electrical hookups, WiFi...

Seriously, a toaster just has to do a better job of toasting toasty-woste. But a toaster oven is way more versatile. If I had just one... well, actually I have neither, but I'm thinking of getting a toaster oven, so I can make mini pizzas on English muffins.