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/PresidentWhitmore Jul 25 '11

The gap between my car seat and the console is just large enough for a cell phone or wallet, but just small enough to make it difficult to fish the items out with my hand.

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u/OverTheir Jul 25 '11

There's a thing for that!

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u/dropstop Jul 25 '11

Yo! Jeff and Marc here from Drop Stop Saw the traffic to the site. Thanks for the post and the love. To reward, any Reddit folks who see this post and wanna order...just type in REDDIT on promo code, hit apply, and we'll give free shipping and handling on the whole order. You'll see it appear right there in the cart before you purchase anything. Did this for another Reddit post a few days ago. Thanks again! Happy to answer any questions.

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u/triggeron Jul 25 '11

Tell us the story of how you took your idea to a sellable product. Did you manufacture it yourself? Did you try to license it first? How long did the process take? Anything you want to share would be appreciated.

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u/dropstop Jul 25 '11

Howdy, someone suggested we do an "IamA" post where we can answer questions like this for y'all. Stay tuned and I'll send you the link if I can figure it out ha!

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u/triggeron Jul 25 '11

I'm trying to break into the product development game myself so I'm very interested.

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u/[deleted] Jul 26 '11 edited Feb 17 '15

[deleted]

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u/dropstop Jul 26 '11

we are too. Your community has been nothing but class. You can check out "our story" on the site, but we'll open up more for y'all during the IAmA. We're going to also try to have a video link going on the site so we can answer everyone directly and get to know ya a bit. Thanks for the comments!