Designs that annoy you

[Soubriquet]

These are my (old and need replacing) trainers. Bought for work and were cheap because I needed them for work. Didn’t realise until after I bought them, that the little grooves accumulate stones every day and once a week I have to sit there with a knife prising them all out

What designs randomly annoy you?

Washing machines and electrical appliances… it’s very obvious to me they are designed mostly by men and I despite having to replace big white goods as I find them all hideous visually. Our fridge looks like a morgue. The handles, the logos stuck on, the colours.. I cannot understand why they can’t make some models with nicer looking features, eg for a traditional kitchen. Smeg are the best of a bad lot but the cost is huge and even then the look is ‘smeg’. You can buy modern or traditional kitchens so why isn’t this reflected in the design of most appliances???

Oh & the other thing I do not understand from a design point of view is car showrooms. Arguably second most expensive purchase for most and it’s all fake plants, shit lighting and paper publicity bunting??? You can spend £600 on a designer fashion purchase and the customer experience is outstanding. But £25k and you sit in a cheap office chair next to a water cooler?
I fail to understand the interior architecture process so much that I genuinely would like to work in this industry to understand/make changes Haha.

I used to work as an interior architect. I might be more obsessed about these things than most 😆

Upright vacuum cleaners, every time the hose is used to do the stairs or corners etc, it comes crashing down onto your ankle or head.

Outdoor plug sockets with the flap that clicks to seal it shut. Impossible to open with weak or arthritic fingers. Often gets left open which defeats the purpose.

Toasters which do not fit in a slice of bread leaving an untoasted stripe at one end. Apparently loaves in the UK are larger than in the rest of Europe but I'm amazed toaster manufacturers and large baking companies (e.g. Warburtons) can't get together and resolve this one.

@Leeds3

Toasters which do not fit in a slice of bread leaving an untoasted stripe at one end. Apparently loaves in the UK are larger than in the rest of Europe but I'm amazed toaster manufacturers and large baking companies (e.g. Warburtons) can't get together and resolve this one.

You need to put the bread in sideways not standing up. It then gets toasted all over.

Agree about the shoe tread thing, that annoys me too.

Shopping trolleys with the 'shelf' for a baby car seat. Once you put your car seat on the shelf you can't see where you're going. Why not make the shelf sunken? You'd have less room for shopping but at least you'd be able to see in front of you. People who need to do a really big shop could use the trolley with the seat built in so they don't loose trolley space, but I imagine a lot of people could still manage with a slightly smaller trolley.

My clothes airer. All of the bars are above each other- which stops half of them being used.
Staggered would mean it could all be used.
So stupid.

Apple usb plugs - so hard sometimes to remove as no real finger dimples on the side.
Potato mashers with seams and dimples everywhere. Unless put in to soak immediately a nightmare to clean.
Cheap hole punchers - poorly aligned and cover pops off randomly showering everything with pinched bits.
Irons with dimpled plates making them impossible to clean if they get dirty - never again.

I seem to be dimple obsessed this morning !

I bought a replacement iron last year which
A) has a flex noticeably shorter than its predecessor
B) a "see through" water reservoir which is anything but, and I invariably overfill the iron and make a mess

@canichange

Agree about the shoe tread thing, that annoys me too.

Shopping trolleys with the 'shelf' for a baby car seat. Once you put your car seat on the shelf you can't see where you're going. Why not make the shelf sunken? You'd have less room for shopping but at least you'd be able to see in front of you. People who need to do a really big shop could use the trolley with the seat built in so they don't loose trolley space, but I imagine a lot of people could still manage with a slightly smaller trolley.

Drove me mad too! Probably designed by a man who was tall enough to see over.

Ironing boards which are thinner between the plate and board and trap the iron flex unless you are perfectly lined up !

The inner seal on most plastic milk containers are incredibly difficult to pull of.
My poor old mam has to jab it with a knife!

The type of Lateral Flow tests I'm picking up these days have pre-filled pots of the liquid you swizzle the swab in. But the seal is stuck down so damn firmly that I cannot remove it. I end up piercing it with my nail scissors. What was that about washing your hands and wiping down surfaces before doing the test so as not to contaminate it?

Sugar packets. No matter how carefully you open it, you still spill sugar. Have to do it over the sink

Those thick cappuccino cups with teeny tiny handles that you can't quite get a finger in, but are too hot and heavy to pick up without. Usually used by cafes that scald the milk to thermo nuclear temperatures.

Ditto flat whites served in glasses with no handle at all.

@canichange

Agree about the shoe tread thing, that annoys me too.

Shopping trolleys with the 'shelf' for a baby car seat. Once you put your car seat on the shelf you can't see where you're going. Why not make the shelf sunken? You'd have less room for shopping but at least you'd be able to see in front of you. People who need to do a really big shop could use the trolley with the seat built in so they don't loose trolley space, but I imagine a lot of people could still manage with a slightly smaller trolley.

I used a car seat shopping trolly a few weeks ago that was low enough that you could see over BUT the handle was also super low so I had to bend slightly to push it. It was basically the right height for a child or maybe wheelchair user but then those people couldn't see over the car seat 🤦‍♀️

@ApolloandDaphne I'm sure the poster has tried that....... mine doesn't fit them in sideways either. Sourdough or Aldi bloomer type loaves.

Mine is bags or sugar and bags of flour - make a right mess
And scissors packaging - you need a pair of scissors to open them!
White upvc windows - I have them but I think they're horrible looking
Most standard car interiors
Most office interiors - always dreadful colours like blue carpet tiles

Bags of flour: Waitrose have changed the colours on the flour packaging. To no colour! The packages used to have a brand of solid colour that wrapped around front and sides. My hands are larger than average for a woman, but I still cannot pick up a bag of flour from the front. I have to pick it up from the side. So the packets of flour go into my cupboard sideways. With the previous packaging I could see exactly which flour was which: red was Plain, blue was Self-Raising, Green was strong white, etc. Now they're all the same colour I have no idea which is which! I have to pull them out one by one until I get to the one I need. So annoying. I expect there's a savings in the printing costs, but FGS put some kind of identifier on the side s of the packaging.

BTW, Waitrose, Lidl are still colour-coding their flour. As a consequence my flour shelf looks like this:

Do you still want my business?

Wall-mounted handwashing units in public loos (the kind where you wash and dry in the same place!) Very often the soap dispensing nozzle is situated right next to the handrying blower, resulting in drops of liquid soap going on your hands as you dry them!

Virtually everything. Agree with all the above.

Plus, why can’t large appliances have retractable rollers underneath? They are so difficult the move into the spaces.

Our new cooker has a 1mm gap between the hob plate and the sides. Great for catching bits and a pain to get them out.

Everything designed men sized, inc big handles (why do paintbrushes need such chunky handles - they make my hands ache after use - I’ve found some with slimmer handles, but they’re only 2 inches, so not good for doing large areas).

Even though I have very strong hands, I struggle to open some jar lids etc as they’re just so big. My hand won’t fit.

Not a design as such but both the bathroom mirrors in our house are so high up I can't even see the top of my head in them. I am not that short (5 foot 4) but the people who lived here before must have been giants. Yes I know I could move them but I can't be arsed.

Toilets where you end up sitting with your right thigh leaning against the sanitary bin and where there’s nowhere to put your stuff except the floor

The new iPhones seem to be made for man sized hands. They're too big to fit in my hand and I can't get my thumb across the the screen!

@Dilbertian

Bags of flour: Waitrose have changed the colours on the flour packaging. To no colour! The packages used to have a brand of solid colour that wrapped around front and sides. My hands are larger than average for a woman, but I still cannot pick up a bag of flour from the front. I have to pick it up from the side. So the packets of flour go into my cupboard sideways. With the previous packaging I could see exactly which flour was which: red was Plain, blue was Self-Raising, Green was strong white, etc. Now they're all the same colour I have no idea which is which! I have to pull them out one by one until I get to the one I need. So annoying. I expect there's a savings in the printing costs, but FGS put some kind of identifier on the side s of the packaging.

BTW, Waitrose, Lidl are still colour-coding their flour. As a consequence my flour shelf looks like this:

Do you still want my business?

I understand your frustration but just get a sharpie and write on the side.

Stickers. Just stickers on new stuff you buy that don't come off cleanly 😭😭😭😭

Every accessible toilet I’ve been in has a tiny tiny sink. Even if the loo is bigger than my entire living room. The only way to wash hands seems to be rub them against the bottom of the sink as only way to get them wet.

Also Accesible toilets putting the flush on the inside, so you can either flush when still on loo or get off then have to lean on toilet seat to reach over to other side to flush it. How hard can it be to put on side nearest to where people will be seating/standing?

Any council notices on lamp posts will be put up by a 6 foot 5 bloke who doesn’t mind looking up to read. So anyone smaller or wheelchair user has no chance to find out from tiny written up in the sky that changing all parking restrictions or building 500 new flats on your street.

Ring pulls on tins. Can with kitchen gadget I still can’t get enough force to get more than half of it off.