Poorly designed things that make using them difficult?

[Whatisthisfuckery]

Spice jars, who in hell has designed the dimensions of spice jars? What measurement of spices does one usually find in a recipe? Teaspoons. What can you not quite fit in a spice jar? A fucking teaspoon. Whose bloody bright idea was it to design a jar that makes it hard to dispense the most common measurement of the ingredient contained within?

Ahh, that’s better, I needed that rant.

Go on, rant away. What poorly designed thing makes you angry inside?

@NoProblem123 especially Hmrc phone line.
There is lots of information on our website.
Yes, but it doesn't deal with incompetence!

@goingtotown Yes i know...I'm talking about Phillips ones that don't fit Phillips heads!

Yes, those hold messages are particularly annoying when you’ve wrestled with the website for ages to try to avoid calling.

Haven’t RTFT so sorry if this is repetition but bloody Kindle Fires. I hate them. And much of the Amazon website is appallingly designed from a UX perspective .

And don’t get me started on any voice recognition message that starts with ‘tell us in a few words.....’ AGGGHHHHH

Has anyone in the history of the world successfully managed to tell an automated system their number plate on the first go, at carparks where you need to phone up to pay?

Automated voice: please say your number plate ...

Person: (very clearly) A B 1 2 C D E

Automated voice: is that X Y 8 9 Z P Q ?

@Firsttimecatlady

Palmer’s Cocoa Butter body moisturizer in their original bottle. Super think moisturizer, rock hard, completely unsqueezable bottle. Has to be turned upside down and piddled with a pointy thing from the very first open. I once took the bread knife to the bottle to hack it in half- then had a month of two parts of a moisturizer bottle in a Jiffy bag on my bathroom shelf. Great look.

I took a scalpel to my Palmers bottle only last week & scraped lotion out into a screwtop Nivea moisturiser container that I keep specifically for this sort of thing!

@miserablecat that’s the one

[quote Eruss]@Saoirse7 I can’t think of the brand but the little white guy with a black bowler hat - they sell the flour in a tub like the baby milk, they sell it in asda. I have a few so buy the cheaper flour and decant it in[/quote]
Homepride; I use that. If I can't get it, I put the flour in a clip-top storage box.

@thenightsky

The fact that every washing basket I've ever owned does not fit under the washing machine door. It is too high by just a few centimetres

I was cursing the bloody basket only 10 mins before reading this thread.

The cheap laundry baskets that are sold in those shops that have stacks of plastic boxes for sale on the pavement outside them do!

@Whatamess666

Not quite the same but I'm a teacher so have to do lateral flow tests. Takes 30 mins officially for results and must be done before work on empty stomach then results logged on gov website. If it's inconclusive you have to take it again so can't eat or drink until you get a satisfactory result. I get an 'informative' text and email from the nhs every time i log a result informing me my covid test was negative. I fucking know! I took the test! I knew BEFORE YOU! I told YOU the results. And I'm HUNGRY! Drives me absolutely mad twice a week....

I feel your pain!

Also with lft.... After faffing around doing it and waiting for the result i have to report to the government. Fine, no problem.

I then have to fill out a ridiculously long form for work to report to them too. It doesn't save certain info that is always the same so it has to be filled in from scratch EVERY time.

Then I get the joy of a text and email from gov telling me it is negative (yeah, I know) followed by an email from work also telling me my test is negative.

ARGH

The postman propping all deliveries against the outside of the front door....which opens outwards. We're either trapped in the house if the box is large enough or it plops onto the floor and gets immediately wet.
There is a perfectly functional made for purpose box for these next to the door.

Trolley boxes from the Council to put your recycling in that have loads of gaps for rain water to get in, flaps that fall off after 1 week, and weigh 0.000002 grams so the whole thing blows over in a light breeze 😩

(And neighbours who insist on putting them all out in gale force winds !)

@DearTeddyRobinson re the Dyson handheld. I'm disabled so can't use a full size vacuum but also can't hold my finger on the button for long. Also can't pump my own petrol. www.fuelgrip.com

This fits the Dyson perfectly and is cheap as anything, got my MIL one of these for her handheld Dyson too.

Talking of Coronavirus, I live on the Swiss/German border where we are not supposed to go over without a good reason, and every time my phone picks up the Swiss signal I get an arsey text from the German health ministry reminding me of the quarantine rules. I'm assuming it's OK to ignore, as everyone in my town must get them...

My Panasonic combination microwave/inverter (whatever that means) oven. When you are setting the length of cooking time it goes up in 1 minute increments up to 10 minutes, and then only in 5 minute increments thereafter.

So if I want to actually follow the instructions on whatever I'm cooking and it says for example 'cook at 180 for 22 minutes', I have to decide whether to set it for 20 minutes and then add another 2 minutes on the end (which won't be enough and I'll have to add on another 3 minutes), or set it for 25 minutes which will invariably burn it. I use it almost every day and it gives me the total rage.

My Simplehuman dish drainer thingy - it has teensy little drainage holes which get clogged up with god knows what, seeing as I'm only putting clean rinsed items on it, and to clean the bloody thing you have to basically dismantle it, turn it upside down and then find a screwdriver to unscrew the spout that drains into the sink, remove a miniscule washer, then put it all back together again after you've cleaned it.

The fact that every washing basket I've ever owned does not fit under the washing machine door. It is too high by just a few centimetres

We use those B&Q collapsible crates as washing baskets. Sort the washing in to 4 or 5 of them. They then fold up out of the way.

Therefore, in building designs there should be a greater amount of floor space for women’s toilets than men’s.

Depending on the venue, there is more floor space given for ladies than men. The only project I’ve done recently that didn’t was a sports stadium. New shopping centre projects have wider cubicles too.

In fact loads of stuff in business type hotels- emergency kits with razor but not sanitary items, dark poorly lit mirrors, mirrors not placed near plug so can’t see to dry hair, trouser press no iron....urgh..now I’m really wound up

I’ve done a fair bit of business travel. This is less of an issue than it used to be. My issue is a short person issue. Door peepholes too high, the heated non mist mirror bit is too high. Spare pillows on the top shelf.

I remember my first 2 cars- seat went back and forward but not up or down. No adjustment to steering wheel.

The length of the seat is a problem too. It is much longer than my thigh. Although, that’s a problem of all seating!

Architects

I work with many, and it is definitely true, I can usually tell which layouts have been designed by men and which by women.

@mintymable What are the giveaways that they have been designed by men as opposed to women? I'm just interested in this sort of thing.

I have stayed in hundreds of hotels over the years and I also mainly encounter travel packs with men for men in mind.

Shower curtains - Not fit for purpose at all. Would rather pay a little extra and have a screen.

Just read the whole thread, some crackers here.

Washing machine: ours states it has 8 minutes left, then subsequently can take another half an hour. It’s either a feature of time dilation that Einstein didn’t consider or a lying piece of shitty design.

Soup packets, that require you to tear off the top. Nothing that has to be teared can be done without spilling.

Similar to others, Nutri Bullet can’t be cleaned properly, so there’s blueberry smoothie remnants in the area all around the motor. What’s the point?

Fridge: you shouldn’t need it to alarm if the door is only ajar: if you raise the feet of the front to higher than those of the back, the door should always close under its own weight from a certain point.

Button batteries: the packaging is awful and difficult to get into for one very good reason: they are evil, evil little fuckers that kill children. We shouldn’t be trying to make the packaging easier, we should be abolishing them completely. I absolutely hate them and find it appalling they are still used. At the very least there should be big cigarette-style warnings when you buy them to make sure you don’t leave them lying around and dispose of them properly.

@Saoirse7

Bags of flour.

Why? They spill everywhere, even before it's open. Why not sell them in a similar container to baby formula??

Some brands do.

Difficult to open carton plastic top drinks sold at supermarket and coroner shops

Ridiculous !

@GuyFawkesDay

Spotlight bulbs. Some asshat developer put them on every ceiling.

This means replacing the bastard bulbs. You have to push bulb up and twist. Easy enough to get them out. Absolutely impossible to get new bulb into the teeny little sockets provided for the two prongs on the bulb. Faffing about for ages.

Just.....why??!! There had to be a better way, surely?

Wipes packets. Resealable, my arse. They don't reseal, and will inevitably be dry useless tissues by the time I need one.

And my other rant. Why does nobody make toothbrush holders that fit multiple electric toothbrushes in??!!

This might do. We have the cheaper Lakeland version.

@Clymene

This happened to me with a nearly new bottle of cleanser, so I contacted them via Twitter and they sent me a replacement, free of charge. Worth a try, esp if you move the cleanser as much as I love mine!

[quote HyggeTygge]@SunshineCake omg thank you! I have been meaning to see if there's such a thing as a ham storage box, as i keep open packs in sealable freezer bags but they're a pain to close all the time. Your lakeland link has prompted me to see if there are ham boxes - and there are!!

www.lakeland.co.uk/63100/4-Tatay-Cold-Cut-Food-Storage-Boxes---Coloured-Lids[/quote]
Hurray! I think you are the first poster to buy something I have suggested. Hope it works for you.

I don't get the Homepride flour pack, how do you get the last of the flour out of it !? Yes the normal paper bags sometimes spill a bit but so much easier to use and fully recyclable without ripping the bloody box (oh just figured out how to get the last bit out !)

But that was just the warm up, what I really really really hate is HSBC online banking.

The app is pretty bad, incredibly slow and has got about two functions but the browser version is what makes me want to give up using money. Like the login page: want to use the tab key to move between the spaces you have to fill in your details ? DON'T. First option after filling in your security code is RESET ALL SECURITY DETAILS. Next one takes you to report a lost security key, which is great as that is the device you just used to get to this point so if you've lost it changes are it's under your table. Third one: CANCEL because surely that's all you want to do at that point. Finally Continue.

And that's only the log on page but doesn't get much better when (if) you actually manage to get in. And then you get the warning the session will expire in 60 seconds. Press "I need more time" or whatever. Click anything in the screen.. and you are back to log on because the session has expired. Whaaaaaat !?

They regularly ask my feedback from the online banking, I reply every time.

@AlanThePig. On some appliances you can swap the doors to open the other way... I had this and DH casually said I can swap the door around if you want.