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?

Re the number pads on keyboards.

They are there for accounts people, who spend most of their time using the number pad and little else - e.g. date, account number, invoice number, amount, cost price, selling price, discount, exchange rates, credit card number, expiry date, stock quantity, bloody VAT, payroll number, hours worked, overtime rate, the list is endless.

For hours and hours every day ad infinitum. That keypad replaces the adding machines that everyone used pre-computers. And don't tell me that you can just scan it all in and your lovely accounts package does it all like they say in the adverts, because it doesn't. Certainly not with any degree of accuracy for people who actually know what they are doing. They are also usefully right beside the arrow keys for using spreadsheets and whatnot. Trying to spend all day using just the number keys above the letters slows you down considerably.

Having to do my job without a number keypad is a nightmare. When I was freelance, one client of mine expected me to use a laptop to input about five thousand invoices within a few days. Fat chance.

@TooYoungToNotice

The rather lovely alessi cItrus juicer my mother in law brought me that looks like a miniature spaceship. Every time I've tried to use it, the legs go out from under it, there's a huge crash followed by mangled lemons and juice everywhere. The design is just all wrong. Gorgeous but hopeless. A bit like my cat.

Is your cat any good at squeezing lemons?

My life has been a lot easier since I realised that plastic packaging and sachets etc are best opened FROM THE BOTTOM. The top is sealed up like nobody's business but the bottom is often just a flap you unpeel.

I love a numbered keypad.

Yes to Lego boxes which cannot reclose once opened.

Yes to make up where the bottle is rigid and the wand doesn’t reach the end. So inevitably the last bit is wasted.

Yes to the Kenwood stick blender where you’re not allowed to submerge in water the bits that get covered in blended food.

My Joseph Joseph mixing bowl (part of a nesting set). Very pretty, but just a little too small so when I use an electric mixer some of the mix flies out.

Sellotape. Scotch tape is great, but Sellotape just seems to shred itself as I peel a bit off. And yet Sellotape is sold much more widely.

Bags of pasta etc with a resealing sticker, where the sticker is placed precisely where you cut to open the packet. So inevitably you end up cutting through the sticker too.

Paper bags of flour and sugar. Less plastic is great of course but why do things like pasta still come in robust plastic whilst the things that make the most mess if there is a hole in the bag (sugar and flour) come in thin paper...

Mugs with a little dip at the base which collects water in the dishwasher. Why?

@TalktotheFoot
I know exactly what you mean. I'm 'old school too' so have sellotaped a small blackboard to the side of my conventional keyboard for quick sums, notes etc.
I also have an abacus balanced on the top of my screen for more complex calculations, and a set-square to hand to ensure my lunch-time sandwich is cut accurately.

Behold!! A sofa bed with storage!

www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/asarum-3-seat-sofa-bed-knisa-dark-grey-90430557/

With the use of vacuum bags, it holds a double quilt and 4 pillows.

@TalktotheFoot

Re the number pads on keyboards.

They are there for accounts people, who spend most of their time using the number pad and little else - e.g. date, account number, invoice number, amount, cost price, selling price, discount, exchange rates, credit card number, expiry date, stock quantity, bloody VAT, payroll number, hours worked, overtime rate, the list is endless.

For hours and hours every day ad infinitum. That keypad replaces the adding machines that everyone used pre-computers. And don't tell me that you can just scan it all in and your lovely accounts package does it all like they say in the adverts, because it doesn't. Certainly not with any degree of accuracy for people who actually know what they are doing. They are also usefully right beside the arrow keys for using spreadsheets and whatnot. Trying to spend all day using just the number keys above the letters slows you down considerably.

Having to do my job without a number keypad is a nightmare. When I was freelance, one client of mine expected me to use a laptop to input about five thousand invoices within a few days. Fat chance.

I once had the misfortune to work for an accountancy firm that decided to replace all the laptops with newer versions.

Unfortunately, whoever ordered them had apparently never had a job that involved typing in lots of numbers. They didn't have the numberpad.

Fortunately, you can buy a numberpad attachment, but the lost fee earning time until they arrived far outweighed the saving on the 'real good deal' they apparently got for these laptops.

@TalktotheFoot. I got proficient on a number keypad from the till in my Saturday job, it's served me well through many hours of data entry in my professional career. I can't bear using my laptop without an external keyboard.

@MerylStropp

Haven't RTFT but... in packs of sliced meat - chicken, ham, salami, whatever - the peel-back opening is always at the bottom, BUT the slices are always arranged so that you have to peel it all the way back to get to the top one. Or you have to turn the whole thing over and scrabble around to get the bottom slice. Gives me the rage, and would be so simple to put right in the manufacturing process. Anyone else found this?

OMG YES!!! This really pisses me off. Glad that someone else has spotted this!

@everythingthelighttouches
Oh god yes VPN is the bane of my work laptop , loads up to about 95% in 00.2 seconds then takes 2 mins to load the next 3% then crashes out Arrrg !

Off to read the rest of the thread now . . . . .

Silicone cup cake moulds. Impossible to wash.

Anything non-stick cookware. It does not wash properly and grease adheres to it or if you scrub harder to remove grease, the non-stick comes off.

@WeBuiltThisBuffetOnSausageRoll

Placemarking as I wrote a long post and then it vanished! So mnhq are not immune from this thread

I couldn't possibly comment on MN policy, but websites that force you to object individually to cookies from every single vendor - like you're going to look in detail into each one and decide to object to companies 1, 4, 6, 9 & 10 that you've never heard of tracking you, but happily allow companies 2, 3, 5, 7 & 8 that you've never heard of tracking you. And then the 'legitimate interest' rubbish - that seems to be designed to gaslight you into agreeing "well, you didn't complain before when we hoodwinked you into letting us track you, so we think you're a jolly bad egg to want to stop us now".

Most infuriating of all is the wording "Your privacy is important to us". Yes, in the exact same way that your handbag is important to a mugger.

This made me laugh out loud. So true

Bags of pasta etc with a resealing sticker, where the sticker is placed precisely where you cut to open the packet. So inevitably you end up cutting through the sticker too

So true. The other design flaw is that they DON’T STICK. Cue rice, pasta, coffee all over the floor. I keep the rubber bands from spring onions to rectify this oversight. A so-called sticker and two rubber bands work OK.
Re number keypads - in my spreadsheet lessons I make everyone use these to input numeric data (unless left handed, though some lefties train themselves to do it). I encourage them to put their left hands behind their backs at first so they’re not tempted to do otherwise. They thank me later!

@minipie. I peel the sticker fully off before opening the bag.

I try to remember to SunshineCake but if opening a packet in a hurry tend to forget...why can’t they just put the sticker at the other end of the packet?

Nail clippers. Why has nobody thought to invent a pair that catch the clippings, rather than shoot them in all different directions?

And my washer dryer, which beeps endlessly when it’s finished even though it won’t let you open the door for another ten minutes.

Nail clippers. Why has nobody thought to invent a pair that catch the clippings, rather than shoot them in all different directions?

Genius

I normally cut my (or kids) nails after a bath or shower. It's easier when they are wet/soft and dont fly everywhere.

Childproof bottles of surgical spirit - I have one non childproof lid I keep transferring to the new bottle, tho there is a way of converting a childproof lid with toothpicks between the 2 layers. (no children nearby).
Ring pull cans of soup & beans that splatter everywhere if you actually use as intended. I can recommend Magican tin opener.
Tiny recycling symbols especially when hidden in secret places of the packaging e.g. the neck of the bottle where the top screws onto. Mustve thrown out hundreds of bottles not realising they did recycle. And bottles that have a recycle symbol but you can’t unscrew the dispenser to see if it recycles as with tresemme and vinegar bottles. Sarsons glass bottles the top no longer unscrews so can’t refill. (Yes I have one old style bottle I keep refilling)
Supermarket shelves when full of giant bottles of pop, how to get the first one out, as there is no leeway in either height or depth.
Shower drains with a little cup that fills with gunk under a shiny lid with lots of inaccessible nooks and crannies where hair wraps around. Ugh.
Vacuum cleaner roller where the hair wraps round under the metal end.
The fridge alarm that goes off just as I’m trying to leave the house in a hurry for work aargh.
Empty Marmite jars I fill with warm but not boiling water from kettle, stir and wrap double layer kitchen roll round the jar, pour over gravy granules & reheat in microwave.
Yes Apple Photos app the folders are something of a mystery, I only use it to import, and look at the Memories, no idea how the folders work! Still using Bridge.

New(ish) Lilettes wrapper- you used to tear a strip of plastic round the middle, which was fine. Now you have to hold it at each end and give it a sort of Chinese burn. Impossible if you hands are at all wet.

Nail clippers. Why has nobody thought to invent a pair that catch the clippings, rather than shoot them in all different directions?

Then you could simply decant them into the little spice jar labelled 'Dried Onion Curls' and thank your lucky stars that nobody has a spoon small enough to be able to use them in cooking for you We've come full circle now

@WitchWife with Quorn 'facon' I store the pack in the fridge for a day before using, it thaws well, and can be kept in the fridge for a week or more to use up the rest.
If I forget (often), you can take it out of all packaging and microwave on a plate for 45s - 1min, thaws well, then you can peel off the slices you need.

@Ineke

Tiny writing on shampoo and conditioner bottles, when I'm in the shower, without reading glasses, I can never tell which is which. Often I have tried lathering my hair with conditioner. For emptying toothpaste tubes I have a wonderful gadget from Lakeland, with a key that turns two rollers, bit like an old fashioned laundry mangle that my mum used before the invention of twin tubs and spin driers. Wrapping on cd's and dvd's, needs a knife to get it off! Laundry capsule tubs, there is a knack,but I always forget what it is.

I've got one of those tube gadget things, and I use mine for tomato puree.

@Truelymadlydeeplysomeonesmum

Condoms, the packets are not made to get open in the dark in a hurry

Heard a story on a podcast this week about someone at a festival accidentally opening a sachet of hot chocolate instead of a condom and it going all over his date Kept me laughing for quite a while