Ministry of Crap Design

[skbuncks]

The other day I put some fresh milk, bought that very day, on the top shelf of the fridge. I was away for a couple of days and on returning found that the milk had quite conveniently turned to cheese. Puzzled I checked the sell by date and found that there were still a few days left until in should have started turning.

My first thought then was that the fridge had died or that there had been a power cut so I investigated the fridge and its contents. This investigation showed that there was an apparent temperature gradient in the fridge with the bottom being cold and the top warm.

At the top of the fridge is the light, this was very warm, almost hot, and the surrounding plastic also warm to the touch. At this point I noticed a small switch on the side of the light which was in the ON position. I turned it off, expecting the light to switch off. It didnt.

It turns out the switch when in the OFF position ensures that the light is off when the door is closed and on when the door is open. When in the ON position it ensures that THE LIGHT IS ON WHEN THE DOOR IS CLOSED.

Now I ask you who in their right mind designs a fridge light so that it is ON when the door is closed, such that over time it heats the contents of the fridge? There are no little pixies living in my fridge so who exactly is supposed to benefiting from the light staying on? I am baffled, truly truly baffled.

skb

ETA: Furthermore the switch is in a position such that it is easily knocked n or off. More insanity

[Trinoc]

I'm sure I can think of dozens of posts for a thread like this ...

Let's start with the person who, when specifying the standard sizes for duvets, made the king size duvet 220x225 cm, so that it looks almost square, but 50% of the time when you've stuffed the duvet in (a Herculean task at the best of times) you find that it is 5cm long one way and 5cm short the other.

[Trinoc]

The road sign which informs you that you are leaving an area where you are not permitted to be in a heavy goods vehicle ...

[Trinoc]

Large roundabouts where the lane markings are concentric instead of spiralling outwards, like the ones at South Mimms (A1/M25) or Watford (A41/M25 feeder) where if you stay in the lane originally marked for your destination you either go around forever or get sent back the way you came. The result is traffic changing lanes all around the roundabout, making it even more hazardous than if there had been no lanes at all.

[chaggle]

The pair of scissors sold in a blister pack that can only be opened with a pair of scissors.>:D

In fact packaging designers in general should be condemned to the bottom of the list for swine flu vaccination.

[chaggle]

Large roundabouts where the lane markings are concentric instead of spiralling outwards, like the ones at South Mimms (A1/M25) or Watford (A41/M25 feeder) where if you stay in the lane originally marked for your destination you either go around forever or get sent back the way you came. The result is traffic changing lanes all around the roundabout, making it even more hazardous than if there had been no lanes at all.

Don't talk to me about road design!! Here there is a road that runs along the coast - the N340 - aka 'The Highway of death'.

Every few hundred metres there is a roundabout. These roundabouts have three entry lanes, one for turning left, one for straight on and one for turning right. The roundabout itself only has two lanes. How stupid is that?

(Good this isn't it? I feel like I'm on Grumpy Old Men)

[Trinoc]

The pair of scissors sold in a blister pack that can only be opened with a pair of scissors.>:D

In fact packaging designers in general should be condemned to the bottom of the list for swine flu vaccination.
Give them the vaccine in an industrial strength blister back, and no knives or scissors. If they can open it, they get the vaccine.

[Croydon Bob]

Large roundabouts where

There's a roundabout in South Croydon with signs on it saying "This is not a roundabout" and "two-way traffic". But you can't see them until you are right on it and even then some people aren't looking for signs like that, they're trying to work out where the hell they are and which turning to take.

[Trinoc]

There's a roundabout in South Croydon with signs on it saying "This is not a roundabout" and "two-way traffic". But you can't see them until you are right on it and even then some people aren't looking for signs like that, they're trying to work out where the hell they are and which turning to take.
You need the Roundabout From Hell in Hemel Hempstead ...

http://www.wikimapia.org/#lat=51.7463177&lon=-0.4732865&z=19&l=0&m=b

Or something similar in High Wycombe ...

http://www.wikimapia.org/#lat=51.6270354&lon=-0.7506537&z=19&l=0&m=b

[Croydon Bob]

The building that I work in, with 1,200 other people, was bespoke. The first time we tested everything to see if it all worked together before moving all the staff in, we discovered that the air-conditioning intake was right next to the chimneys and sucked smoke and carbon monoxide straight into the building. How basic a mistake is that for an architect to make?

The other building that I've worked in, in the last few years, was also bespoke. One side of it is 3 floors higher than the other with an arty curved sloping roof. The goods lifts are on the lower side of the building, the other lifts are too small to get a desk into...

[Mulder]

Most design errors are due to 'forgetting history'. Things are often 'the way they are' today to avoid old problems. These problems tend to get forgotten over time. So when they are altered to 'look better', basic errors can be made. Even the software used to design stuff does not always contain these old lessons. A great example is the credit crunch. The risk management software used by the banks did not take into account major disruptions to the banking system! The people writing the software had not experienced a major recession before! You sack your old staff at your own peril!

[richardcraig]

You need the Roundabout From Hell in Hemel Hempstead ...

http://www.wikimapia.org/#lat=51.7463177&lon=-0.4732865&z=19&l=0&m=b

Or something similar in High Wycombe ...

http://www.wikimapia.org/#lat=51.6270354&lon=-0.7506537&z=19&l=0&m=b

WTF!? Speed doesn't kill people, idiotic road design does. I'd like to see some accident stats.

[chaggle]

AARRGGHH!!! (http://www.wikimapia.org/#lat=51.5629121&lon=-1.7715481&z=19&l=3&m=b&search=swindon%20magic%20roundabout)

[TAP]

AARRGGHH!!! (http://www.wikimapia.org/#lat=51.5629121&lon=-1.7715481&z=19&l=3&m=b&search=swindon%20magic%20roundabout)

That place looks inGENious! What time do you recommend I visit? 3am? 4am?

Squeeeeeeeeeeal!

[polomint38]

AARRGGHH!!! (http://www.wikimapia.org/#lat=51.5629121&lon=-1.7715481&z=19&l=3&m=b&search=swindon%20magic%20roundabout)

Is that like a crop circle? Did it appear overnight? >:D8-)::);D:cheesy:

[Trinoc]

AARRGGHH!!! (http://www.wikimapia.org/#lat=51.5629121&lon=-1.7715481&z=19&l=3&m=b&search=swindon%20magic%20roundabout)
OK, you win! Beats Hemel Hempstead and High Wycombe hands down!

When I was at university in sunny Colchester in the late 60s / early 70s there was a roundabout on the ring road -- I think it was the one at the entrance to Colchester North railway station -- where the MOT experimented with new silly road layout ideas. Almost every time you drove past/over/round it there was a different temporary layout built out of cones and concrete blocks. The one I remember with most affection was a cluster of five mini-roundabouts -- one in the middle and one next to each of the roads coming into the junction -- where (if I remember correctly) you had to go around each of the satellite roundabouts in the usual clockwise fashion, but around the central one anticlockwise! I think that one lasted about 1 day.

[chaggle]

Not bad design but... In Plymouth there's a roundabout called Hexagon Square.

[Mulder]

What about parking spaces that take a whole car! Who came up with that ridiculous nonsense?

I just saw someone had moved a wheelie bin, that was left in a parking space, so they could park their standard size car across two parking spaces. Why didn't the designers think of that possibility, eh? Just tell me that!

[Trinoc]

Going against the tide with an example of good design -- though one I've only seen once and it was removed when the car park was "refurbished". A shopping centre in North London was originally (mainly) Japanese, then became general oriental, and is now sadly being demolished for (probably luxury) flats. Maybe it's a Japanese thing, but when the car park was first laid out there were two lines between each pair of car spaces, so that you aimed to park between the inner lines, with the space between them and the next car being enough to open doors. This got around the issue you find in almost all car parks, where people think it's OK so long as their wheels are within the lines, even if it means their doors are six inches from the doors of the similarly off-centre next car.

Needless to say, when the next owners brought in (presumably British) contractors to re-paint the lines, they saved on paint and reverted to only one line per space, and the usual door-opening problems resumed.

[chaggle]

Don't talk to me about car park design!!!

OK. Cars carry people, they have no other purpose. A car park services another facility - it might be a shopping centre, airport, station, the NEC - could be anything. When the cars are parked the people have to get from their cars to the facility.

So why are there never walkways, pavements or anything to keep the people (who are now walking) away from the cars that are being driven, reversed and otherwise manoevered into or out of too-tight bays or are cruising with drivers only looking for empty bays or burning rubber trying to get the f*** out of the place and certainly not looking out for walking people????? Eh?????

[Trinoc]

So why are there never walkways, pavements or anything to keep the people (who are now walking) away from the cars that are being driven, reversed and otherwise manoevered into or out of too-tight bays or are cruising with drivers only looking for empty bays or burning rubber trying to get the f*** out of the place and certainly not looking out for walking people????? Eh?????
Some supermarket car parks have pedestrian walkways between the rows of cars, with posts so that the cars can't drive over them -- it's about the only good thing I have to say about (some) ADSA stores. You can bet, though, that when a design review comes up, someone in finance will say "Look, we can get in 30% more parking spaces if we remove these walkways!".

[chaggle]

While we're on supermarket car parks, what is the purpose of the Tesco's "Pick up Point"? People I know just use it for regular parking on the grounds that they are there to "pick up" some groceries. But it must be for a different reason than the normal car park. What are the rules? Anybody know?

[polomint38]

While we're on supermarket car parks, what is the purpose of the Tesco's "Pick up Point"? People I know just use it for regular parking on the grounds that they are there to "pick up" some groceries. But it must be for a different reason than the normal car park. What are the rules? Anybody know?

It is for people on legitimate bussiness (I.E. me) to wait for as long as I want to collect my shopping. Everyone else should use regular spaces.

[al_capone_junior]

In fact packaging designers in general should be condemned to the bottom of the list for swine flu vaccination.

Or the vaccine batch with EXTRA thermerisol ::)

OK I got one. Was on a plane yesterday and out of boredom I looked at the catalog in the seat back. There was a portable emergency tire-filler-upper, radio, AC/DC power pack, jump-starter all in one thingie that also had a friggin' USB port. They touted it for all sorts of extreme doomsday scenario type situations with some crazy seller language like "turn a life or death situation into a mere amusing anecdote." Like those life and death situations where the clincher is a friggin' USB port. ;D Sheesh.

[Graham Lappin]

The recorded message on the ISP help line that I called when I lost internet connection that referred me to the website!

Later I discovered the ISP had an outage but they had apparently let their subscribers know by sending out an email.