30 Terrible Design Fails Shared By People Online

A well-thought-out design can make a product more user-friendly, attractive, and efficient. However, not all designs hit the mark. There are plenty of instances where products fall flat due to poor design choices.

#1

Image source: NotThisAgain21, Brandie Heinel

Women’s underwear. The part that is supposed to get dirty is never far enough forward to catch what its supposed to catch.

#2

Image source: darth-skeletor, Stevan Sheets

The shift on a Nissan Pathfinder. Trying to get it into neutral is like a carnival game. Almost destroyed it trying to enter a car wash.

#3

Image source: SloeMoe, Joanna Bourne author

My dishwasher beeps several times loudly when the cycle is done. Loudly enough that you can hear it outside the house. If you don’t open the door, it will beep again 45 minutes later, and every 45 minutes forever until you do so. There is no way to silence this feature or reduce the volume.

Apparently there’s no such thing as starting the dishwasher at night and then going to bed in these designer’s minds…

#4

Image source: Moos_Mumsy, Michael Aulia

Dyson vacuum cleaners. They may be great if you live in a pristine, lovely house – but when it’s an old house and you add 4 cats, a dog and 2 children it’s a useless piece of c**p where the cleaning head needs to be de-clogged every 10 minutes. And you almost need to be an engineer to disassemble, clean and reassemble it. I hate that f*****g piece of trash and am very, very sorry that I sold my reliable old Hoover. I am positive that Dyson and whoever else was involved in creating this masterpiece has never actually had to clean a house. Sucking up pieces of styrofoam at the testing clinics is not a real world example.

#5

Image source: Miklay83, Kim Love

Baby wipes.

Hey, you know when a good time to struggle with opening a package that says it has perforations but really doesn’t?

You want one? Here’s a chunk of 20.

You want a bunch? Here’s a tiny ripped corner.

You have 10 left on a trip and need to conserve? Too bad mother f****r, here’s the rest of the pack. Get your tired a*s to CVS.

#6

Image source: MildredMay, Ewen Roberts

I had an automatic litter box that was fine for pee but the motor was way too weak to scoop poop and regularly got stuck. Also, poop tended to stick to the tines and make a big mess. I called the (small) company. The rep told me that the box design was tested using water and was never tested in a real life situation with real cats as no one there had a cat. She didn’t understand why this was a problem.

#7

Image source: lurrk92, dave_7

The trunk wont open on some Chevrolet cars if the battery is dead. There is no key hole, or physical release cable.

The battery is in the trunk.

You can jump it from contacts under the hood, sure, but that’s such an odd design choice to me.

#8

Image source: tangcameo, noricum

My new iron. Has a restart if you tip it over after it’s timed out. So if you accidentally leave it plugged it and it gets knocked over by accident (pet or child bumps the board, wind knocks something over knocking the iron over) it starts up while face down.

#9

Image source: Tubbygoose, Marco Arment

Pockets on women’s clothing.

#10

Image source: yamaha2000us, Micah Sittig

Single ply toilet paper

#11

Image source: r_avocado, Tim Pierce

Kids bubbles where the container is a test tube with a rounded bottom so it can never be set down unless the cap is on

#12

Image source: CherenkovLady, dirtyboxface

The newly-built ladies toilets in our office building which had no space for the sanitary products bins. The bins ended up awkwardly shoved into the too-small gap with the net result of making the actual toilets too narrow to sit on. Fully expect those dimensions were drawn and approved by someone who had no use for the bins or didn’t even know they were present in every toilet.

#13

Image source: chewystalebread, madgerly

Faucets that are so short that you can’t fit both hands under them without touching the back of the sink. It’s so infuriating how common this is. I have to contort my hands to use them.

Bonus: faucets (most common in public parks and such) that are push activated and last only one or two seconds. Clearly not designed for proper hand washing.

#14

Image source: agirl1313, Nenad Stojkovic

Toys that only have one volume: EXTREMELY LOUD!!!!

Whoever makes these does not have kids of their own.

#15

Image source: Ramscales, nishantcm

If you’re short and left handed, pretty much everything. Scissors. Grocery aisles. Kitchen cabinets. Pants. knives and forks. Over-the-stove microwave ovens. There is no end …

#16

Image source: Front-Two497, generalising

Any device that typically belongs in a bedroom that has an always on LED. I don’t need to see the LED at all times when I am sleeping.

#17

Image source: Brukselles, Jernej Furman

Pots with handles which get burning hot when you heat the pot.

#18

Image source: toru_okada_4ever, ashleigh290

All of the «tear here» markings on coffee packs, juice cartons, etc., mark the strongest/most tear resistant part of the package.

#19

Image source: ArcadiaRivea, Marco Verch Professional

Sanitary pads

Especially ones advertised as “zero bunching” – they most certainly do bunch. They will go straight up your bum crack. They can only have been designed by someone who doesn’t use them to have made that claim

#20

Image source: biggaybrian, Pixabay

The word “latinx” as a gender-neutral way to refer to Latinos.

Whoever came up with that nonsense had never even taken a Spanish 101 course. “Latinx” is simply unpronounceable in Spanish – even a 5yo speaker would know that – and the real gender neutral word would be “latine”, but even that is very rarely used

Edit: stupid spelling