I have been thinking about design lately, purely as a layperson you understand
Let’s start with the good. How perfect is this little hotel shower cap? It so satisfyingly springs open? Who came up with the idea I wonder? It deserves a Nobel prize.
But here alas is a fail. It functions well, but disposing of the empty container is another matter
In the spirit of environmental responsibility I planned to re-purpose the bottle as a bud vase. There was only one problem, it was impossible to get the plastic top off. My husband did manage in the end, using a multi-function, oscillating saw! (his description).
Bud vase aside, it would be sensible to be able to separate the plastic component from the glass for recycling.
Here is a definite gold star example of design. So simple, so useful. I use it every week to make scrambled eggs.
I can’t be the only person who has trouble with these ring-pulls snapping off. You would be in a right pickle (or in this case soup) if you didn’t have an old-fashioned can opener in the drawer..
On to cameras. Oh dear me. Now I don’t have a large, fancy model, but my tiny ‘point and shoot’ Sony travels everywhere with me in my pocket. My previous model worked perfectly until I dropped it a few times When I replaced it, they had ‘improved’ the removable data chip to a tiny, wafer thin bit of nonsense shown on the bottom right of the photo below. The earlier one is the one the left. The micro version is just so difficult to handle. My first one disappeared into the gizzards of my new laptop when I attempted to download it…. well I thought it had. We called out the computer engineer who had to come all the way to to the Blue Mountains from Sydney. He pulled the laptop apart, but to our astonishment could find nothing. It was a complete mystery. In the end it was presumed that the little chip had sprung out of the micro-card slot and vanished into the ether, never to be seen again!
It’s too bad if you need to grab your camera and insert the wafer without warning, because it takes multiple attempts to get the bloody thing in straight.
How people with larger hands manage, I have no idea. Well I do really, because photographer friends, especially men tell me it’s hopeless. What possessed Sony? It made the camera an infinitesimal amount lighter, but……words fail me.
LETTUCE DO BETTER!
And finally, to food. Who ‘designed’ those ridiculous, long stemmed salad leaves that get stuck in your throat or splash dressing all over your face?
Bring back the shredded iceberg lettuce of my youth I say.
Want to know how to shred lettuce like a pro? CLICK HERE
Hotel room design is another area my partner Rob and I take quite an interest in. You would not believe the blunders that are made. Here are just some of those we have come across, mainly on visits to Sydney. If you would like to see them, CLICK HERE.
If you have any examples of bad design to share yourself, please do so in the comment box below.
