Design flaws
There are few things more irritating than everyday objects that are badly designed. In our building at work, we have stainless steel sinks in the toilets, which are circular in outline, and more or less hemispherical in shape. They look lovely but are hugely irritating to use. You know what happens when you turn on the tap in your kitchen sink without realising that there’s a upturned teaspoon in the bottom of the sink? Well, imagine that effect but with a teaspoon the size of the entire sink. Water striking the sink with moderate force bounces straight off and conveniently soaks your groin area, rather than dampening your hands, which would have been much more useful.
The whole thing is made much worse by the taps, which are the ‘push to operate’ kind. It’s true that they save water because people can’t accidentally leave them running. However, these appear to have only a binary mode of operation, and are either off, or gush water at full force—-no intermediate flow rates seem to be possible. So you can only wash one hand at a time, while using the other to push the tap down, but somehow most other areas of your body get a thorough soaking.
I hate those sinks.
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Are there separate taps for scalding hot and chillingly cold water?----- Clearly not designed by a woman then. All designers, and their concomitant bean counters, should be forced to use the products they design.
by Jonathan Briggs @ 07/03/2006 6:04 pm • Permalink •
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I remember at RoadChef they installed these fancy new toilets that were buttonless, you hovered your hands on top of the toilet to flush and hovered you hands around the tap to turn them on. But you still had to push a button to turn the hand-dryer on :
oh and when we had a power cut, nobody could use the toilet. Yay!
by Tom @ 07/03/2006 8:03 pm • Permalink •
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I can feel my granddad talking but: that's what's wrong with the world these days.
People (designers) are so arrogant that they think that because they thought up this cool looking idea, it must be a good idea. Most of the traditional tools (think garden tools, for example), architecture, and so on evolved over time with gradual improvements and a lot of testing.
I'm not against innovation, I'm just against being so blinded by your own pride you don't find out if what you've dreamed up is actually crap or not.
by Martin @ 07/03/2006 11:04 pm • Permalink •
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At least today, a strike day in Higher Education in Britain, you will note have to cope with such akward sinks!
by Pascal Venier @ 07/03/2006 11:04 pm • Permalink •
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I feel with you - and you're lucky, too! I got a client whose premises I visit only rarely (once every two months, perhaps) and they're a rather posh architects company with... yes! rather posh bathrooms. Not only does my "groin region" get splashed with superflous water but here the ingenious design also permits the soap dispenser to lavishly distribute the water around the interior such that the bathroom always looks like shite, too. I guess the designer assumed, that it's being cleaned every half hour, anyway...
The thing is: I need to endure this only ever so seldom - but it never fails to drive me up the literary wall - and you poor soul are exposed to such malice almost every other day...
by Tom Lazaar @ 08/03/2006 1:03 am • Permalink •
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http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0385267746/103-0495513-1531865?v=glance&n=283155
Should be required reading for everyone that designs or uses any product
by David Smith @ 08/03/2006 9:04 am • Permalink •
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Reminds me of the poorly designed (fsck'd up) auto-flushing toliets we have here in the States. My daughter (when she was 2 - 5 years old) was TERRIFIED of them. The slightest move by a small child will cause them to flush while the little girl is still sitting there -- an occurrence that makes any child believe the toliet is doing its best to suck them down.
Grrrrrrrr....
Also, is it just me, or do some skinflints disconnect the heating coils on hand dryers so that all you get is a useless cold breeze?
By the way, as an American posting here: Sorry! I didn't vote for him!
by Kevin Gunn @ 08/03/2006 11:04 pm • Permalink •
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Milan: Bingo. The other annoying things were so compelling that I forgot to mention that one.
Jonathan Briggs: I think that they have them in the gents as well, so it isn't perhaps a male conspiracy to start impromptu wet t-shirt competitions. So I'm told anyway.
Tom: Hmm, yes sometimes mechanical is best.
Martin: Hear hear. David Smith linked to a useful book for those people.
Pascal Venier: Wot strike? Didn't see much evidence of it here
Tom Lazar: That sounds awful. I also forgot to say that the whole of the toilets are more or less awash all the time because of all the water splashing around. So the sinks may be shiny, but everything else looks a mess.
Kevin Gunn: I encountered a few of those in the States too (as an adult), and it freaked me out until I'd worked out what was going on. I didn't think that I was going to get sucked down the toilet though. Honest.
by bsag @ 10/03/2006 6:04 pm • Permalink •
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Hey, thanks for the read. I enjoyed it.
by Bill @ 07/02/2008 3:56 am • Permalink •
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Badly designed, I've found, usually means they look good to the designer. ... Pity. How about the end user?
by Sara from Bathroom Answers @ 19/02/2008 7:48 pm • Permalink •
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Hi!
by Pinoy Money Talk @ 25/02/2008 8:11 am • Permalink •
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